Lego and LP

A worthwhile trip to LEGO Land with the family.... while my daughter gets her Princess Ariel lego set... i got myself my own toys... thanks to Embrace Sdn Bhd in JB.

KL International AV Show 2014

Be there or be square....

New LP Shop in PJ: Hard Graft Records

Went to this new-ishly opened LP store in PJ called Hard Graft Records. The shop was opened in Dec 2013.... but the company has been around doing online sales since 2012.

It was an unplanned visit and I must thank bro Sting who insisted the shop owner Mr. Nick Mun to pass his pre-booked Zee Avi's Ghostbird LP to me instead. So today I went to collect the LP.... and to my surprised... the shop is full of new LPs for mainly metal, grunge, rock and punk genres.... There were At The Gates, Slayer, Bad Religion, The Clash, Ramones etc..

Got to talk a bit with Nick... and got to know that we were both quite active in the local underground scene since 20 years ago. Well... he still is... going for gigs..while yours truly only have the privillege of listening to those bands on my old cassettes. Names like Joe Kidd of Carburetor Dung and Fathul of SKC/Infectious Maggots came up.

Nick also have put up a simple set up with Rega amp and phono stage and TT for some easy listening.

This shop opening hours is:

Weekdays: 1030 to 1230 and 230 to 430 pm

Weekends: 11 am to 6 pm

Address (its on google maps): 

25A, 1st floor, Jalan 52/1, 46200 PJ.

Its beside the MPPJ building... Look for this bakery shop. There is a glassdoor with this architect company and the shop is on the 1st floor.

Nick also can be contacted either via Facebook or mobile +60123033700 for ordering LPs.

Currently, sales are done with cash... So make sure you bring a lot as u will be buying lots.

My damage today was RM220... For these...

Sweet Deal from AV Designs

Congrats to AV Designs for their 10th Year Anniversary in their current showroom. Dont miss the chance to own one of these beauties.

Clean Up Time: Magnet ISO-CLEAN 1000S

                              

Thanks to Mr. Victor from Hi Fi Creations again, I was given the opportunity to do some hifi cleaning with the Magnet ISO-CLEAN 1000S Power Station Series.... This is a plug and play cleaning device hehehehe :).... All it does is 'clean' the power supply to all my hi fi components...

Since it was Chinese New Year.... I had a good ample time to use this unit.

A full review will come soon.

In the mean time, feast your eyes to the pics.

Here we go....

So I got this unit together with the power amp that I reviewed last month... However, to ensure I can properly review the power amp, I did not hook this unit together with it. Just to ensure whatever different in sound I heard is coming from the power amp.

There is always a debate about purity and clean power supply to one's hifi system. Though I do not question the debate itself, I do question how clean and pure can the supply be when I have done absolutely zilch on the wiring in my house.

I am currently using a Belkin PF50 Pure AV to hook up all my hifi kit. Been using it for more than 2 years now. Though it claims to improve things, This unit neither improve nor made the SQ worst. It is purely there to protect my equipment from a surge which it happened once and it did its job. Oh.... I will get shot again here by audiophiles.... because all my power cables are UK 3 pin type....not US receptacle ones.

Truth be told... for those whom have been following my blog, I usually do my listening late at night (after midnight) or early in the morning at about 6 am. Mainly because my system sounds better at those times. I dont really enjoy listening in the afternoon or early evening between 2 to 4 pm. So for this ISO CLEAN revie, I did it during noon to early evening for a few days.

BUILT

Again, I am fully impressed with the workmanship from this Thai company. Solidly built at 20.5 kg in weight. Nicely packed in the box and can be easily unpacked by 1 person. The double shielded low impedance toroidal isolation transformers is housed in a 432 x 141 x 437 mm (W x H x D) black metal casing.

The front fascia looks elegant which is a bonus if you have your hifi system in the living room. The buttons are semi soft buttons but does not feel cheap.

All the blue  and red LED are dimly lit which is easy on the eyes. However, I do feel that they can improve on the voltage input display. It looks toooo industrial....and it does not fit well with the elegant look of the unit.

