ST's hifi system

To build up the readers' enthusiasm as
I progress along with the write up, I
thought I will start off with a 1st
impression: the emperor's throne!!!!
(The sweet listening spot) Majestic looking
isn't it? The all important listening position
in the hifi room! Lighting was subtly warm
with a tint of yellow. The entrance to the
sound room is a double doored feature with
double walls. Well I thought the sound
will be kept well 'sealed in' and all
extraneous external noise will be unable
to enter the room! Marvelous design for
a hifi listen room!


The side wall featured a combination of
reflective and deflection type wall
treatments. Height and size of which
have been determined by calculations
confirmed with sound measurement
via a purpose made microphone and
recorded & analyzed with computer
software!


The initial construction of the room size,
the height, width and length of which have
been carefully planned out with the assistance
of a friend who understood the working
of room acoustics and know enough about
concert hall sound performance aspects.
The ceiling treatments included a build
in foams and rock wool combination in
a recessed ceiling design. And computer
generated reflection and deflection
panels were used at specific positions
determined after careful measurements
and listening tests that followed.
This's one room where the reverberation
time (RT) have been carefully worked
out in order to suit the listening
behaviour of not only listeners in
their prime age of 40 plus but also
catered for the listening patterns
of aged or elderly persons probably
up the the age of 70 perhaps, I
reckoned. As I'm already approaching
my 60's and I do find the listening
experience very comfortable & lack the
usual extraneous noises that I heard in
so many other sound rooms, where the
RT have seemingly behaved much longer
& had caused muddling and overlapping
of sound especially of the low hz areas!
That's 1 bass notes overlapped into the
next bass notes gave me the impression
of a much longer bass note! And I
thought this always happened to me.
This do not(did not) happen here in
this sound room!!!!! A marvelous
piece of work done, and worth
every effort put in by the owner!
In one simple sentence: Bass Boom
was completely not heard in this
sound room!!!!


All right then, let's look at the main hifi
system. The speakers were a pair of Harbeth
HL5 Super with a pair of ribbon super
tweeters wired up too! The speakers sat
on open frame stands that came purpose
build by Harbeth's local dealer Sam Chan of
Tropical Audio, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur.

The electronic equipments were placed
in the middle spaces between the 2 speakers,
and seated on racks with isolation from
air borne and structural vibrations, all
round and wire cables were kept apart
and from the ground suspended by
rubberised cables. Computer generated
designed foams (diyed) were placed
strategically where the disturbances
in the sound were kept to the minimum!
And confirmed by measurements with
sound picked up microphones and
analysed on charts and graphs!


The source, a Marantz SACD player the SA11S2



The main power came from a Classe Audio
twenty five and the digital to analogue duties
by a Theta DSPro Gen III



Preamplifier: The Chardonnay valve pre amp unit
from Supratek


During the visit, 2 acoustic panels were used on
the floor area, under controlled condition for
experimentation & fact finding purposes!

The overall sound was pleasing and comfortable
with slam on tracks such as Fleetwood Mac's
Dream track. However with tracks such as
from Gorillaz and Blues pop group, the
music punch/slam wasn't sufficient to
bring up the blood pressure, not that
I wanted to burst a few blood vessels!
On classical music replay of Leonard
Berstein's Music at an Exhibition, The
Great Gates of Kiev, from Crystal Cable's
Arabesque Album, I could perceived the
Grand presentation of the whole orchestra
works! With Chinese Music with drums,
the low hz came thru very nicely & with
enough realism of the drum sound
provided by the recent addition
of a Rythmik Audio F12 SE subwoofer!
However, vocals still needed some
work, probably some fine tuning
here and there which is not a
serious issue, and could be
worked out given some time
to work on the setup. Overall the
sound is commendable irrespective
of those minor issues mentioned.
It's a hifi system worth your time
to go listen and to pick up some
good pointers from the owner.
Those who already have the Rythmik
subwoofer and looking into
taming the subwoofer presentation
would well benefit from a listen
to this system. And those who
have bass boom problems
will also benefit from a 1st
hand study and listen to this
setup!!!


The above pictures provided,
courtesy of the owner.
Leica 4/3 system.

