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?).
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