KLIAV 2010 Show Report Part 3.

Now, we continue with our final instalment of the KLIAV 2010 show report.

A&L Audio Station's main room had full range of Dali speaker and sub woofers on display.

They also had Unison Research turn table? Kinda looks like it has Clearaudio DNA.

One of the main A&L demo systems is PS Audio Perfectwave memory player, pre/power combo by VTL and Dali Helikon MKII speakers.

The PS Audio Perfectwave memory player, VTL 6.5 pre amp, all powered by PS Audio Power Plant Premier re generator.

VTL MB450 Signature mono block tube power amp.

The other A&L system on demo is Focus Audio Maestro 2.5 and Unison Research tube pre/power combo.

The golden allure of tubes!

I could really get use to these Unison Research babies in my room.

This year AV World has only a small, entry level system on display, but I thought the sound was promising despite the budget price tags. They also had an AV show theater going on too.

The Cambridge Audio components made a fine partnership with the Mordaunt-Short speakers.

On static display were AV World's newly acquired brand, Atlantic Technologies speakers.

The big bad Swedish Statement room had one of the finest AV system going on inside. The system uses ADAM Tensor speaker range, including the flagship Alpha seen here. The Vivitek projector used gave surprisingly good visual results.

The Vitus power amp for center chanel.

Top of the range Denon Blu-ray player and surround processor amp is used along with the Bladelius Grandel multi chanel power amp. In all honesty, this is the only AV system which came close to rivaling the superb AV Designs home theater install.

Maxx Audio-Visual demoed the full SVS Sound sub woofer and speaker range plus future new products. Like the soon to be launched B&O ICE Powered 7.1 multi chanel amp. You can read about it later in my 10 Qs for Ron Stimpson article later.

The SVS Sound PC-13 Ultra sub woofer.

The big D&M Holding's room showcased some of Denon's latest products which includes this budget turn table. Even the big boys are cashing in on the vinyl revival!

This year Denon also celebrates 100th Anniversary! Congratulations for reaching centennial status.

The ATS room features all the hifi furniture, racks and tweak cones that they manufacture.

Racks every where!

Center Circle Audio displays the latest Soneteer hard disk music server system as seen here.

Modwright Instruments hybrid design power amp on display.


Raidho C-2 speakers and Eggleston Works Dianne on display. Stay tune for my 10 Qs article with Jim Thompson to find out more about the Dianne story. It's certainly interesting to say the least!

The Pathos Endorfin CD player fronting Parasound JC series pre/power amp combo powering a pair of Eggleston Works Andra 3 speakers. This system sounded a little raw on Friday morning, but after Jim worked his magic on the Andra speakers positioning, the sound opened up and became highly fluid. By Saturday, it was one of the most improved sounding systems in the show.

Other than the usual superb HT install(I could not take pictures of that as it was dark), the AV designs room this year featured my reference PMC Fact 8 doing home theater duties with Bryston electronics.

AV Designs were also promoting their new Oxygen cable brand. This is a high sonic performance and value for money cable offering. Cable construction is first rate despite the budget prices.

The main Flagship AV room featured JBL Everest and Mark Levinson 512 tower mono blocks, which are the current Harman Group flagship products.

Turn tables every where! Even Simon Audio has em! This Almarri turn table set is probably the analog bargain of the show, packaged with an Audio Technica AT95E cartridge and an MM phono stage, priced at RM$1.2k only! Surprisingly, it's not China, but Canadian made too.

Other than the Pass Labs, KEF Reference combo system, Perfect Hifi also had the Wilson Sasha speaker on demo. The Wison Sasha is a love it or hate it speakers, no in between, based on post show comments. Some will like it's high dynamics and bass slam capabilities, while others complain about it's ear piercing highs! The Wilson was powered by the ARC Reference Anniversary pre amp and Goldmund power amps.

This DCS Pucini can double up as PC music streamer too. It's used to sourced the above mentioned Wilson Sasha system.

The full range of Sonus Faber speakers on static display.

Other ARC tube amps on display.

The main CMY big rig, which many seemed to be disappointed with the overall sound performance. This system had all Naim amplification and Proac Carbon Pro 8 speakers.

The system also had a Clearaudio Master Reference turn table and...............

A stack of Wadia Series 9 components as sources. This is also where Franck Tchang and Robert Suchy did their work shop activities. Which may explain why the system is not well set up for most of the time.

JV Concept room had the full range Golden Sound products on display, including tube pre/power amps and.....

A pair of floor standing speakers. All USA designed and China made.

Golden Sound also specialises in audio tweakery products, like cones, cables and resonators.

With this final part, I end our KLIAV 2010 show reports.

See ya all again next year.

By the way, many regular readers indicated that they liked the KLIAV 2010 show babes coverage, as it gave them a bit of a time out for eye candy and to rest their ears.

KLIAV2010 - I Like to Hear This

Of the hifi equipment on show in KLIAV 2010, there was one design idea that caught my attention. I really would like to hear this in my own system.

I think, by now, many must have heard a lot about the Manger loudspeakers demo'ed in KLIAV 2010. If you had walked into Sound Precision's room, I am sure your attention would be first drawn to the Manger speakers and your gaze would automatically be fixed on the unique design of the MSW driver. Yes, the speakers showed great promises and I would love to listen to them more extensively. But to listen to such speakers in my own system is logistically difficult (I shudder to think of the effort needed to cart the heavy speakers into my room AND then having to move my own speakers away).