You will get not 4 or 6....but 10 power outlets .... so its more than enough for a common hifi set up. These 10 are divided into the following:

• 4 x Isolation Output
• Duplex AC outputs for any AV equipment with less than 1000VA total output power
• 2 x high power filtered
• Duplex AC outputs for any high power filter equipment with less than 2000 VA total output power
• 4 x high power non filtered
• Duplex AC outputs for any high power equipment with less than 2000 VA total output power

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

It comes with a thick and long power cable with US receptacle plug, fits snugly into the power outlet behind the unit.

Magnet also provides 3 different spare fuses for the isolation output, high power output (filtered) and (non filtered)

FUNCTIONS

In the front fascia, there are indicators for various status of the power supply. There are indicators when:

Display:

• input voltage is higher than 245 V
• input voltage is lower than 190 V
• the unit is connected in the correct phase to the wall outlet
• the ground is operationally fully
• the input voltage display can also be dimmed (thanks for this)

There is also a Balanced option for the output isolation ground system at a flick of a switch in the rear panel. The balanced mode is suitable for grounding system which can reduce AC noise floor.

NOTE: This unit will automatically shut down if the voltage drops less than 185 V or goes higher than 250 V

You can also set the timer for on and off in between power outlets up to 60 seconds.

It also acts as surge protector.

PERFORMANCE

Thanks to Victor again, I replaced my UK 3 pin power cords of my amps, CDP and DAC with US receptacle cords which were provided by Victor.

First up was a track from the French Kiss OST, La Mer by Kevin Kline. I must admit that the first impression that there was an audible improvement in noon listening session. Kevin's deep husky voice was more prevailing and involving than usual. The flatness that I usually get during noon session was no longer there. What I got was a more energetic and melodious tone from this quite slow rendition of the Charles Trenet original version.

I then put on a more complex music arrangement, Mustika by M. Nasir. The traditional wind instrument on this track sounded very free and airy, as if a veil was taken off. Something that was restricting in my set up to deliver a free and unrestrained music was taken off during my noon listening session. The emotional journey throughout this song was exceptionally good.

On metal tracks like Metallica's Until It Sleeps, the bass drum was really tight but had some subtlety to it as the slow part of the song was supposed to be a bit mellow. And when the heavy guitar riffs kicked in, again the sound was so free to flow... unrestricted but bold. True metal experience.

Although all these good first impressions are good but I was not fullly convinced that it was the ISO CLEAN that is giving this new listening experience.So, I went on and on and on listening to various tracks  between 1 pm to 4 pm every day over the long CNY break. And yes, it was the same experince back to back everyday. This continued for the next few weekends until I was ready to return the unit.

During my normal listening hours (night, midnight and early morning), the experience however was similar to my standard set up with Belkin PF50. Not much dissimilarity. 

And this is another way to proof that my ears are not deceiving me. After my last session during the day, I immediately hook up my amps, CDP and DAC to my Belkin PF50 and I got back that unsatisfied day time listening session. Arrrrrggghhh :(

FINAL VERDICT

I am convinced that a good power conditioner can help my system (or any other system that is suffering from 'dirty' supply). And this unit is a fine example of how a conditioner should be designed and built. It brings out the colour and emotion of various musical genres and injects melodious element to a flat musical deliverance. With all the function provided by this unit, its a no brainer that is quite a value for money kit.

What stopping me then to replace my Belkin PF50? Two things. First, the incoming voltage from my mains can go up to 255 V which the Magnet unit shuts down automatically. Not fun when that happens in the middle of a heavy listening session (ie I need a voltage regulator more). Secondly, the prooven surge protection and warranty that Belkin provides.

But nevertheless, for those without my requirements or situation, this unit can definitely put some shine on a system that is connected to a standard wall outlet.

This unit can be purchased from the sole distributor in Malaysia. Contact Mr. Victor Pheh of HI Fi Creations. It is retailed at RM 5,800. Details below:

Tribute to Bad Religion

This is the band that is responsible for musical taste towards punk rock.... Melodious, political and depicts what is wrong with society today.

The album Recipe For Hate was the first album I listened to in 1993 on a chrome cassette specially bought from the USA.... Then I started my quest to own all their albums on CD.... come 1996... my band performed one of their songs Infected in a live gig in Piccadilly club in Damansara Jaya. At that time, eventhough the underground scene was quite active in KL, not many people actually know of Bad Religion.... The only other band in KL that was into Bad Religion is Hostile Disgrace....

