A HiFi Trip to Ipoh - Part 1 - ESOTERIC / AUDIO NOTE / AVANTGARDE

I joined a few audiophile friends on a day trip to Ipoh a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice HiFi trip in that we got to meet up with our Ipoh friends, listen to their systems and have some great food. 

I'll write about the 3 systems that we visited in 3 separate posts. 

This is the first one, Mr. Pui's system, which is located in a dedicated HiFi room. 

If anyone needs any proof that system warm-up can have a profound, day-and-night effect on the performance of some, if not all, systems, this is it. 

We arrived at Pui's home after a nice dim sum brunch with him and the Ipoh gang. That was also when he first switched on his system. Unfortunately, for the first few songs, many of us were left nonchalant with the music presentation. 

From the pictures below, many of you would have gathered that Pui's system consisted of very high quality gear. The Esoteric frontend was top notch (being second down from the top of Esoteric's integrated disc player line-up). The pairing of an Audio Note SET amplifier which has single digit power output with very high sensitivity Avantgarde loudspeakers (in the +-100dB/w range I gathered) could not have been the problem. However, the overall presentation was flat, closed-in, and with reduced dynamic contrast. The saving grace was the tonal colour, it was vivid and had very good saturation, which was simply outstanding  (must be that 300B SET tube magic).  

If anyone were to think that that was the sound characteristics of this system, that would have been a big mistake! (well, in the past I had people telling me that they could judge a system within the first 30 seconds of the first song 😅)

As time went by, by the 30 minutes mark, the system bloomed. Finally, the SET plus high sensitivity horn sound was on full display!

Esoteric K-01Xs CD/SACD player

A Cybershaft external clock was connectd to the Esoteric player

Audio Note Meishu Silver Signature integrated amplifier

Avantgarde Duo horn loudspeakers with active woofer section

Just like a normal subwoofer, the Avantgarde woofer section has all the requisite adjustments  

The Avantgarde loudspeaker has an input each on its tweeter, midrange and woofer sections. In this photo, you can see that the loudspeaker cable is fed to the tweeter section, then routed to the midrange and woofer with jumpers (the white-coloured cables)

  

There was a Brinkmann LP system which was not played during our visit.

So, as I said earlier, the system bloomed after 30 minutes or so of warm-up. The sound was big, the presentation was rich, lush and colourful. Vocal recordings were especially well served - warm, sweet, sultry. The micro-dynamics and nuances in the music were nicely presented. The combination was quite capable of dynamic swing too. Initially, we thought the bass part was a little overblown on certain bass heavy tracks, so we did a little experimentation (that is what's great with an adjustable woofer section), a couple of clicks down on the woofer volume level was ear-opening, I felt this little adjustment brought the bass section more in-line with the other frequency ranges, which allowed the overall volume level to be brought up further, with the music coming alive and more exciting to listen to to an even greater extent. I really like this kind of flexibility and responsiveness in any system.

This was both an enjoyable and educational listening session for me, much thanks to Pui's hospitality. We are sure to return to savour this system further! (remember that silent LP rig?). 

Rebooting The Final Frontier! Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1

The Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 was produced from 1995 till 2001. It's probably one of the most musical sounding CD players ever made at any price, even by today's standards! One listening an you'll fall in love with it's charms. By today's standard noise floor & resolution would be it's Achilles' heels, but it's golden colored tonality, rhythm & pace,  sheer musicality will get you hooked.

Here is a Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 which I used to own sometime back in 2005 till 2007, then I sold it to a friend who loved it so much, he sent the unit to Chris Johnson's Parts Connection in Canada to have it retro fitted with SE Plus mods to the player during 2011. In all he blew a cool MYR 10 thousand bucks or so to do it. Worth every single Agung faced Ringgit, he said, upon the return of the SFCD-1 about 3 months later!

Me? The SFCD-1 was actually my first high end CD player. It sounded great in my system, but I took it for granted, I wanted more........... My next CD player was a Marantz CD 16-D which served as an interim player until I lay my hands on a Marantz CD 7, which was the unit I've always wanted. You can read about my adventures or mis-adventures with the Marantz CD 7 in these pages too.

Back to end year 2019, my friend came for a home visit when I told him I had restarted my hifi hobby. He was inspired and went home looking to restart his too. Like me, he too had moth balled his hifi set for a couple of years. Then he told me his system wouldn't start.up. Chiefly, the Sonic Forntiers SFCD-1 wouldn't turn on! He brought the unit to me in hope I could fix it. 

I opened up the player, and found that the main board still powered up, but the control board behind the face plate with the display wasn't. I had deduced my findings to him, that unless I could find a donor board with the E-prom chip still intact. There wasn't anything further I could do for him. He then told me it's OK and I can keep the carcass. The SFCD-1 laid in my place for a few months, until recently I heard that our chief hifi mechanic Mr Oh of Old Klang Road have a working unit of SFT-1(a transport only version of the SFCD-1) for sale. And so I sprung in to action. Looking to buy the SFT-1 to use as a donor machine, or to shop for parts. Mr Oh learned about my intentions and offered to help me with the parts transfer task. Below is a pictoria guide with photos provided by Mr Oh as he did the transfer job!      

The Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1(black face) and SFT-1(gold face) being wheeled in to Mr Oh's surgery room for parts transplant!

Inside the SFT-1, compared to the SFCD-1 below.

Inside the SFCD-1, note the balanced(XLR) output board and the pair of 6922 tubes(NOS Siemens matched pair), and the added on jitter board on top of the Ultra Jitter module as part of the SE Plus upgrade package performed by Chris Johnson, formerly boss & designer of Sonic Frontiers products.

The 2 round stacks of fast recovery diodes in between the blue & gold colored capacitors are also part of the elaborate SE Plus upgrade package! 

Audio output section of the SFCD-1 beefed up with ceramic tube sockets, MCaps and gold pin XLR connectors for the SE Plus upgrade package!

The SE Plus upgrades also includes more power regulators in the power supply section.

After the control board swap, the SFCD-1 came alive again!

While it didn't affect my SFCD-1, a very common problem with these CD players are the board socket pins as circled in red by Mr Oh. Over the years of usage, the pins can become loose and cause shorting of boards, or just becomes loose and the unit stops working! One way is to tightened the socket pins by using a cable tie, or better yet ask Mr Oh to individually remove the pins from the socket, give it a good press to tightened the contact points. A lot of work though. 

During testing of the SFCD-1, Mr Oh also found the CD transport needed replacement, along with the servo board, which is non-standard Philips CDM 12.4. Sonic Frontiers had modified the servo board.

Thankfully, the SFT-1 again provide the required donor CD transport mechanism servo board.....

All fixed and under going final test.

Finally, the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 is now singing in my audio cave again.

 

I shall take my time to enjoy my new found SFCD-1. As I listen more to it, the more I love it's golden tonal colors, it's rhythm & pace and slam dunk musical qualities. These are the very things you can't find in modern CD player designs or CAS audio. That's why I believe the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 will live on for many, many years to come, and their used resell values will go up, despite their troublesome reputation. They just sound so...... musically good, compared to most modern digital designs which excels mostly in technical parameters, like specifications & measured results!

Now, latest development, my friend just learned that I have rebooted his SFCD-1 and is keen to have it back after he listened to it in my place. Knowing how much he loved his Sonic Frontiers products, I'll let it go back to it's rightful owner for the cost of repairs. What did I get? if you asked, the sheer joy of being reminded why I liked this CD player so much back then! A lovely ending, don't you think so? 

Another Classic Restoration, Acoustic Research M6 Holographic Tower Speakers

Acoustic Research M6 Holographic Tower spekaers 

This pair of Acoustic Research M6 Holographic Tower speakers has been in Papa bear's hifi system since 1990. Recently Papa bear decide he wants to spring clean his AV room and ill' bear got this as his heir loom! A visual inspection of the speakers reveal that it's dusty and in need of some tender loving care, especially that 5 inch mid driver with a rotten voice coil cap. I did some Googling and found some information about this pair of speakers. This speaker was designed using time alignment combined with direct/reflected sound theory ala Bose as it's development basis for better sound staging & improved spatial cues, for that "life like" musical feel.

This speaker design is unique as it came coupled to that mat black pyramid shaped top module, with a dual 8 inch internal sub woofer, built in to a high gloss piano black finished tower box! A pair jumper cable connects the top pyramid shaped module to that tower box below. The top module locks to the bottom sub woofer box with 3 tight fitting pins.  I remembered being mesmerized by the sound of this pair of speakers growing up as a teenager, until I got my own system, that is.

Hence I would like to put in some effort and TLC DIY elbow grease to make this pair of Acoustic Research M6 Holographic speakers come alive again! The following picture guide depicts the work that went in to restoring this pair of beauties!

First step is to unplug the pyramid shaped top module from the bass tower box.

Looking around to access the speaker driver, I found 6 screws at the back of the pyramid module, made from molded plastic. 

Once the six screws are removed, I had to carefully pry open the plastic case as it was glued shut all round to prevent leakage of air. The glue around the front & back housing were removed with a pen knife with gentle scraping motions. The 2 way speaker drivers are revealed once the casing is opened.

The back housing have some acoustic foam stuck on inside to dampened the plastic module. Also in the back housing is the 2-way passive x-over for the tweeter & mid drivers. Yeah, I work on my kitchen table too!

The 5 inch mid driver was removed and revealed a rotten voice coil cover. I brought the drivers to a speaker repair expert to check on the condition. He took a good look, made a few presses on the cone, and then told me they mid range driver is fine, and all I had to do was get the replacement voice coil dust cap, and glue it back on my self. 

And so the speaker expert revealed to me that what we've been calling speaker glue is actually Araldite 2 part glue, available from any good hardware stores!

The surface of the mid driver was give a proper cleaning and vacuum out all the bits of rotten material from the old voice coil dust cap. The 2 part Araldite glue mixed, and applied to both the paper cone & new dust cap surface before joining up and leave for a couple of hours to cure.  

Once the glue had settle and cured, I just repeat the whole process removal process above in reverse and whoala! the speakers are fixed and awaiting a new musical life!

