Best Of 2012!

Odiosleuth did his countdown of the best gears of 2012 last month. Here's my belated list, due to high work load, poor health and the need to finish all the reviews before I write this. Un-like the previous years, we didn't quite get an optimum mix of equipments in all categories to list a top 3 followed by other notable mentions in each particular class, be it digital or analog source, amplifiers, or speakers. We did, however got an overload or cables to write about. You know what they say about the hifi industry, when the going gets though, sell 'em more cables!

So this year, I'd just list down 10 of my most memorable hifi experiences, followed with a few notable mentions, which though some not officially reviewed or previewed in this pages, we have strong reasons to believe that they are of notable sound quality and product of substance, worthy of your time to further investigate, should you be shopping in those categories.

Here goes, THE BEST OF 2012!

Eggleston Works Ivy Signature.

The Eggleston Works Ivy Signature speakers are now on demo in Centre Circle Audio. To me these are almost the perfect big boy speakers that can be had in an imperfect world. Beauty, brain and brawn, the Ivy Signature has it all. Bass, bass, bass, the Ivy's got plenty of it, tight, accurate, and with no overhang. The highs have the best of silk dome smooth qualities in the air too. The mid range fully fleshed out vocals, with plenty of presence and bite. It's got some of the best bang slamming dynamics in the business, yet able to handle the small things, such as truth of timbre, harmonic texture, tonal colour with aplomb. The Ivy is also one of the most transparent speakers out there today, exposing recording flaws and imperfect musical performances as they are only meant to be, yet the Ivy take no hostages, and you never have to pay the price of exposed imperfections. It just gives the whole essence of listening to music that much more value. It's a do it all speaker with potential stunning performance, but they do demand the best front end components and all else connected before it to give their all. Priced On Application only. Consider this as the preview that qualifies it being here too.

dCS Puccini CD/SACD player

The dCS Puccini charmed it's way in to our hearts and mind, not quite the way we remembered it to be. I always thought dCS had a house sound that is full of details and resolution, but can be musically underwhelming. That is until the kind folks at A&L Audio Station had us putting the Puccini thru it's paces right in the comfort of our own homes. The dCS had details in spades for sure, but within those details, also lie the musical intent and emotional content of the playback performance. One can put the "entry" level dCS with the SOTA likes of TAD-D600 or the Wadia 9 Series stack of components we rated so highly last year, in the same ring on a three corner fight, and the Puccini won't disgrace it self, even if the odds of winning are stacked against it. It kinda reminds me of the Jaguar automobile motto not too long ago, it's got Pace, Grace and Space!

Skogrand SC Air Markarian 421 cables

Another memorable product experienced recently is the Skogrand SC Air Markarian 421 cables. It's a SOTA cable that not only lives up to it's name by price, but actually matched by performance too. Some say they heard god speak to them when listening to their hifi with this cable, others that have not experienced the connection, but still nothing short of audio nirvana if such a place existed?

Can't afford the Skogrand but want a taste of today's SOTA cable performance? For a smaller outlay, one can consider the Wywires Gold range, which gives a Skogrand like musical experience, but the only difference being, the Wywires does not quite have the fully developed mid range density of the more expensive cable, all other performance parameters being near equal.

Wywires till too expensive? Fret not, the latest Taralabs range of budget cable, namely TL-2/14 speaker cable. The sound is very much in mould of Skogrand and Wywires, except that it lacks the bandwidth and transparency of the two, but not the bass slam! Highly recommended!

All the above three cables share the same sonic DNA's and in some way or another, they might as well be cousins from the same family tree just a few generations ago. The only difference is rich relative, middle class uncle, or poor cousin just starting out in life.

SVS PC12-NSD vs PB12-NSD sub woofers

When it come to low, low bass, can't go wrong with SVS Sound. Be it the trouser flapping experience of the top woof PB13-Ultra, or the entry level PB12-NSD. For the budget conscious AV enthusiast who still cares about the slamming "low down" experience, there's not much in the market that can compete with the PB12-NSD.

Aesthetix Calypso pre amp

I love tube pre amps for their beauty in tonal colour. The Aesthetix Calypso comes as fine as tube pre-amps do. They play in the same sonic levels of ARC LS-26(now 27!), yet beats the LS-26 with much more pronounced dynamic contrast and burst of musical transients. For those who love the convenience of having phono stage and pre amp all in one box, there's the Janus(twin of the Calypso) to consider. And finally, Aesthetix offers greater value for performance ratio too, brand power aside. Odiosleuth highlighted why he was impressed with the Aesthetix Atlas 200W hybrid power amp, and I share his enthusiasm, plus what a fine pre/power combo the Calypso/Atlas would make.