..... and now come the vinyl part... Just received these yesterday... but I am still short of 2 of their albums.... Into The Unkown and No Substance.... Hopefully to get them in March. 

TAD Evolution Series Launch Event

AV Designs  again have hosted a launch event for TAD (Technical Audio Devices) Lab Inc latest Evolution Series disc player and DAC, appropriately named as the TAD-D1000 and TAD-DA1000. The event was held at their showroom in Rohas Perkasa on Thursday, 21st Jan 2014.

The event was a semi-formal affair with the attendance of the usual Malaysian faces of audiophille, journalists and bloggers.  The event was graced by the attendance of Mr. Takahashi of Pioneer/TAD Malaysia. He emphasized that TAD is very proud with this latest product as it was built for accuracy in music reproduction which came from an engineered approach. It is to deliver a natural and realistic musical experience.

A brief info sharing of TAD history was given by Ryan Lee, their sales and marketing executive. TAD was established in 1975 to develop professional level speakers or monitors. As it grows to develop other products for domestic market, TAD still is well known across the world for its accuracy in reproducing sound in over 200 professional sites. Capitol Records, Pixar, Walt Disney are some of the famous places that employs TAD products for their studios. George Michael, RHCP, Coldplay and Michael Buble are some of the big name artists that uses TAD in their album recording works.

And of course, their products have been highly reviewed by What HiFi, Stereophile and Techradar magazines to name a few.

Some of the key main features:

1. A newly developed unltra high carrier to noise ratio master clock UPCG

2. DAC circuit equipped with Burr Brown PCM1794A

3. A-synch USB transmission engine that faitfully reproduces high res sound sources up to 32 bit, 384 kHz.

4. Aluminium chassis and structure with low COG to minimise effect of external vibrations

5. A proprietary large sized toriodal PSU enables effortless playback of sounds with fast attack

6. Unique CD mechanism for outstanding precision loading and quietness

7. Simple and high sound quality system configuration made possible through a line output volume function in the DA1000

8. The DAC also comes as a headphone ampilfier with dedicated volume function.

The 2 products were then jointly launched by Mr. Takahashi (Pioneer), Mr. James Tan and Mr. Tony Low (AV Designs).

After that, it was all musical pleasure. James Tan demonstrated the capabilities of these 2 items. 4 tracks were played, first straight from the CD player into the full TAD system. Then it was followed by feeding the CD player to the DAC. Most of the audience were in consensus that the sound via the DAC was more luscious. Eventhough its the same DAC chip in both the CD player and DAC, the latter still sounded more appealing.

Overall, it is true what Mr. Takahashi said that its all about naturalness and realistic. Strumming of guitar sounded sharp and detail was given on every chord, the hollowness of the bass drum on one of the tracks can actually be heard and vocals were extremely mesmerizing with sweetness and lusciousness. There was also a complex piece arangement on one of the tracks but the CD player and DAC had no issues in detailing the multiple instrument piece.

I have seen and heard a few hifi equipments that has a price tag that can make a person goes 'You got to be kidding me'.... and even if I do have the dough, I will not purchase it. But this is one product that I believe is priced appropriately. You get a lot from it.... the built, the estatic design, the sound quality....just pure musical pleasure.... I love it.... But I still can't afford it :)

The D1000 disc player is priced at RM 66,999 and the DA1000 DAC is priced at RM56,999 and can be auditioned and purchased only from the sole distributor of TAD in Malaysia... at AV Designs in Bangunan Rohas Perkasa, Kuala Lumpur.

If you are into high end equipments and sound but dont want to hit that RM 6 digits territorry, have a listen to these 2 items. You will be surprised....but just be carefull that you might extremely mesmerized and you will just swipe that credit card to purchase one :)

Other information on the specifications are as below:

TAD D1000 CDP and DA1000 DAC: OFFICIAL LAUNCH

Feast your eyes on these beauties while a full write up is posted.

Magnet MA400S - BBB... Beautiful But Beastly

 

I am kicking off this year review runs with a product close to Malaysia.... A Magnet MA-400S Limited Edition power amp... a design from neighbouring country Thailand.... courtesy Victor Pheh of HiFi Creations.... A BIG THANK YOU to Victor for his trust in my review.

