10 Qs For David Williamson, Senior Product Design Engineer, Linn Products Limited.

As usual, I'll give my 10 Qs to any visiting hifi industry guest, David gets his turn, so we may get to know more about him and get up to date with the latest Linn news, as we sip over a cup of coffee. Here goes:

David Williamson, tasked with improving the Linn Sondek LP12 in the last few years.

Big E: David, welcome to Malaysia, from your presentation, you don't quite sound like Scottish of origin, but yet have some of the accents of a Scotsman?

DW: Well, that's because I am technically English, but have some Scots, Welsh and Irish mixed in to the family blood lines! Ha! Ha! However, if one lives in Scotland long enough, it's easy to pick up a bit of local accent without realising it.

Big E: That's true, but back to some Linn news up date. I hear that Linn has down sized and lay off some staff in the past few years, what happened?

DW: All that happened just before the current financial crisis, which started in 2008. Linn as a company got a little over stretched as it grew rapidly over the years and a series of unfortunate incidents happened over a very short period of time. It was a painful decision that Gilad Tiefenbrun and the management took to shut down a few of the non core divisions, which resulted in some staff lay offs. However in hind sight now, it was probably a good thing too, because by taking the painful measures to down size the company, we managed to re-focus in to our core business, and in the process became a leaner and stronger company, ready to face the challenges of the financial crisis in 2008.

Big E: So, what's Linn's staff count like now?

DW: We employ 190 staff or so covering all our businesses and divisions.

Big E: Wow! That means Linn is still a very big company in the hi-end hifi industry. What about your department, which is design?

DW: We have nearly 40 engineers working in various areas of product design. I am in the mechanical design area, which is where the Linn turn tables and speakers comes to mind. I also work on most of the product's metal casing and chassis design. We also have a section of designers dedicated to digital products, a sub group of GUI(Graphic User Interface) engineers, where they dabble in software development that forms the basis of user interface experience. We also have power supply design, and electronics design departments. Then there's production, logistics, marketing and sales departments. We try to keep everything in house, and local where possible. That's what make a Linn product exceptional, in quality.

Big E: What about speaker cabinets, do you make them in house too?

DW: We do everything, including designing and building most of the speaker drivers in house. However, the speaker cabinet is the only thing that's not made in house, they're made in Denmark, but once the cabinets come in to the factory, all the final assembly and QC is done in house.

Big E: With so many departments and divisions within Linn, who calls the shots when it came to the final product design approval?

DW: Most of the time, we'd come to a decision by consensus within all the departments/divisions involved. The final version of the product would then be presented to either Gilad or Ivor, just to get their feedback and perhaps final input, prior to signing off for production.

The latest fully version decked version of a Linn Sondek LP12, with the new smooth design, plinth, which is technically more rigid. The Linn Sondek LP12 has been in production since 1972, would there be a 40th Anniversary version next year???

Big E: We now come to the Linn Sondek LP12. With the world wide vinyl resurgence lately, what are the sales figures like? And where are the biggest markets for Linn turn tables?

DW: When I joined Linn 11 years ago, we were like building 5 units of Linn LP12s a month. Today, we're building them at a rate of 5 or 6 units a week. Our biggest market for the Linn LP12 turn tables are Japan and China! Last month, we shipped a batch of 40 units of LP12s to China.

Big E: There seems to be a preference for the old style ribbed plinth in the previous LP12 turn table. What's your take on that?

DW: Engineering wise, the new style smooth plinth is more rigid than the previous version, due to the extra thick corner bracing comparatively. However, on the aesthetic front, I can understand why some might prefer the old style ribbed design. It's called nostalgia! We get request from the Japanese market for the old style ribbed design all the time, and they call it the Linn Sondek LP12J(or something like that), which is really popular with the collector's market there.

My old style Linn Sondek LP12, which dates back to 1984, recently refurbished to original specs. The older stlye ribbed designed wooden plinth is a favorite amongst Japanese collectors.

Big E: It's been nearly 40 years since the first Linn Sondek LP12 is produced, when is the Linn Sondek ever going to be completed, up grades wise?

