Acoustic Arts@The Summit USJ.

Acoustic Arts shop front.

Acoustic Arts is located in No. F1.16, 1st Floor, Summit City, USJ. It's maned by the always friendly Lawrence. Their main brands are Creek electronics, BAT(Balance Audio Technology) tube amps, Epos speakers, Straightwire cables, Walker Audio turn table and accessories, plus Shakti tuning devices and accessories.

The star brand, BAT tube amps, shown here(from top) is the BAT VK-P10 phono stage, and the jewel of the range, the BAT Rex pre amp with power supply. This rack here represents a price tag passing the RM$100K mark! Lawrence, any chance for us to review the BAT Rex soon? He!He!

Walker Audio Velocitor MKII PLC, priced at RM$16K, it'll make an interesting comparison against my Torus Power. A few of my buddies got it in their system too.

The Straightwire loose cable rack, Acoustic Arts do stock the more exotic ranges too, all the way up to Level 4(a.k.a. Reference Level) if you're interested.

The showroom is tastefully decorated and divided in to 2 main areas. The main area is mostly demoing AV systems and accessories display only. There's another room dedicated to serious stereo stuff, and this is where our interest lies.
The main AV centric demo area, note the cables in the box? Those are the exotic level Straightwire cables I mentioned earlier.

The full Epos speaker range on demo.

The dedicated stereo demo room. Note the Revel speakers?

Epos Vs Revel?

Theta Digital Citadel Tower amps, these babies pushes out 400W. On the fore ground, BAT VK55i integrated amp.

Shakti tuning stone. To be placed on top of the equipment's transformer, or any where on the top panel that sounds best to you.

Full range of Creek Evolution and Destiny electronics on demo. The Creek/Epos partnership has excellent and well proven synergy, since the 80's.

Other than selling new hifi, Acoustic Arts also has a range of consignment pre-owned high end gears on offer.

If in The Summit USJ, do stop by at Acoustic Arts for a visit. However, I'd urge you to give Lawrence a call at 012-2125708 or 03-80235708 to avoid disappointment.

Hifi@The Summit USJ.

The Summit USJ. A new hifi heaven?

Yes, and I am not kidding! The Summit Shopping Complex located in the middle class suburb of USJ has quietly opened it's doors to not one, but two hifi outlets. First to set up shop is Acoustic Arts, which sells some very nice tube amps, speakers and cables.

Audio Impressions recently followed suit and they represent Swedish Statement range of brands plus a few other interesting cable brands.

I've also heard some speculation that a third player specialising in vinyl replay and LPs will be joining in the fun soon at The Summit USJ! That, can only be good news to us hifi kakis, always looking for a new place to hang out.

I am looking forward to feature them as our next two dealer focus articles, and lastly let us welcome them both in to the ever growing Hifi-Unlimited friendly dealers.

A Picture Frame Of My Linn LP12.

Here's what's left of my Linn LP12!

Stripped bare naked, ready for refurbishing and total restoration/rebuild project.

If you lived in London in the 80's and 90's, chances are you've bought hifi from Billy Vee Sound Systems! A bit of service history uncovered!

The fading QC tag. The more I strip, the more I learn about my Linn.

All masked and ready for the refinishing touches!

Where are the rest? Inside various parts bin, awaiting rebuilt with new parts, sourced from Linn, with a whole lot of help from my friends of course! That's what makes audio fun as a hobby, to be shared with friends and buddies.

Stay tuned for the full story to come.

Wilson's Dilemma?

The system's main source, a highly modified Linn LP12 with a Clearaudio Da Vince cartridge mounted to the Eminent Technologies ET2 tone arm.

The ET2 tone arm's air pump, filter and pressure control.

The system set up in an acoustically treated room built to nearly "Golden Ratio" proportions.

The main equipment rack. Top from left, DIYed solid state full balanced phono stage, Linn LP12. Bottom from left, ARC Ref 3, Naim CD5X.

The recently acquired ARC Ref 3 line stage.

Wilson Sophia speaker. Any idea why our friend is called Wilson?

The Ayre MX-R mono block pair being put thru it's places by Wilson, note his ol' skool Conrad Johnson Premier 1 power amp in the middle.

Another look at the Linn LP12.

The Naim CD5X for back ground music use only!

Wilson Wong is a hifi ol' timer. He's the type who has seen and heard most, if not all. He's also a great DIYer to boot. He generously helps me out in my DIY projects. He builds some of the most impressive DIY gears, and is especially proud of his own handiwork.

Many do not understand this man, and they always call him the Mercedes Benz driver using "celup"(re threaded) tyres, due to Wilson's combination of top class speaker and power amp(Wilson Sophia & Conrad Johnson) combo, but using his home built pre amp and phono stage. His main source, the Linn LP12 is highly modified too, attached with a linear tracking tone arm by Eminent Technologies ET2 with a Clearaudio Da Vinci cartridge mounted. His digital source is mainly for back ground music purposes and he sees no tangible benefits in further investing on a high end CD player, hence he had kept his trusty ol' Naim CD5X for the job.

Signal cables are all JPS Super Conductor series, except Nordost Blue Heaven is used for his CD player. Power cords are supplied by Cardas and PS Audio, with an Audioprism Quietline for power line conditioning duties. I guess lately, all those "celup" tyre jokes are starting to get on his nerves(or I think he has the intention to go the full balance, XLR system route perhaps?), and declared his intention to upgrade his system so it's made up of all top flight equipment list.

So what appeals to a man who has almost seen and heard all hifi has to offer? He had recently acquired a pre-owned Audio Research Reference 3 pre amp and was looking for a top dog phono stage to match. Wilson listens to mostly ol skool Jazz and orchestral plus chamber style Classical music.