H's diyed setup

It was a rare treat indeed, an opportunity to
listen to a pair of vintage speakers. I've to
thank H's generosity for the listening session,
& also the refreshing drink upon arrival, as the
afternoon was a rather dry and very hot weather
that we are experiencing now in the Klang
Valley.

The speakers were placed in the living hall
area, the sight of the speakers were very
eye catching and ever attractive, but never
imposing that some audiophiles may think
otherwise. The lighting from the garden
next to the listening area provided the
diffused lighting that provided the right
speaker with shades of hue, form and
shape! A beautiful sight to behold, and
kept my eyes on it for a full minute!




Basically it's a 288-8L compression driver (sensitivity
of 119db/m 30w) attached to a Jabo exponential horn
sitting on top of large speaker cabinets designed after
the altec 828 cabinet, that house a Altec Lansing driver,
the Voice of Theatre driver, the altec woofer 416-8c
with a 99db/m compression driver in each cabinet
enclosures. The Altec n501-8b cross-over placed
externally on top of the speaker cabinets.




The horn tweeters at the moment placed temporarily
on a foam packaging as the purpose build stand has
not arrived in time for the listening session. The
external cross-over placed on top of cabinet for now.



This boxed unit of cross-over enabled the tweeters to be
tuned & integrated with the main woofer driver unit!
As it has the user friendly adjustable knobs to fine tuned
to match the tweeters with the woofer drivers!


The rack of amplification equipments and CD source
placed next to the left speakers with a 10" active Klipsch
subwoofer (in picture) for conducting some fact finding
experimentations.



The flared design of the cabinets and driver placement
within the cabinet together with the horn tweeters have
enabled the sound to be projected over a wide angle
and listeners will find listening at almost any place
in the listening area will be equally listenable with
a tonal balance quite acceptable. However, me being
the stereotyped audiophile still choose to listen at
a position which is equal distant from each speaker
cabinets!


Other learned audiophiles who were with me at the
listening session tended to agree with me on the
wide sound dispersion! They too agreed on the
beguiling tonality and the effortless sound from
the combined source, amplifications & drivers!


Most part of the listen session we listened to
mainstream jazz which showcased the sound,
and especially one is doing some work on the
computer, the music would do good
accompaniments or entertainments if one
wants to call it that. Very comfortable sound
to listen all day long, with no fatigue whatsoever!

Anyway, I tried out Mussorgski's Picture at an
Exhibition: The Great Gate Of Kiev from Crystal
Cable's Selection of their Arabesque album.
Rendition was on a grand scale and effortless,
and enjoyable. I tried Suzanne Vega's Luca,
the system is not so suitable for this genre of
music, the pace has got to be much faster
with added slam to be enjoyable. However,
the system could shine with Santana's hits!!!!
Now that's something to think about!!!



A short experiment was conducted during the listening
session with the 10" Klipsch subwoofer switched on.
There were slightly more body to the whole sound picture.



The main rig: diyed valve monobloc amplifiers, a WE91a
300b configuration based on Joe Roberts schematics
in Sound Practices Magazine. Tubes are Jan Philips 6j7,
Shuguang treasures 300z, RCA 5u4g rectifiers, Audio
Note resistors & Mundorf silver gold oil coupling
capacitors, Oligato film oil PSU capacitors, Sophia
Electric OPT, Prometheus Audio power transformers
& inductors.


Pic taken: Olympus 4/3 system, e620, 14-42mm f3.5-4.5

Choices of lightings for the listening enviroments?

We could choose a simple lighting mood, for best effect, as in this room.


Or a simple yet subdued lighting, in the comfort of the living hall.


Or a tint of warmth as in this listening space.


Or a diffused form of lighting, as in this living hall.


Or a natural subtle lighting up in the attic.


Or some natural yet seemingly artistic lighting in this music room.


Or artificial lighting with a slight warm tint of colour.


Commercial settings maybe different, as is shown here in a showroom condition.


But yet it's up to the internal decorators to do their best
to bring out that friendly mood, as shown in this showroom.


Pics taken: Kodak DCS, Nikon system and Olympus 4/3 system.

CS's diyed setup

CS is one of several very hardworking diyers
that I have ever met. Climbing up a few floors
to the attic to reach his hifi cave and we were
greeted by the subtle lighting in the room and
it was a very welcoming sight and the atmosphere
very comfortable too.