DW: As I said to Lam(Seng Fatt, of Hifi Avenue) earlier, the Linn Sondek LP12 will continue to evolve, as newer materials become available and new way of doing things become possible. This is due to the Linn Sondek's modular design, that makes it so flexible, and up grade able. Look at the latest Ekos SE tone arm, which the tube is made of titanium, an exotic metal which was not available for industrial use until recent times. Another example is the Keel sub chassis/arm board integrated design up grade, which was something Ivor wanted to do when he did the Cirkus bearing kit back in the late 1980's. It was only thru the availability of CAD/CAM(Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) design and production systems in the last few years which made the Keel up grade possible. Some times, analog also benefited from the advancement of digital products, such as the Radikal DC motor/ power supply up grade. We had learnt about a new quartz clock which is so accurate, that we decide to try it on the turn table DC motor/power supply design, which we could hear immense sonic benefits, due to lowered noise floor, and a more stable speed rotation of the platter. So the Linn Sondek may never stop evolving, after all!

Big E: You're an engineer by profession, are you a music lover too?

DW: Yes, when I am working I look at things from an engineering perspective, but when I am home, I put down my engineer cap and just enjoy my music.

Big E: Are you a digital or analog music guy?

DW: I have some CDs which I used to play on my Linn Ikemi CD player. But ever since I've started working on the LP12 a few years ago, you can say that I've gone mad, as I've amassed a collection of nearly 2500 LPs in a very short period of time. My CD player came so neglected, that I did not missed it when my brother took it for a long term loan. And yes, if you have ask, I'll tell you that I have an all Linn system! They are mostly bought from the pre-owned market, due to the fact that I have a family to take care of.

Big E: What's your take on the latest Linn Klimax DS streamer, coming from an analog guy?

DW: I think the Linn Klimax DS streamer with Linn Studio Masters recordings sounds very much closer to analog playback, compared to a CD player. Despite being accused of killing off the CD player prematurely, I think Gilad did the right thing. Gilad was instrumental in the design of the Linn Klimax DS streamer, and also the Linn Studio Masters hi-rez music catalog.

A Pusaka To Remember! Official Launch Of The Pusaka CD, By Pop Pop Music.

The official launch Pusaka CD last night was a formal black tie affair, held at the newly refurbished Bentley Auditorim, at Wisma Bentley Music. Pak Lah, our gentlemanly fifth prime minister of Malaysia did the honours, and for someone as distinguished as he is, I was actually surprised by his punctuality. No Malaysian timing here!

Leslie(a.k.a. ML to all his hifi buddies), CEO of Pop Pop Music, invited me for the extra ordinary evening of glamour and glitter. If a picture says a thousand words, I thought I'd save my self some typing work! Here's my pictorial of the evening:

The object of the night's celebrations!

The cocktail session. Captains of the Malaysian hifi retail industry are clearly out to show support for Pusaka!

The Pop Pop Man is also very much a ladies man too! Fellow Pop Pop artist Z Yan and Winnie Ho came to add glitter to the night.

The Bentley Auditorium is acoustically treated and has nice ambiance to it. All of us were ushered in to the auditorium at exactly 6pm.

Celebrity MC Mahadzir Lokman has a narrative part in the Pusaka recording, he was also the MC for the night. Tha man can really sing too!

The Pop Pop Man working the crowd, and he confessed that the Pusaka project nearly drove Pop Pop Music and him to the brink of bankruptcy, so he would certainly need your help to buy a few more Pusaka CDs from him. Pak Lah promised to buy 20 copies right away!

Pak Lah congratulating Leslie and the Solianos family a job well done.

One for the album, Pak Lah and three generations of the Solianos in one frame.

The "live" concert begins!

Isabella, Irene & Tricia forming the female harmony.

Conrado Soliano playing horn.

Salvado Guerzo on sax.

Rizal Soliano on drums.

Standing ovation for the performance and a moment of respect for the late Alfonso Soliano, for whom the Pusaka CD is dedicated to.

Pak Lah and his missus, Jeanne endorses the Pusaka CD.

The autograph signing session, the Pusaka CDs were moving like hot cakes after the show!

If you've missed the show, then do your self a favour, and get the Pusaka CD, it's great music performed by superb musicians, that's a guarantee.

10 Qs For Peter Thomas, PMC Loudspeaker Owner/Designer.

Peter Thomas was here recently to present AV Designs an Award Of Excellence for their new flagship AV showroom, featuring the PMC MB2-XBD active speaker system. Since I already spoken to Andy many times already, I'd focus on Peter now, when I had the chance to pick Peter's thoughts on speaker design philosophy, hifi and music in general. As promised, here's my 10 Qs! Pete Thomas is very focused, when it came to his forte topic, loudspeaker design.

Big E: Peter, welcome to Malaysia! Your first time here, I presumed?

PT: Yes, it's my first time here and my god, what a beautiful country to be in! It's so..... green here, compared to the mucky grey we get in the UK.

Big E: You're the last of the surviving member of the BBC speaker design division?