And of course... out of eagerness to listen to this amp, the unit was delivered within 2 days of confirmation to review. It came with a Magnet power conditioner.....but I will leave that for a separate review.

Truth be told.... I didn't know what to expect of this product. Doing some research and browsing on the company's website (Magnet Website)...It looks that Magnet takes it seriously when it comes to corporate image as well. The company actually has been around for over 20 years now where the founder, designer Khun Pongtorn Malakul Na Ayudhya takes pride of his approach of handcrafted amplifiers.

BUILT

Weighing a monstrous 25 KG, I had the concern of setting it up on my own. But surprisingly enough, the way it was packaged, it was easy for even 1 person to unpack and set it up. One plus point is how the internal components are positioned such to evenly distribute the weight over the whole unit. It is not one of those design which is heavier at one end which can catch you off balance while unpacking it.

Solidly built aluminium chassis with a well thought design of curved edge for the heat sink fins... no concern of cutting yourself during handling. 

The front fascia is a clean design with a power button and a blue LED....soft to the eyes at night.

In the rear panel, the banana plugs on my IXOS 604 biwire speaker cable can snugly fit the speaker gold plated binding post (2 pairs to allow bi-wiring). There is also a gold plated ground post.

The RCA input is also gold plated and my Cambridge Audio RCA interconnect fit nicely into it.

Now... for the XLR balance input, it comes with a unique design protector cap.

The inputs are switchable between XLR and RCA. The switch is an old school type click switch.

The unit comes with a thick and sturdily built power cable with a US receptacle plug.

Its 10/10 in my books when it comes to built quality. 

SPECIFICATIONS

This power amp uses a Full Complementary Symmetrical Push-pull and direct coupling with JFET differential input circuit and output 200 WPC into 8 ohms. Its an AB design amp.

It has both unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR inputs which can be chosen with a flick of a switch.

It offers 2 pairs of speaker binding post so that you can bi-wire your speaker if you wish to do so.

There is also a remote loop to allow the unit to be turned on or off when receiver or pre amp is turned on or off. One trigger cable is included with the amp.

There is also a built in fuse to protect the amp from overloading. And yes.... a spare fuse is also provided. 

THE SET UP

1. Musical Fidelity M1 CLiC preamp/streamer/DAC connected directly to the MA400s using Cambridge Audio RCA IC

2. Sony XB930E CDP connected via Cambridge Audio coaxial cable into the M1 CLiC

3. IXOS 604 bi-wire speaker cable into ProAc Response D18

THE MUSIC

1. Eva Cassidy - Wayfaring Stranger and Wade in The Water

2. Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger

3. Because We Believe - Andrea Bocelli

4. Classical Music from French radio station - Classic and Jazz

5. Mariah Carey - Hero

6. Getz and Gilberto - Girl from Ipanema (Hi Res FLAC)

THE SESSION

I kicked it off with Eva's sweet and luscious voice. First thought was.... This is something different. The high frequency sounded elevated as in it was taken up a notch. Not an ear pinching level but its some how a little bit too clear and sounded digital. The guitar plucking in the intro of Wade in The Water was giving me the shivers as it sounded too clear and digital. The vocals were however quite upfront and sounded airy. The Wayfaring Stranger sounded livelier with the melodious guitar and keyboard sound. Quite a first impression it gave me.

Now, I thought of giving the unit a bit of a kick. Went in Maroon 5. Now this was a very good experience as the bass on this track especially in the intro part, was very authoritative and commanding. It does lack a little bit of punch and control but it still made me start tapping my foot....and my head started to nod to the beat. Now, thats what I call a unit that has that one element to move you. And this was played at a moderate mid level volume.

None of my review will be complete without my beloved Andrea Bocelli. This is when the amp really excel. The overall presentation on this track provide me with a very big and spatial sound. It delivered a powerful performance with quite a balance between highs, mids and lows. Andrea's vocal sounded crisp and deep. The music accompanying his vocals sounded uplifting and full of emotion. This is where I think this amp forte is; vocals and classical/opera-ish music. This was further confirmed when I put on a random classical piece from the famous French internet radio station Classic and Jazz. Played it loud and this amp just smiles on delivering such powerful performance through my ProAc D18 speaker. I am not much of  a classical music fan but I must say, one can be influenced into listening to classical music when listening to this amp. I wonder why not many exhibitor puts on classical music during the annual KLIAV show.