Rega Apollo R CD player and Brio R integrated amp

It's hard to ignore the shoe box sized Rega R series components, as musical reproduction, NOT hifi goes! They're god sent to those starting their journey on hifi, or some one coming down to earth from the orbit of upgrade stars. Also perfect as a second system that doesn't take up much space. However, it's the Rega Apollo R that deserves most of the accolades as it will not make a fool of it self, even when inserted in to a system costing many times it's own price! If you believe in the almighty, the Rega R series component's only sins are of the omission kind.

KE blade speakers

The KEF Blade is a technological tour de force show case for the company's 50th Anniversary in business. It's a speaker with designer elements and high WAF(Wife Acceptance Factor), yet sounds like an audiophile's pair of dream speakers. By today's crazy high end speaker prices, the KEF actually seems like a pretty realistic buy too. It's only weakness? Bass doesn't quite go as low, nor as hard as some American speakers.

IsoTek EVO3 Polaris PLC

I think this IsoTek EVO3 Polaris is the finest effort ever by the company, yet it's asking price is not astronomical either. It's honest to goodness British way of doing business which will endear them to the market for a long, long time to come! I am still thinking about it, now that it's gone, if that's any indicator of how good it was. Most times, you'll only miss a good thing after it's long gone.

YG Carmel speakers

The YG Carmel is perhaps the company's most captivating speaker in it's line up. I would consider it to be a serious rival to Magico's V3 speakers in every way. It's the exquisite small speaker for modern quarters(i.e. small rooms) given today's sky rocketing real estate prices, many well heeled folks have less space for hifi. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and may some day aspire to have them as my permanent daily reference too!

TAD CR-1 speakers

The TAD CR-1 is certainly one the best, if not THE BEST, small high end mini monitor ever. Need I say more? I congratulate Odiosleuth for his fine speaker choice, but now, herein lies the problem, the CR-1s are so revealing, that it's exposing all the short comings fo the poor guy's front end components, be it, even if they are already mighty good to start with. Here's to another round of up grade orbit, buddy. Ha! Ha!

OTHER NOTABLE MENTIONS:

Pioneer BDP-450 Blu-Ray player

The Pioneer BDP-450 is an excellent Blu-ray player, especially in 3D mode, no doubt about it. What surprised me however, is that it makes a mighty impressive CD/SACD transport too, accessed via it's co-axial audio output, for connection to an external DAC. It's built like a high end audiophile CD player too, with rigid all aluminium and steel casing, equipped with weighty proper metal feet, not make believe plastic feet. The transport drawer action is smooth like a high end CD player too! Sound is detailed, smooth, coherent, noise/jitter free, and most of all, musical rhythmic flow, accompanied by big-big sound stage, deep and wide.

Wilson Audio XLF speakers

No, I didn't hear Wilson Audio XLF speakers yet, there's only one pair in Malaysia now. My sources are based upon people(whose ears I trust) who have heard them in action, and they rated the mighty Wilson  as the BEST speakers they've ever heard(and these are true blood high enders who have listened to nearly all the top hifi systems in the region), period! I wish to congratulate the proud owner fo the Wilson Audio XLF, you know who you are!

New B&W 802D speakers

I was never in love with any of the previous incarnations of the B&W 800 D series speakers, despite their high tech diamond tweeter and kevlar mid bass driver calling card with 1st order x-over topology for the smoothest hand over frequency point. They were very good on the hifi performance parameter, but they always struck me as being rather business like in their musical presentation. If diamonds are a girls best friend, then some degree of musical beauty is to be expected, and in it's latest form, the B&W 802D actually delivers them in spades. Looks like they'll be around for a little while more!

ASI Super Tango speakers

These Frank Tchang designed Super Tango speakers are nothing like you've ever heard in high end dom! They will never be another pair of speakers that sound like the Super Tango. They are definitely not shy and rockers will love their explosive dynamics with gutsy and big hearted musical delivery. Viva la de France! They an enigma, if they ever was one.

Marten Design Django speakers

Marten Design Django XL is a scaled down version of the Getz, but with beefier bass, tuned for American taste. All the sonic goodies offered by the Getz are there with little down side, at only half the price! Marten Design just launched the Django L, which is a smaller brother, trickle down technology have never meant better than this!