Last week, he came to my place as I was joy riding the Ayre MX-R mono blocks in my system. In his usual brash style, he said that my system ain't doing the Ayre justice and I should bring them over to his place to really see what they can do.(Having know this guy pretty well, that means I liked what I heard, and would like to try this please?) I negotiated for him to guest write a review of the Ayre and he must let us know if he intends on purchasing it.(don't worry, this guy has plenty of $ and can certainly afford it!) Ha! Ha!

So I thought I show you readers about his system, tell you a little about his musical diet(in the context of his review to come) to see if you can help Wilson make up his mind, or even speculate if he'll end up buying the Ayre MX-R mono block pair. In the mean time, we wait for his review to come in a few days time.

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Added by Odiosleuth on 5/5/2010:
The following are the translation of PuchongWong's comments written in Chinese and edited version of his writeup on the Ayre MX-R, referring back too to his original Chinese version that he sent me :-) (hope I am successful still in keeping his colourful style! Have fun reading) :

PuchongWong said on May 3, 2010, 7:51PM:
"I am so moved, I am crying now. Our most famous audio reviewer in the whole Malaysia, my Big Guru, did so much for me so that I would leave the Diy clan, but I am a man of limited means, I am happy enough to listen to equipment at such lofty level even if only for a while. Thank you, Big Guru."

PuchongWong said on May 3, 2010, 10:49PM:
"One day a master knew that I tested the Ayre Power Amp MXR. So he asked me how's it.

I couldn't wait to tell him that when I was listening to Track 11 of Patricia Barber's "Cafe Blue", when the vocal came on, I went "wow.......".The voice was so magnetic that it drew you in, piano was lively, the high hats and cymbals sounded free and extended, not too sharp to the ears, the bass drum was firm with excellent definition, cello had great tonality and was rendered clearly, violin sounded silky and its tone was glamorous. Tonality 9.9, Sound quality 9.9, Dynamics 9.8, Value for Money 9....

Before I managed to finish what I wanted to say, that master asked " Wouldn't it then be the best piece of equipment in the world?? How can it be that it does not have any weak points?? How much hifi equipment have you heard before??" I didn't dare to answer him. I thought silently, maybe it's true that I have not heard enough, and that those who liked Krell might not like Ayre and vice versa.

One day I dreamt that Ayre's boss said, "Now that I'm rich, I want to clear my MXR stock...." Wow! I was so happy! Suddenly, I heard a sharp voice calling, "Wake up! What's the time now?! Don't you need to go to work?! Don't you need to eat?!" Damn.... it was only a dream.... Do you hear my wish, Mr. Charles Hansen??

The One You Can Stay With - Usher P-307A Pre-amplifier

During the 2 weeks or so the Usher P-307A Preamplifier was in my system, I had no great desire to take it out and return to my resident pre-amp.

The Usher P-30A is a 2-piece pre-amp: the main chassis is metal, relatively light, containing all the knobs, circuitry, and connectors; the other box is the power supply, smaller but heavier than the main chassis, your power cord goes in there and an umbilical xlr-style cord connects to the main chassis. Both boxes are well made and classy looking. What I could not understand was the design difference between the two, the main unit was all metal, while the power supply unit had wooden side-cheeks, the two looked a little incongruous together.

The P-307A is an entirely single-ended units, it has 8 inputs, 2 pre-amp outputs and 2 record/monitor loops. It is also a manual unit, i.e., no remote control (rather inconvenient for my listening habit as my CDs have different recording levels) . List price is Rm8,050.

Since the P-307A is single ended, I could not use my normal interconnects. I reverted to 2 pairs of RCA cables from my old cable 'collection'. A pair of Wireworld Eclipse II went from the CD player to the pre-amp and a pair of Wireworld Polaris III went from the pre-amp to the monoblocks. I believe the Wireworld influenced the sound quality I observed, though the relationship was quite positive at the end of the day.

Was it due to the lack of remote control facility? The Usher P-307A turned to be a totally quiet pre-amp. The Usher's volume knob was labelled with negative numbers (in dB, I believe), going up to zero and then to +10. For the first time using it, I wanted to turn the volume down before starting to play. I must be half sleeping that day, looking at the numbers I thought I was turning it down and found it is a little strange that the knob went clockwise. I was of course turning the volume up mistakenly. In the whole process, I did not hear the slight hiss from my speaker tweeters going up a bit, which would have clued me onto my mistake. The music was ear-shattering! I repeated the process again later without music playing and, yeap, the line stage was indeed quiet.

The P-307A aimed at musical enjoyment. With it in the system, I listened to music as long as ever before, I did not get bored nor did I get listening fatigue. The Usher was pretty much fit and forget. The midrange was especially beautiful, it had a certain liquidity, like the quality from valve gears that many described, which made listening to vocal music particularly rewarding. The highs were sweet, not particularly extended, but what was to be there was there, there was no brightness or darkness. The bottom, probably under the influence of the Wireworlds, was tuneful and well defined, a performance tended to being civilized rather than very impactful.

Taken together, the Usher excelled at male vocal, such as Lee Leesack (which Big E wrote about just a while ago) and female vocal such as Ella Fitzgerald and Stacey Kent. Classical was done well too with excellent delicacy and flow. On Jazz music, the emphasis was more on the texture of the sound rather than emphasizing on the rhythm of the music.

This Usher pre-amp is a comfortable and soothing way to listen to music.

Like I said earlier....

I had no great desire to take it out from my system.

Usher is carried by CMY Audio & Visual, contact John, tel: 03-21439206