PT: I am not sure if I am the surviving member of that club, but certainly the only one still actively managing my business. There are other speaker brands that continue the BBC speaker design philosophy, like Spendor or Harbeth naturally comes to mind.

Big E: What are your thoughts exactly on the famous lower mid range(100Hz) bump on the LS3/5a, as an ex-BBC guy and as a loudspeaker designer today?

PT: I think Dudley Harwood(who later went on to start up Harbeth) is a genius in the way he maximise the design of the LS3/5a model, given the technical limitations of the time. He had used the "famous" bump in frequency response to give the impression of more bass quality than the actual speaker is capable of physically. I think it made the speaker more enduring to the music lovers.

Big E: Are you an analog or digital music guy?

PT: I am mostly analog, given the material of my musical preference are mostly available on that medium. Having said that, I think digital can sound very good too, if the people in the recording studio did all the right things, and there are just as many bad sounding records too, due to the poor quality pressing process control.

Big E: As we enter the era of hi-rez downloads format in digital music, do you think the latest format places more stress on hifi equipment, speakers in particular?

PT: I don't think so. Given that 16/44.1kHz already achieves a very good standard of specification based purely on audio parameters, 24/96 or 24 192kHz merely allows more sampling rates over the same frequency bandwidth. On top of that, almost all new commercial recordings today are done in digital at 24/192kHz or higher. This allows the recording and mastering engineers room to "dumb down" the recordings, as a safe guard, so that our domestic hifi equipment doesn't break during replay. All commercial recordings available today are "dumb down", even the so called hi-rez format.

Big E: But still, hi-rez does sound a lot better than CD, right?

PT: I agree, Hi-rez gives so much more density, depth, and acoustic space to the musical content. These are things that our measurements doesn't tell us. So we must listen with our ears, and not only rely on measurements. I had asked Pete which is his favourite PMC loudspeaker design? And he kept us guessing!

Big E: Now we come to the exciting part, which is speaker design, your area of expertise! Tell me why doesn't PMC use exotic materials, or "audiophile boutique" parts in it's speakers, even the high end models?

PT: That's a good question, but to me the best approach to speaker design success is synergy. I feel that expensive materials alone does not guarantee good sound! I know many hi-end designs today uses aluminium or carbon treated boxes and "audiophile boutique" parts to enhance showroom appeal. I personally prefer to put the money in the parts that really matter, and that's the drivers. I can tell you that industrial grade passive components like resistors and capacitors have tolerances of less than 10%. Speaker boxes made from exotic materials can contribute to the final sound, but at what cost? And did you know that even the best speaker drivers available today can still distort by as much as 30% or more, when pushed beyond their designed operating limits? I believe there's still a lot of work to be done in this area, which is most important. Speaker design is as much acoustic science as it is art, and it's up to the individual designer to set his priorities. Mine is design synergy, where every single part is made to work as one, so that the results in sound that is greater than the sum of it's parts, now that for me, is a successful design.

Big E: What about the hi-end market's preference for 1st order/6db passive x-over designs?

PT: I think that 1st order/6db passive x-over design superiority is a myth, very much mis understood by the hi-end market. The reason everyone else does 1st order passive x-over designs is because it's easy and cost less to implement. I personally feel that 1st order passive x-over design places too much stress on driver's operating beyond their comfort zone, resulting in more distortion from the over driven drivers. I personally prefer 4th order, or 24db passive x-over networks, because they keep the drivers operating within their comfort zone, resulting in less distortion, less distortion also means more music. However, the mathematics involved for 24db x-overs are much more complicated and much more challenging to implement successfully. In the end, I suppose both gradual or steep x-over network designs have their pros and cons, and it's up to the speaker designer to work around the drivers integration with which ever order of passive network he feels suits the purpose.

Big E: The latest PMC Fact series loudspeakers sounds rather different from the classic i series, why is it so?

PT: That was intentional! I wanted to Fact series to sound closer to what you'd get with these babies(pointing towards the MB2-XBD active speaker system). I voiced the Fact to sound like the PMC active speaker designs, but with the traditional passive x-over network. The result is a speaker with wider bandwidth, dynamic range, and superior resolution with a slightly forward mid range, to give an illusion of better sound staging and imaging properties.

Big E: How did you come up with the speaker product names like BB5, OB1 or TB2? It's like an alphabet hot soup!