Mariah Carey's Hero was presented with a tad more bass than I would like it. Not overwhelming but it made her vocals seems a little bit 'mellowed'. The bass on this track was also a little bit dispersed instead of tight. The overall sound still sounded airy and that is what I usually like. 

Playing Getz/Gilberto hi res piece through this amp reveals quite a detail presentation of this track. Even at lower volume, it still provided me with quite refreshing sound. The different layers of music/vocals  in this piece can easily be delivered and noticeable.

CONCLUSION

BBB....Beautiful but beastly... Beautiful built quality with such a beastly speaker driving performance. Dont worry if you want to drive your speakers hard with this amp. It can deliver enough power for most speaker set up. It also does not run hot even without air conditioning your room.

The amp performs best for classical, vocals and jazzy music. For rock and bass heavy music, one might find that the low end a bit muddled. It might be my speakers but they do not sound muddled when driven by my MF amp. 

I now have a big admiration towards Asian hifi products after good experience with Magnet and also Kingrex products. Would like to be exposed more to designs from this side of the globe as well.

This unit can be purchased and demo-ed at HiFi Creations. Contact Victor on 012-2962799.

It is retailed at RM12,800.

New toys for 2014

Just received these 2 Magnet products...

MA400 Limited Edition power amp and Iso-Clean-1000 Power Station Series....

Great start for 2014.... Review soon...

Courtesy of the nice and friendly Mr. Victor Pheh of HiFi Creations.... Sole distributor in Malaysia for Magnet products...

ProAc D30R is here in Malaysia

Its here in CMY.... Must find time to go and have a listen to it.

Reflection of 2013 Hifi Journey

A happy new year to all. Hope 2014 will be a better year for all.

Looking back into the past year, there were lots of things that happened that I should feel blessed.

THANKS

I took the leap into blogging on 1st Jan 2013. I actually have started this blog much earlier but didnt have enough guts to click on the Publish button... It was always saved as draft... And completed the year with 29572 pageviews. Thanks to all viewers and readers. That is 2464 views per month... Not too bad I think.

I know some readers do ridicule my reviews on other forum platforms which I have learnt to take it as a constructive learning but there are also nice and good supporters... which some really took my reviews as a guide to their hifi journey.

And not to forget the following people and companies for their event invitations, product samples and also friendship, in no preference order:

1. Tony Lee of LTB Enterprise for all the Musical Fidelity home demos, advices (life and hifi) and teh tarik.

2. James Tan and Tony Low of AV Designs for the TV callibration, launch event invitations, dinner and introduction to Bryston (still my reference headphone amp) and Darbee... 

3. Hifi4sale.net fellow moderators and bosses...thanks for entrusting me to be part of the moderator team.

4. Steve Chua of CMY One Utama for the cabling advice and also Beyer T1 headphone

5. Kingrex of Taiwan for their UD384 USB DAC and USB cable samples for review

6. RHA of Scotland for their RHA750 IEM sample for review

7. Editor of Audiofi.net for NAD390DD and Supra USB cable sample for review

8. Mov_freak for willingness to source for me the HFPA discs and deliver by hand... Erik, Victor etc...

9. Friends who visited me at home to enjoy music and do some friendly shoot out.

10. My ex-company colleague Mr. S.K....whom gave me an Amari RCM for a farewell gift. 

11. RAVE Systems Sdn. Bhd particularly TK Han and Uncle for their invitation of their Genesis and Tech DAS AFO launch event

12. Mr. Aaron for the Audeze LCD2 sample unit for test and review.

13. Mr. Dick Tan for the annual KLIAV shows and frinedly banters and talks.

14. Analogue Fellowhsip especially Dr. Paris, Kuan Yew Nam, Dato Danon, Song etc for their friendship and hifi wisdom sharing..

15. The regulars at AV Designs ...for their friendly welcomes and chats... Jo Ki, Willy, Felix, SFLam etc.. 

16. Feedback from Google+ members on this blog...you know who you are :)

17. Rock Corner especially KLCC, BV, Gardens, The Curve branches for their discounts on LPs.

18. Chong for the UD110 USB DAC review sample...its a keeper of course

19. Drife for bringing by my old flame ..the Sony CDP XB930E

20. Last but no least....my wife and kids who gives me the space and time to enjoy my hobby...and for the Beyer T1 headphone birthday gift.

