Kronos - The Next TT Revolution In My Book

Every other hifi visits that I go to, I get to see various unique turntables. Each with its own merit and forte with regards to certain sound character and also the mechanism of the TT itself. AFO, Clearaudio, Thorens, Lenco, Dr. Feickert, Rega, Musical Fidelity, Linn etc...each of them carry a different experience. Owning a Clearaudio and Lenco (used to), I have grown accustomed to certain level of excitement in listening to TTs when I listen to a fellow audiophile TT set up. I am 'blessed' with a strong will of going back home and still feels that my set up is able to deliver the same satisfaction and at times, even more than these other TTs.

But on 24th October, I have experienced something different. An excitement that left quite an impression sonically of a very unique TT; built wise and sound quality. Thank you to Victor Pheh of HiFi Creations for his invite to a private listening session of the mighty Kronos. I also had the privilege to meet and chat with Kronos designer Mr. Louis Desjardins.  The first time I had listened to this TT was in 2015 KLIAV show back in the mid year. And it was already mind blowing at that time. Snippet from that show below:

Now, this write up is not a review. It is more of an experience sharing of a wonderful music listening day... delivered by a Kronos - The Next TT Revolution In My Book!

I will not bore you readers with the technical specs of this unique TT as the net is already full of technical spec reviews of it. It is a TT with the highest number of awards received at least for this year. But what mattered to me how it faired in providing the listening pleasure.

Maybe the one thing technical I will mention here is its dual platter system; with the bottom platter counter rotates. This is the heart behind this TT. This is claimed to eliminate the torsional forces. For full specs, please click here.

THE VENUE

This TT was nicely set up in a small cozy apartment, fully converted to be a dedicated listening venue. There are still some minor works to be done but relatively a very comfortable and sonically acceptable venue to do some critical listening. The Kronos was supported by Magnet amps, Nagra pre and Skogrand cables throughout. The power management was via Frank's Power Banks. Six of them if I am not mistaken!

THE LISTENING SESSION

The first few tracks were selected by the host and Louis. Coincidently enough I believe this first track was by Louis Armstrong. The vocal sent a chill to my spine. Such emotion that I can feel it to the core. The deep 'rough' voice of his was unmistakably very well delivered by the Kronos. The trumpet of his, was soooo melodious and energized yet still delivered an overall airy and lively ambience. On top of all that, I can hear layers of music presented throughout this track. From the soft 'background-ish' percussion to the centre stage of the vocals.

I have not listened to techno music for such a long time. And even that, my exposure to this music genre was limited to the music I heard during my clubbing era. Louis then played Doin' It Right by Daft Punk. Even though I am not really into this music genre, it really got me going. I literally got up and started to move my head to the rhythm and beat. Excellent extensive bass delivery. Looking at those huge towers you call speakers, I was expecting a hard hitting and physically in your face bass slam. But no. It was sweet bass I call it. Extended low end that wraps around you throughout. Nice!

One of the track that I requested was this Metallica's rendition of Lynyrd Skynard's classic Tuesday's Gone. I have purposely brought this LP along as I have yet to find one other set up that can deliver a heavier music genre especially metal. But yes, the Kronos delivered such a distinctive performance even for Metallica. Heck, if James Hetfield hears this, he might be setting up a Kronos in his home! Lars's drums on this track was presented in such detail that the dispersion of the snare and hi hat sound was very evident. Again, wind instrument, the harmonica in this song sounded very melodious with a level of sharpness that was just adequate to create the emotional harmonica solo. Detail and more details... thats what I can conclude from this track... and it was the highlight of the session for me.

THE CHIT CHAT

Louis is a very passionate man. Passionate for music. For the perfection of music delivery. Throughout the 3 hour session, he was moving around making sure everything was set up properly. To the question on where to start when building a system, he strongly believes in the source. Get the wrong source and your amps and speaker will not be able to deliver. He also have a preference on a tube phono stage for its sound. But the Kronos can deliver the same performance with other type of phono stage. High efficiency speakers is also good to be in a system. Technomusic seems to be Louis's interest and he is very passionate of it. However, I was surprised that he played the Metallica track at least three times :).