The view of the rig from another angle, noticed
the light that comes in from the windows that
faces the sun. Just beautiful sight, if you asked
me!


For the purpose of illustration a camera flash light was
used to illuminate the room.


The frontal view of one of the speakers:
an open baffle type diyed to a fine finished.
A ribbon type tweeter, a mid range and 2
units of 15" drivers made up the combination.


A wooden panel for the first side reflection
standing next to the speaker.


The rear view of the open baffle speaker.


The main equipment stands that housed the
paraphenalia of hifi components.


A Lenco turntable was installed for the purpose of
the visit. One of several turntables that CS owned.


A LEAK amplifier was used on the day of the visit.


CS's other amplifiers and other hifi components
that take turn on the hifi racks.

We listened for a hour or so, and finished the
listen session with a tea session downstairs
in the kitchen. But not before we 'ransacked'
his vinyl collections, and ogled at his collection!


Picture taken: Olympus 4/3 system, E300,
14-45mm f3.5-5.6.

Rimu Isoation Pyramid (not including the cable riser) . Hand made and will arrive in Malaysia on July. Made of Rimu timble material. Email wwengyeap@yahoo.com for any enquiry or bulk purchase. RM120 for set of 3.

C's setup part 2: Just arrived from Japan by courier

C called about a package that just came in
from Japan. We were excited about the surprise
package, and hopped over to his place to take
a look see and hopefully be able to have a listen.
So I arrived at C's place with The Wise One and
Chan, for that meet up and listen session.


It was a pair of Yamaha NS-700X Monitor. It
now replaced the Harbeth HL5 which was
mentioned in part 1 of a very short pictorial
presentation of C's setup. Initial listening
suggest the speakers have not being used
for some time.


So we suggested several weeks of running in
before we have another proper listen session.
(And another chance to have a lunch feast.
We take whatever opportunities we can get,
sort of excuses to get together for food, drinks
and chit chat session, besides the listen
session of course).


Later after a few weeks of running in, I returned
to listen a 2nd time and this time I find the
speakers were able to sing tunes worthy to be
called 'Monitor'! Now the highs sure appeal
to us Uncles whose hearing sensitivity are
already declining in the high hz range. But
what about how the younger listeners find it.
More of that in the upcoming part 3, which I
hope will provide some insight into vintage
speakers of the '80s which some younger
audiophiles may be intrigued by and maybe
interested in a listen and be able to understand
what their parents have being listening to
during that period in time. Those who are
interested to find out more could contact
any of the contributing writers from this
blog, or e mail them directly if you can.



Description of the speakers:

YAMAHA NS-700X Monitor (3 Way, 12" Carbon
Fibre Woofer) Technics SB-8 (3 Way Honeycomb
speaker system). Tweeters were a diamond
titanium type combination.



Pic taken: Olympus 4/3 system, E300,
Zuiko digital14-45mm f3.5-5.6 with
electronic flash light.

R's setup part 2: room acoustics

If you recalled, in part 1, R's setup is made up
of the Proac 3.8driven by the Parasound
monoblocs. In this part 2 writeup I will briefly
highlight the room acoustics treatments being
used to its best effect! At least that's to the best
of my understanding and perception of the
sound heard whilst seated at the sweet spot!



2 pieces of Auralex acoustic foams with the
easily recognised ribbed pattern foams were
placed over a wall mounted flat HD television
screen. Matching cloth materials were used
to hold the 2 pieces of foam together. This
custom made tv cover which act as part of the
room treatments could be easily placed when
listening to music and as well as easily removed
when the hd screen is being used for viewing
movies or tv programmes!


A close up view of the tv cover.


There is even a piece of the Auralex being
placed behind the listening position to control
some of the unwanted sound reflections
reaching the listener's ears.



A closer look at the purpose made screen
behind the listener, will show a wooden frame
which holds the whole piece of ribbed foam in
place.


I find the sound reproduction more
contained within the soundstage in front
of me and there were little or no disturbing
sound towards the listener at the sweet spot!
I would say I'm comfortable with the sound
while seated at the sweet spot, which to me
have contributed towards an enjoyable evening
of listening to music with the setup!


Pic taken: Olympus 4/3 system, E300, zuiko digital
14-45mm f3.5-5.6 with electronic flash light.