Well folks, that's the end of our adventures in HiFi-Unlimited. Stay tune for some last words before we call it a day.

dCS Puccini CD/SACD Player

The dCS Puccini SACD/CD player made it to my "Gear that Impressed in 2012" list (see my post of the same title on 14 Jan 2013). In that post, I said that "In one stroke, the dCS Puccini vanquished my past impression of the dCS house sound... The dCS Puccini continues the dCS tradition of being technically excellent, but it also sounded excellently organic, with music flowing naturally."

This dCS is now one of a couple of digital players that I'd aspire to own.

If I were to look at it in terms of features on offer, the Puccini is the most complete and most versatile digital player that i have ever come across. In addition to its ability to play SACD and CD, the Puccini has 2 digital inputs, both RCA, that accept 24 bit PCM at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 & 192kS/s, so you can be certain that your investment is future proof if you decide to include CAS into your playback system (nowadays, this no longer seems to be an 'if' question though, but a 'when' one). The Puccini also has a word clock input, and therein lies an upgrade path. When the upgrade itch gets too strong, the owner can add the Puccini U-Clock, which incidentally also has an USB input, allowing you to stream music from your PC and notebook.

Another attraction to investing your digital future with dCS is that the company is committed to updating the technology in its customers' gear on a continuing basis. dCS provides periodic firmware upgrade for their players mostly for free.

Before I go on to talk about my listening experience with the dCS Puccini, let's get a couple of its features that affect setup out of the way. The first is the matter with the upsampling schemes and the multitude of digital filters that it offers, you can select to convert the PCM signal from your CDs or your rips to DSD and run it through one of the 4 digital filters on board; or you can keep the PCM signal and choose one of the 3 filters on offer (classic, long and asymmetrical, the last one seems to be similar to Meridian's apodizing filter and Ayre's 'minimum phase', labelled as MP, offerings). In the week I had the Puccini, I found that I always preferred the PCM upsampled to DSD option, so throughout the evaluation period, the setting of the player was maintained that way. DSD sounded more continuous and more analogue to my ears. After that, the choice of which filter to use did not matter much, their differences were subtle to me at best.

Next is the setting the dCS Puccini's maximum output level, which is either 2V or 6V (applicable to both its balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs), and whether to connect the dCS Puccini directly to my monoblocks or to a pre-amp. It has a volume control onboard that allows direct connection to a power amplifier, bypassing the need for a preamp and also the use of a few cables. dCS advises that if you connect directly to the power amp the output level should be set to 6V (and you'll use the Puccini's volume control to set the listening level). If you use a preamp, whether you choose 2V or 6V, the volume control should be set to maximum.

So, I had to decide whether to leave my Pass Labs XP20 preamp in the chain. I found that generally without the preamp, the sound was slightly purer and more rounded; with the preamp in, the music's dynamic expression was better. The XP20 was transparent and neutral enough to ensure that the differences were minor if they were there at all. In the end I decided to leave the preamp in as I enjoyed the slightly freer dynamics (however I know of a Puccini owner who swears by the sound without a preamp). On the choice of  either 2V or 6V output level, I couldn't say that I did a scientific comparison by making sure that the sound pressure level for both settings was the same when listening, but at the end I thought the 6V setting gave better transient and control with no loss of refinement and delicacy, so 6V it was.

Thus set up, I was extremely impressed by the dCS Puccini's portrayal of my favourite music. There was an inherent rightness to the sound that was instantly recognisable, a trait seems to come naturally with much of British hifi equipment - which many credit to the school's midrange naturalness. It was a sound that one will instinctively feel at ease with, not requiring much processing in our brain to believe that there was actually a singer and some musical instruments playing in front of us.

The expression of timbre and tonal colours from the Puccini was top notch. The solo violin in Sarah Chang's Debut album positively shimmered, with beautifully rendered harmonics. The violin was floating in mid air, and the notes were wrapped in a rich silvery brilliance. The playing was lyrical. I never heard this CD with so much technical sure-footedness and yet full of expressions of emotional beauty.

The solo piano on Danny Wright's Black and White album was another high point. From the pings on the right hand to the bangs on the left, every note was excellently reproduced, and again done with full harmonic beauty. I could almost get the illusion that the Steinway was playing in the room right in front of me. I could hear the hammer striking the string. I could hear Wright's workings on the keys and the pedals. The amount of information reproduced were impressive.