THE CONCLUSION

You want to listen to the black disc? Really listen? This is one TT to me delivers what the LP medium is intended to deliver. The science behind the dual platter spinning in opposite of each other, eliminating torsional forces means nothing if it cannot deliver the music to the audience. And this TT, my beloved readers, is the one TT that I personally feels have delivered the long awaited quality. I have heard various tweaks, mods, design have been introduced in the market with regards to suspension, stability, vibration elimination etc, but this gem, definitely delivers what it claims. This is one session that made me feel uneasy when I returned home and started listening to my set up again. It might be the whole she-bang of Kronos, Magnet, Nagra etc.... but I believe in garbage in garbage out... But in this case, the Kronos was definitely putting in top quality caviar into the system...

My set up is not necessarily expensive in this beautiful world of hifi in comparison with the high end set ups but I have always been contented that I have reached that level of satisfaction. Even coming back from listening to various set ups of friends and show rooms, I still am very happy with my set up. But this day, Kronos has put something in my conscience that I am missing something.

Thank you again HiFi Creations and Louis for a very entertaining session. Kronos is definitely a beauty in all aspect.

If anyone interested to audition, please call Victor on +6012 2962799

Look at the smiley faces below...

FRANK PE-35 GROUND LOOP EMI FILTER - Get Rid of That Noise

The love hate relationship of Electricity/Power Supply and HiFi has been a debate in the industry as long as I can remember. There are believers and non believers. There are are abundant of scientific facts you can find in various forums or white papers to support and not to support the effect of power supply to one's hifi.  

There are so many devices out there to inject that extra zest to a sound system by controlling, filtering, stabilizing the power supply. So, how does electricity effects your HiFi system?

Quoted from Advance Electronic Limited: 'Electrical pollution or noise on the mains supply would cause that sound to dim, brighten and flicker, as your HiFi components tried to process the contaminated signal. HiFi source components are very sensitive to electrical pollution because the audio signal they produce is at a very low voltage, and this signal must be amplified in order to drive the speakers. Amplification is achieved by using the incoming mains supply to electronically boost the signal, and a polluted mains supply will prevent the electronics within your HiFi equipment from operating as intended. This causes a cascade effect within the electronic circuitry, resulting in a polluted amplified signal.... '

Some of the devices out there that can combat this issue may cost user an arm and a leg. Although there are cheaper alternative, I have yet to find that can really deliver what they are intended to do. Early last year, I have reviewed Magnet Isoclean 1000s which made wonders to my system especially for daylight listening. Since then, I am convinced that with the right power supply kit, it can provide a solution to certain electrical interference issues I may have with my system.

Then came Frank Voon's suite of products which I really fancy to have in my system. The first time I experience his famous power bank was during the RAVE System Launch Event back in 2013. Then, I also experienced the effect of power bank in a fellow audiophile, Sting's system. Both gave me such a wonderful experience that I yearn to have one in my system. However, given that I lost my man cave and my system is now in the main living room, I have to wait for Frank to visit my place and advice me on how the power bank can best fit into my system.

So, what exactly that I am unsatisfied with my system since I shifted from my man cave to the main hall? Lots  of it...:

1. At times, my system sounds a little bit restricted to reproduce music especially during day time and particularly on my digital sources i,e, CD player, MD player, streamer and CAS.
2. The liveliness in the digital sources seems not up to par to my analogue source.
3. Power of all my 10 components are fed from my Belkin PF50 which acts more as a surge protector than any other function it claims to do.
4. And this Belkin PF50 is plugged into an existing wall socket that share the same line with 2 other wall sockets. One of them is being used by the washing machine and dryer in the kitchen. Not ideal at all. 
5. Less involving experience with metal music on digital format

So, I needed a solution that will not require another wall socket nor a bulky device to add onto my hifi rack. And then came Frank Voon with his latest product PE-35 Ground Loop EMI Filter.

A date was set on 25th April, and Frank and his staff came and install this unit in my DB.

BUILT AND SPEC

This EMI filter is relatively lightweight and a non intrusive device. As you can see in the pictures above, it fits nicely in any standard distribution box (DB). It is sturdily built from high quality plastic enclosure and weaved cable enclosure.

The installation was straight forward enough. Frank is very familiar with the electrical circuit of the houses in my residential area. It only took 5 minutes for him to figure out which fuse/line is my hifi set up is connected to the DB.