I digressed actually.

The interesting design that I mentioned early was in the same Sound Precision room alright. It was the INEX amplifiers, especially the monoblocks. At one glance, I thought the INEX amplifiers were like any other, but Uncle Vic and Chan of Sound Precision explained that all was not what it seem.

Look at the photo above, the main box lying on the floor was actually just the power supply. The amplifying circuit itself was in the smaller box (at the top part of the picture) dangling from the speaker binding posts, connected via very short length of speaker cables supplied by INEX (these were as short as jumper cables used to connect the top and bottom binding posts on bi-wireable speakers). The interconnects from the pre-amp went directly into the smaller box (the cable with red colour termination). The other cable that went from the big box to the small supplied power to the amplifying circuit.

What are the advantages of such a design? I do not have the official story yet. But a design like this would save on investment in loudspeaker cables for one! There would also be no loudspeaker cables to colour the sound. The closeness of the amplifying box to the speakers would probably minimize interference and signal loss.

Sound Precision also displayed the more conventional looking INEX pre-amp. You can see that in Big E's Show Report part I.

Well, like I said, my interest was piqued. Let's see if Hifi-Unlimited could request for a demo pair to listen for ourselves.

KLIAV 2010 Show Report Part 2.

More KLIAV 2010 show reports.

In the Acoustic Arts room, a Walker Audio Velocitor was powering a system consisting of,

Epos Encore 50 flagship speakers,

powered by BAT tube power amps(the middle one is a solid state/hybrid design),

signal pre amplified by BAT Rex and phono stage,

Sourced by am Epos Wyndsor turn table. The amps were already sold I am told, so no more demos, as the proud new owner is on his way to collect them! I know what this system is capable of, as I've previously heard them sing at the Acoustic Arts show room in Summit USJ. They are fabulous!

The other Acoustic Arts room demoed Epos M series speakers with budget Creek CD player and integrated amp. The sound was decent, but failed to wow me like the year before.

Maybe because the Shakti stones were not used on demo that day? Who knows!

German Physiks made a return this year with Sim Audio electronics again this year in the AVP Soundcraft room, the sound was pretty O.K. but somehow, no fireworks for me this time!

Sim Audio CD player, pre/power combo. That serious looking turn table on top is static display only(what a shame!).

The 2nd AVP Soundcraft room was more to my liking, but only because of my soft spot for the Nagra electronics, especially the 845 VPA tube power amp.

Nagra CDC CD player and PL-L pre amp.

The Nagra VPA and Verity Leonore speakers. The sound was not great, but as with tube gears, it doesn't do much wrong either. It has the tonal colour to melt your heart away.

The Audiomatic room was fronted by Vitus pre/power amps and CD players, but smooth, sophisticated sounds were coming from the EAT turn table and Vitus phono stage too.

The nicely finished EAT turn table, this is the Forte's baby brother.

The always friendly Eugene posing with the Marten Heritage Getz speakers.

The 2nd Audiomatic room demos Bladelius electronics and Chario Sonnet speakers. A Furutech Daytona 303 PLC powers the system. This system sounds pretty good too.

Furutech always enjoy brisk business at KLIAV.

Ong AV Specialist showcased the return of Theta Digital electronics mated to Opera Tebaldi flagship speakers.

Theta Citadel, zero feedback high current amplifier, or so it says.

Theta Generation VIII Series 2 DAC/pre amp.

Mini Me Citadel mono blocks?

Audio 88 demoed the YG Kipod speakers last year with disappointing results. They are doing better this year with the YG Carmel, no secret, the Kipod was too big for the room but the Carmel is just nice. I kinda like the YG Carmel actually.

Some would say that I have a thing for small dinky floor stand speakers, so what?

The YG speakers are sourced by a Jungson flagship Cd player and Audio Space Reference tube integrated amp.

CMY knows I have a thing for Wadia too, note the Wadia iTransport and 151 PowerDAC. Nils Lofgren demo anyone?

Odiosleuth liked this all Naim system in the CMY room. I can see why, the Naim Ovator speakers are the least Naim like in sound, it has more commonly accepted audiophile traits.

Another CMY room with Usher X-718 speakers, powered by Usher pre/power combo source by Wadia 381i CD player.

The next CMY room had the refined Metronome CD2A Signature CD transport/DAC combo with the top range Jeff Rowland pre/power amps powering a pair of.........

Dynaudio Sapphire speakers!

Tropical Audio displays, what else? But Harbeth HL-5 speakers with ol' skool Quad electronics.

Sam, I think this stuff is a bit tired, don't you wanna try something new next year?


A&L Audio Station displays NAD Classic range.

Also on silent display are Densen gears.

But they got Unison Research tube amp powering .......

Elac 240 Series speakers, featuring sapphire coated drivers.

Desa Home Theater was showcasing Mordaunt-Short 40th Anniversary Performance Series speakers. Nice sound by the way.

The Mordaunt-Short speakers were powered by a Synthesis stereo power amp.

Another look at the 40th Anniversary MS Performance speaker.

Sound Tech from Sungai Petani show off Chario Academy Serendipity speakers, powered by......

Clasica-audio amps. These amps are hand made in Sungai Petani and are exported to Spain, it's biggest market.

I found the Clasica-audio amps to have typical tube sound, lush, smooth and the right warm and fuzzy tonal colour. the amp's build quality appears to be of high standards too. 1Malaysia Boleh! Ha!Ha!

More KLIAV show reports to come. Stay tuned.