With vocal music, the dCS Puccini laid bare all the details in the singer's performance, such as the little breathes, the little nuances in the voice, the little vibrations and turns in his/her elocution. Some may dismiss these audiophile artefacts as unimportant in musical enjoyment, however the dCS Puccini showed that all these were not just sound but an integral part of the performance, and they came across clearly as part of the performer's artistry. I had much more enjoyment with the Puccini's take on the recordings that listening to music that I thought I was already familiar with became a journey of new discoveries.

The Puccini's highs were pristine and rich. The mids sounded naturally correct. The bass might lose out a little on slam but it was well defined, agile and tuneful. The Puccini's music rendition had a natural flow, an ease and a density that is very rare in digital reproduction.

I just wanted to listen on and on. It was hard to let go when the time came. I bet the dCS Puccini will do the same to you too.

The dCS Puccini lists for RM73,625. dCS is carried by A&L Audio Station, Ph: 03-7958 2884

Gear That Impressed in 2012

It is customary for us to start a new year with highlights on the hifi equipment that had impressed us in the past year. Fewer items coming through my place last year, due to a rather busy work schedule, nonetheless a few of them stood out and I am glad to put them up here.

The first 3 items are hifi gear that conceivably could be put together as a high end music system – a digital source with volume control, a stereo power amplifier and a pair of loudspeakers.

 1. dCS Puccini SACD/CD player.  RM 73,625. A&L Audio Station

  

This is the one and only source component that I auditioned in 2012, but oh boy, what an experience it was.

The dCS Puccini came to my place 3 days before the end of the year. I have not written extensively about it on Hifi Unlimited, that I’ll do in the days to come. However, for the performance the dCS Puccini conjured up , I must have it included here.

In one stroke, the dCS Puccini vanquished my past impression of the dCS house sound (I though the earlier generations of dCS gear sounded technically very accomplished, but just somewhat detached in communicating musical emotion).

The dCS Puccini continues the dCS tradition of being technically excellent, but it also sounded excellently organic, with music flowing naturally. I listened, and listened, and listened some more, all the time with not just my head but also my heart.

The dCS Puccini has user selectable variable output level – either 2V or 6V max. The latter setting is good enough to drive a power amplifier directly, so you can save on a preamp, a pair of interconnects and a powercord.

2.    Aesthetix Atlas Power Amplifier. RM28,000. The Audio Store

The Aesthetix Atlas has a hybrid topology and puts out 200w per channel into 8ohms. The sound was refined, composed and pristine. Very communicative musically, you will spend a lot of your time listening to your favourite music through this amp. 

The power in reserve came into play when called for, pretty much like a ‘steel fist in a velvet glove’.

The Aesthetix Atlas is excellent value for money. Highly recommended.

3.    TAD Compact Reference Loudspeakers. RM148,000 with matching stands. AV Designs

I own a pair of TAD CR-1. This is more raving of the TAD-CR1 from me. If you think it is unbecoming behaviour for an owner to rave about his own stuff, then just take it from me that the TAD-CR1 are one of the great loudspeakers out there currently and skip to the next section. :-)

The TAD-CR1 has been with me for one whole year now. I count myself a very happy and satisfied owner. After experiencing firsthand what they can do, they will stay with me for a long long time if not forever. You may think that after paying for something as costly as this, the owner will always say such a thing. Who would want to think that he has made a mistake, right? However, we know how us audiophiles could have the little devil in us giving us second thought, some time after the deal is done. We would get that niggling thought whether we had made the right choice, may be brand XXX or YYY would have been a better decision, may be I should have gone for the other model, may be….

I came across and listened to a number of great loudspeakers throughout the past year. Fortunately, that niggling thought never surfaced in me. I am not saying that the TAD-CR1 sounds better. No, every one of those great loudspeakers has its strengths. However, for me the TAD-CR1 comes across as a more balanced and complete package. The TAD-CR1 is worthy to be ranked as one of the best loudspeakers available today, regardless of size and price.