The whole installation only took 20 minutes or so.

For a full explanation on what this unit does, please refer to Frank's website

THE SETLIST

I already prepared the following test tracks to see how this filter can improve my listening experience:

1. Bad Moon Rising - CCR on FLAC 24/96 and streamed via AptX BT

2. Louisiana 1927 - Aaron Neville on CD

3. Maybe - Birdy on MP3 320kbps and streamed via AptX BT

4. Enter Sandman - Metallica on CD

5. Bamboleo - Gypsy Kings on MD

6. You Were Always On My Mind - Willie Nelson on CD

7. Classic and Jazz French internet radio

All tracks were fed into my Musical Fidelity M6 DAC except for the internet radio which is streamed over the net via Musical Fidelity M1 CLiC.

THE SESSION

As my issues is mostly due to my day time listening, the session was done between noon to 5 pm where the voltage in my system can peak up to 260 Volts.  Also, the session is done at lower volume than usual.

The old classic of Bad Moon Rising  was such a joy to listen to. Previously, the sound was a bit flat with very little life to the song. The guitar riffs was much more melodic even at low volume (less than 9 o' clock on the volume knob). The separation between the rhythm, lead and bass guitar was very evident, especially the bass guitar. Overall, the clarity and liveliness of this track was much more enjoyable than before.

Aaron's Louisiana 1927 was presented in a very emotional environment. The percussion on this track was subtle but extended especially on the snare. Did it match my analogue experience? not quite but much improvement can be heard and on my lazy days of spinning the black disc, I would be satisfied spinning the shiny silver disc instead.  The vocal was also very alive and emotional. Very entertaining.

Birdy's vibrating vocal on the Maybe track is very clear and non-mumble which previously can sound a bit muffled. Again, separation and clarity were the two characteristics that were very revealing and I like this. The sound stage remain similar to before but with this new found clarity and separation, I am much more convinced of how important clean power is to a system.

Metallica's Enter Sandman was the ultimate test as metal music is one of the genres that suffer most in my set up on the digital side. Playing this special edition fully autographed gold CD, I notice that Lars's hi hat was sharper than usual. While the bass drum was more cohesive into the overall music, Kirk's guitar solo was also livelier and the swirling effect was more evident. I particularly enjoyed the bass drum during the 'prayer' section. 

Just to push the envelope of separation, I played Bamboleo on my faithful SONY ES MD player. MD although was a smart medium for portability at that time, it can still sound compressed with its ATRAC format.  However, feeding this to the DAC and with the filter in place, the multiple guitars and percussion was presented in a layer by layer environment. Overall separation of each instrument was very clear that you can appreciate more the fusion of the different guitar strums and the percussion.

Willie Nelson's You Were Always On My Mind was elevated to a different level when it comes solidness of the overall sound stage. This track is quite famous of its big sound stage but at times, it can sound a bit too fluid and dispersed. This time around, I can feel that the presentation was more controlled and confined to my listening space with the right limit. I felt that I was wrapped in the music with no leaks around my hall. Excellent experience.

Last but not least, my favorite internet radio station, Classic and Jazz, based in France and broadcasting at 128 kbps. At the moment of this session, they were playing lots of Frank Sinatra's music.  The first character that popped up was in the low end section. The bass was more subdued and clear. At this broadcast rate, it can sometimes be more on the shrilling side due to the revealing treble. But the bass this time around just came up and provided a very involving radio streaming.

THE VERDICT

Did the PE-35 effect the music reproduction of my system? YES. 

Did it solve all the issues I face? ALMOST. I still feel I can extract more juice from my system. Need to explore other Frank's product.

In general, this EMI filter managed to  push my system to deliver more clarity and and separation of different layers of musical arrangement. It also brought out some of the lower end notes to a different level, more subdued and controlled manner. Overall presentation of my system on the digital side was livelier. It was expressed in a more emotional and enveloping environment.

Who can benefit from this filter? I believe, the one that will benefit most will be people without a dedicated power line for their hifi system or proper grounding system. It will be among the cheapest way to elevate their system to a different level without all the headache of reconstruction of their house wiring system.

One can order this unit from Frank Acoustics via phone +6012 2981011 and it is priced at USD650 excluding installation.

Special thanks to Frank Voon for his excellent advice and high quality workmanship.