PT: Now, you saw in my presentation earlier, showing me carrying the BB1 out of my garage for testing. So how we started BB1 was actually a joke, between my and my partner then Adrian(who is no longer with us). You can see the big box, right? That's how it all started, BB1 means Big Box 1, MB2 means Medium Box 2, TB2 means Tiny Box 2, LB1 means Little Box 1, and OB1 means Other Box 1(nothing to do with Star Wars as Dick Tan had originally taught).

But that's the official, sanitised version of the story. All of us present that day were made to sworn secrecy over the real story, so we are not allowed to share, sorry. Ha! Ha!

After the Q&A session, we moved to the "Happy Meal" session covered by Odiosleuth earlier, accompanied by more impolite and secret jokes, that only those present that night can cherish in memory.

Mark Your Calenders For KLIAV 2011.

Time certainly flies when one is having fun. Last week, I got a call from Dick Tan(Organising Chairman of KLIAV) to inform me of the coming KLIAV 2011 show. As usual, J.W. Marriot Hotel will host the event.

Please mark your calenders for the following dates show times/dates:
11.00am - 7.30pm, Friday, 29 July 2011.
10.00am - 7.30pm, Saturday, 30 July 2011.
10.00am - 7.30pm, Sunday, 31 July 2011.

We've been told that this year's show is bigger due to increased floor space and more participating exhibitors. More show babes too, Dick? Ha! Ha!

There will also be great hifi deals for bargain hunters too.

See ya all at KLIAV 2011!

A Tour-De-Force Pusaka

We (a couple of us with a few hifi dealers) just came back from a listening session at ML's house on his latest audiophile project: The Solianos "Pusaka"- remembering Alfonso Soliano.

One word sums up our feelings: Sensational.

Firstly, we would like to let you know that this recording is done at KL's most expensive studio in TTDI, The Ark Studios. It is the same studio used by Jacky Cheung and George Lam in their respective audiophile albums recently. You could detect the same tonal color and airiness, that is the hallmark of this famous studio, except that Pusaka's recording is way better than either Jacky's or George's. We seriously think that is because of ML's expertise here and no other reasons.

Secondly, this is most likely the first Malay audiophile album in the world and the first of its genre in Malaysia that is being mastered by Doug Sax, ML's favourite mastering guru from The Mastering Lab. Doug Sax also mastered JZ8, another best-selling album from Pop Pop Music.

What's can we say but to congratulate ML once again for the fantastic sound! The same Doug Sax's signature sound is evident in Pusaka too. It is very thick in the mids, very airy and analogue sounding, very musical and the best thing is, it yearns to be played loud and louder! The louder you play, the more sensational the sound gets, without a trace of breaking up or edginess or harshness. We notice the same trend in JZ8 recording too.

Doug sax is way better than Bernie Grundman in the areas of density (Cantonese is "Mutt Dou"), midrange seductiveness and sheer musicality. His mastering may not have the dynamism of Bernie but its winning edge is the musicality, which makes Pusaka such a gem to behold.

Musically, this is the most ambitious and most outrageous from ML's production to-date. It is not just jazz per se, it is Latin, Samba, Cuban, Bossa Nova, Swing... a testament to Arranger/Music Director and maestro Salvador Guerzo's superior musicianship. Salvador is the son-in-law of Alfonso Soliano, the daddy of the Soliano family and Jazz Giant to whom this album is dedicated to.

Salvador's arrangement is fascinating and a work of pure genius. He is probably the best arranger in this genre in Malaysia. He incorporates plenty of dramas and breath-taking attacks in his arrangement, making every song sounds like a roller-coaster of high-drama and excitement. Really, we haven't heard Freedom's "Mulanya Disini" (a pop hit in the 80s by Freedom led by the late Dato Seha) or Bob Tutupoly's "Widuri" (An Indonesian classic ballad ) being played like this! The Solianos totally turn the table upside down with Ador's amazing arrangement, leaving everyone of us breathless and totally in awe.

We haven't even mentioned the wonderful multi-part harmonies of the Solianos, which is another winning aspect of this album. Imagine you can pin-point 7 voices singing in different notes in the soundstage, how could you beat that? The 3 females vocalists, Isabella, Irene and Tricia are wonderfully soulful and yet having their own distinctive tonal signature. We love their voices to bits.

We wouldn't go on and spoil your pleasure in discovering this album. Suffice to say, this is an instant classic the way it should be.

Pop Pop Music has hit the bulls-eye again for the 2nd time, we are damn sure. This wave is gonna be bigger than 2V1G.

In fact, one of the dealers said this to ML at the end of the listening session: "The album's repertoire, arrangements and musical presentation are extraordinary impressive!".

It is about time we have a timeless audiophile classic by a Malaysian music label.