Did I leave out anyone???

HiFi Progression

Referring to my posting on 1st January 2013... http://www.notanotherhifiblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/el-hefes-2013-hi-fi-set-up.html

I have only managed to achieve 2 out of 3 targets..

1. Upgraded my main DAC to from Musical Fidelity M1 DAC to an M6 DAC... my personal stellar purchase.... a keeper for sometime...

2. Record Cleaning Machine.... thanks to my ex-colleague and mentor Mr. S.K. from Jakarta, I now own one as he gave me an Amari RCM for a farewell gift.

3. Wanted to upgrade my office headphones to a new Musical Fidelity flagship headphones.... unfortunately.... there is still no sign of the production of this flagship model.... So I got sidetracked and got myself  (or my wife got it for me)....the Beyer T1 flagship unit...

Sidetracks:

1. Rekindled with an old flame... the Sony XB930E CD player

2. Lots of LPs

3. High Fidelity Pure Audio

4. BOSE AE2W bluetooth headphone

5. Darbee 

So, I am starting up 2014 with this set up:

Dream to have but most probably will never get one

1. TechDAS Air Force One turntable

2. PMC Fact 12 speakers

Dream to have but may put some effort in getting one in 2014

1. Bryston Mini T speakers to replace my Mission M34i home cinema front speakers

2. A projector and screen set up / 60" or 65" TV

Format Matters: Part One

So...it was so exciting to get my hands on the 6 HFPA discs on Wednesday... 18 Dec 2013...thanks to a nice gentleman nicknamed Mov_freak from Lowyat.net forum. Not only he was very helpful to get me those discs all the way from Melaka, but also had the trust for COD at KLCC. Who says internet is full of weirdos? I actually now made another friend over the net. Thanks to this great hobby.

A BIG THANK YOU TO MOV_FREAK....

Now the juicy part....

OPTIONS OPTION OPTIONS

All the 6 discs came with 3 coding options of 2.0 channel music (yes was a lil dissapointed of not having a 5.1 option):

1. PCM 24 bit/96 kHz

2. DTS-HD Master Audio 24 bit/96 kHz

3. Dolby TrueHD 24 bit/96 kHz

Now, with all these options, I was little bit confused on which set up to play these discs with.

1st SET UP: 2.0 CHANNEL ON MY MAIN HIFI

I first loaded in Diana Krall's The Look of Love using the following set up:

- SONY BDP S765 Bluray player connected to Musical Fidelity M6 DAC via a QED coaxial cable

- M6 DAC connected to M6i amp which drives a pair of ProAc Response D18 via Siltech Balanced XLR cable

The disc autoplays once loaded (loading time is faster than movie BD) using the PCM. The most evident signature of this format, in the first impression is the low end reproduction. Clean and tight bass not only from instrument but also from vocals. The overall sound is also more opened to the usual experience I have from CDs.

With the fear of the other 2 codings will produce loud noise through my DAC, I zeroed the volume and then changed ther audio coding to DTS HD MA and slowly increasing the volume..... and voila!.... it worked.. The M6 DAC can still extract the DTS HD MA (and Dolby TrueHD) signal. I believe however, this is because it is still in 2.0 channel. Nevertheless, I have played 5.1 and 7.1 bluray movies, and my DAC still able to reproduce the sound into 2.0 channel. It however shows only 48 kHz input.

Hhhmmmmmm..... Not sure how all these work as I remembered during the DVD days (it sounds like so long ago hehehhe), if I try to play 5.1 signal into a DAC, there was only loud noise coming out. And given that this disc suppose to produce 96 kHz signal... but the DAC shows 48 kHz...Any kind soul out there can explain this? Feel free to leave a comment.

Later (after listening to the music)...I played around with my BluRay player setting....then realised that because I have set it up to Downmix 2.0 channel, hence thats why all the different codings work with my DAC. When I actually changed the settings to Direct....then there were loud noise each time I tried to play DTS HD MA and DOlby TrueHD via the DAC.