It may be futile for me to describe the character of the TAD-CR1. Probably I should just fall back to the statement made by Alan Sircom in his HiFi+ review of the TAD-CR1 – “This is actually one of the hardest loudspeakers to describe in sonic terms, because you end up thinking about things in terms of what other loudspeakers do wrong. When it comes to describing what this does right, it pretty much does all of it right”. (You can read the full review article here -> http://www.avdesigns.com.my/Reviews.html?cat_id=7, the second article down)

One thing that the TAD-CR1 does exceptionally right is its accuracy of timbre. Listening to vocals and piano through them was educational – I’d play some simple vocal recordings (such as Rickie Lee Jones’ ‘Pop Pop’ or the second 2V1G album) while having a few friends in my listening room. Striking up a conversation, it was uncanny for me how the timbre of the reproduced vocal sounded so similar to the live conversation. Solo piano music too was conveyed with the full harmonic richness of that instrument, it sounded similar in timbre compared to the live one my children played in the living room (just that the quality of playing on the recording was much better, but of course).

The TAD-CR1 is a transparent and honest instrument, it faithfully conveys what the other components in the system feed to them. They could sound lean / voluptuous, laid back / dynamic, aggressive / refined, exquisite / bold, boring / exciting , as I played around with equipment combination, cabling, tweaks, acoustic treatments, etc.. When I thought I caught some characteristics of the TAD-CR1, something came along, and the sonic character changed.

Usually, the loudspeaker is the bottleneck of a system, it is the most uneven and most coloured component. With the TAD-CR1, the reverse is true. I’ll honestly say that the TAD-CR1 outclassed every thing else in my current system. I have not explored the TAD-CR1’s full capability. From now onwards, my upgrade path will focus on allowing the TAD-CR1 to convey the following – An even bigger scale (they are already sounding as big as a pair of midsize floorstanders now), better control at loud passages, even greater resolution, greater soundscape density, more refinement, while retaining speed, impact and balance. I know the TAD-CR1 can do all these, because I have heard them doing these with different equipment that came through my place throughout the year.

The better the equipment you partner them with, the better the TAD-CR1 will sound. They are amazing. 

4. SVS PB12-NSD Powered Subwoofer. RM 3,499. Maxx Audio

Recommending the SVS PB12-NSD is a no brainer. At the asking price, you get a lot of subwoofer, in terms of material and of performance.

If you are looking for a subwoofer for your home theatre and have the required space to house one, the SVS PB12-NSD is a must-audition at this price point. This SVS is equally adept at conveying the rumbles and the subtleties.

A&L Audio Station Gets On With dCS!

The demo system comprised of a pair of Dali loud speakers, a pair of  VTL tube mono blocks and the dCS Vivaldi CD transport(from top shelf), DAC, Up Sampler and Master Clock. Pre amp is not required as the DAC outputs 6V max, capable of driving power amps direct. Cabling by Tara Labs.

We attended the dCS Vivaldi ultimate digital source launch party at the A&LAudio Station show room in Bangsar Village II Shopping Center over the weekend, and while at it, we also took the opportunity to do a dealer focus too. The show room, located on the 2nd floor, houses separate AV and hifi demo areas.

On hand to demo and pitch the RM$350k(OMG!) dCS Vivaldi system is non other than Raveen Bawa, who is Export Sales Manager for the company. The dCS Vivaldi is the ultimate digital source front end for luxury or super high end audio systems. Raveen was keen to state that while the 4 box Vivaldi is the new dCS flagship, it does not supersede the Scarlatti, which is also a 4 box digital system. Also on display is the dCS Pucinni, the entry level range of the company. A Debussy DAC for entry level computer audio is also featured. The point here is that entry level for dCS products here will still cost a whole lot more than a used car your money can buy!

Raveen Bawa explaining the finer key design points of  the patented RingDAC topology on the proprietary PCB board(one of the finest quality board I've seen on an audio equipment!) 

Besides enjoying the pristine sound quality of the dCS Vivaldi system, we walked around the showroom and took some pictures to share with you the A&L Audio Station show room.

Show casing the now flag ship cable brand of A&L Audio Station, Tara Labs.

Shelves of AV and hifi equipment of display, featuring brands like Pioneer, Marantz, Denon, Yamaha, PS Audio and Densen.

Speakers row, Dali and PSB on display.

Lifestyle hifi for the 'hip & happening' Bangsar crowd.

Geneva iPod docks finds it's spot in hifi retail.

Mr Lim, just one of the friendly faces at A&L Audio Station Bangsar Village. The other being Mr CT Seong, but he was camera shy, and we could find him with the cam in hand! 

The show room facade of the A&L Audio Station in Bangsar Village II Shopping Center.

As usual, I could not let Raveen leave without throwing him juicy 10Qs about dCS, the company, people and the products.

Stay tune for the 10Qs session to come soon.