 After that, I gave the piano black gloss finish at the bottom sub woofer box an nice polish to return to shiny look. I haven't hooked up the speaker to test for sound yet, but I can't wait to do that. Stay tuned!

Visiting a Chameleonic System

Chameleonic :- 1. Resembling a chameleon: readily changing color or other attributes.

My friend Loo is what we audiophiles would call an 'avid system tuner'. He is someone who incessantly adjusts, tunes, and tinkers with his system, done together with on-going gear and accessory changes, in order to achieve the best sound he wants. 

Well, to use the term 'best' is not entirely correct. You see, Loo does not subscribe to the idea of a 'best' sound. To him there is no 'best', just 'better and better', i.e., continuous improvement. This ties to his non-stop effort in tuning his system and also the non-stop evolution of his system's sound we hear in every visit to his system, just like a chameleon changing its colours.  

 

The overview of Loo's system, which is set up at one end of his living room

  

There is a heavy presence of sound tuning accessories in Loo's system. The latest tuning device he added to his system are the IsoAcoustics Gaia II footers to his loudspeakers. 

I have to say that these footers' effect were easily heard, compared to his sound heard during my previous visits. With the IsoAcoustics, there was an added 'calmness' to the sound, especially in the highs. If there was any frizziness in the sound before, now it was patted down, like after one getting a good combing of one's frizzy hair. It also gave a perception of better defined edges to imaging and darker background in-between images. 

Let's take a tour of Loo's HiFi gear:

The source was digital only,  Loo swore by the top-loading Accustic Arts CD-PLAYER 1 

The amplification is the jewel-like pieces from Swiss highend, FM Acoustics. The preamp is the FM-155 pictured above

Power is delivered by the FM-108 monoblocks 

Each monoblock is placed very close to the loudspeaker, so that Loo can use very short loudspeaker cables (they are Furutech FS-a36, and only 1m long if I am not wrong)

The eagle-eyed among you might have also gleaned from these pictures the plethora of isolation footers under each piece of gear. These are consisting of Harmonix RF-900MK2, RF-909MK2, TU-666ZX and TU-666M. Note the precise positioning of these footers, which Loo derived from endless experimentation. 

The loudspeakers are the very rare Clearwave Symphonia 72R. These are mid-size floorstanders, and boy, do they use very high quality drivers or what? The drivers are RAAL ribbon tweeter paired with ceramic drivers from Accuton.   

Loo also paid special attention to his electricity supply. In addition to a dedicated mains circuit, he has these to clean up his electricity:

Frank PowerBank PB-15000Ws

Isotek Titan Evo3

A Nordost QB8 distributor with a host of QK1 AC Enhancer & QV2 AC line Harmonizer

What I don't capture in photos are the Isotek Synchro powercords and the Furutech NCF power plugs used throughout. 

That is not all, Loo also uses a number of Furutech NCF cable support to hold up his cables:

 

As I said early, the only constant in Loo's system is his endless tinkering and tuning of his system, and the ever changing and shifting of its sound. I am sure whatever sound performance I describe now will change in my next visit. However, what I can say is that there are a number of areas that Loo never loses sight of. 

Firstly, Loo goes for HiFi gear that has a substantial performance envelope and is also responsive to his tuning effort. I understand why he chose the Clearwave loudspeakers. These loudspeakers consistently give out clear, fast, and dynamic sound. At the same time they are also capable of conveying details, nuances and airiness in the music. Without fail, I hear a good deal of humanness, of warmth from these loudspeakers, despite ceramic drivers having the reputation of being analytical (undeserved, in my opinion). They can do big sound and big soundstage relative to its size - in one recent visit I commented that these loudspeakers sounded bigger and bigger from Loo's tuning effort. Loo has also been pushing the loudspeakers' dynamic envelope with obvious results in dynamic swing and attack.

Secondly, Loo always wants a mix of analytical performance (resolution, transparency, low distortion) and musicality (that the listeners enjoy the music) from his system. The balance may shift one way or the other with his different efforts, but the mix is always there.

Thirdly, Loo is not dogmatic about the road to good sound. This can be seen in the turnover of his gear over the last 1-2 years, shifting from tube to solid state, from bookshelf loudspeakers to floorstanders, from vintage to the modern.  At the end of the day, it is the sound and the music that matter to him. Loo aims for a system that can play all music genres, from simple vocals to bombastic classical pieces, from canto-pop, mandarin-pop that can be jarring on the wrong system to smooth and clean audiophile recordings. 

As if to illustrate my last point, Loo hooked up his Western Electric vintage tube monoblocks for us to compare to the FM Acoustics amplifier. The vintage amplifiers have a trace of golden hue and sweetness to the sound, but still retain a good level of transparency and details. I believe many would prefer them somewhat on intimate vocals compared to the FM Acoustics, though the solid state amps were clearly more powerful and very much in control with bigger music.  

  

Well, Loo is one who does not rest on his laurels. I am pretty sure that within the time it took me to write this article, he has moved on. 

I wait with bated breath to see what he will come up with during my next visit.