But...evethough I set the Coaxial Digital Output to 24/96....my DAC still only detects the signal from the disc to be 48 kHz..... hhhhhmmm... Disc issue? DAC not up to spec? Answers please....

OK. Enough with technical write up (or the lack of it as I dont have answer to my own questions)... back to music...

Diana's album was quite a good first impression of HFPA for me. There was definitely a different presentation than standard CD. 

Next in was Nirvana's Nevermind... wanted to see what HFPA can do on this raw grunge album...

Opposite of Diana's experience, I didnt get to experience the elevated ambience of HFPA. Dissapointed? NOOOOTTT... and why you ask? This is a grunge album..... I prefer that it does not sound over-engineered and digitalized.... And thats what I get from this High Fidelity PURE Audio... I guess this format is trying to give listeners the chance to listen to the music as pure as possible.

The growling vocals of Kurt on Smells Like Teen Spirit was classic and it reminded me of the era where grunge rules. The rawness of his guitar is also very evident. The bass from from Novoselic and Grohl's bass drum was not overhighlighted as opposed to Diana's album. Even on the intro of Come As You Are, everything was mellow and in the right balanced proportion.

FORMAT VERDICT

So, on its own..... HFPA is delight to listen to. I dont even have to listen to the other 4 albums to support this.

Comparing between the 3 codings, I find that I prefer the Dolby TrueHD option. It sounded the best as its more balanced across different frequencies.... vocals were more upfront.... and the overall experience is more elevated. Having said that, I need to later compare it with a 5.1 channel set up.

But......is it better and the ultimate format compared to CD, LP and hi res FLAC? Read on....

For comparison of formats, I use Getz/Gilberto as its one of the albums that I have in LP, CD and FLAC.

HFPA vs CD

First thing I notice, the different volume level. Eventhough the CD was played through a balanced XLR chain from M1 CDT to M6 DAC to the M6i amp, the HFPA sounded louder at the same 9 o clock on the volume knob.

I am in trouble as the CD now sounded a bit dull. The HFPA sounded livelier with overall presentation was more involving....more realistic and natural. The bass line on HFPA was cleaner and more defined. Vocals were more bold. Is all this due to higher resolution? Most probably.

1-0 to HFPA.

HFPA vs FLAC

For this, I use FLAC files with the same resolution 24/96 downloaded from HDTracks a couple of years back.

Close call between them. Hard to differentiate between them. At one point, I forgot which format was playing. Perfect bit to bit transfer? Perhaps. Excellent remastering? Most probably.

The only different I notice is again the volume level. The HFPA sounded louder than the FLAC....although it might be because the FLAC was played via the M1 CLiC which is connected via RCA to the M6i amp compared to the XLR connection for the HFPA from M6 DAC. Hence a draw.

2-1 to HFPA

HFPA vs LP

The final battle....A bit tricky here as I would not say my LP is optimumly set up.... I have not changed nor re-tune/align/callibrate my TT since I purchased it in 2011.

Playing the LP made me realised what was still missing in HFPA. The warmth and sweet character of analogue production. Although HFPA can provide that natural sound, the level have yet to reach what LP gives out. Now now....Its not all that bad... Bare in mind that HFPA (or hi res for that matter) is still in its early days and I do believe it has the potential to go higher.

So for multiple format war final result?

2-2....its a draw hehehehe. :)

This is how I rank them based on musical enjoyment:

1. LP

2. HFPA

3. Hi res FLAC

4. CD

However, for overall taking into account conveniency:

1. Hi Res FLAC

2. HFPA

3. CD

4. LP

There you go.....in the end .... consumer have CHOICES..... so choose wisely....and enjoy the music....

Stay tune for Part Deux.... HFPA on 5.1 channel review...

High Fidelity Pure Audio - Will it Survive?

Its finally here... Bluray High Fidelity Pure Audio... Testing it tonight...  At the same time, got myself a 2013 remix of In Utero in 45 rpm...

Thanks to a nice gentleman from Lowyat forum whom helped me to source these discs.

Will the black disc still be superior?

Nirvana on 45 RPM?

Could not resist the urge to buy this when I saw it selling at RM95...

Wonder how good it will sound over the 33...

KARAN Amps is now in CMY

Just got news that CMY is carrying KARAN amp now. Need to go and have a listen...