CR-1
Compact Reference
To render the stunning effects of a 3D projection system, you need a new generation of screens to match. 3D rely on shutter glasses to render the 3D effect but in doing so, the shutter glasses led to a light fall off between one to two stops. To make up for the loss of light, you need OS Ultra Beads Premium White (BU-201) or Ultra Beads Premium Gray (BU-202) screens. These new Ultra Beads (patented by OS) screens uses extra fine 20Âľ glass beads embedded on the fabric and sealed with a urethane coating to compensate for the light fall off. As a result, these new screens offer industry leading active 3D polarization while maintaining outstanding performance for 2D sources. The Ultra Beads Premium White (BU-201) renders bright and brilliant colours with accuracy. The Ultra Beads Premium Gray (BU-202) takes black levels to a new high with excellent contrast levels. The new Ultra Beads Premium screens are the best choice for both 2D as well as 3D projectors.
WO KEE HONG DISTRIBUTION PTE LTD
1 Jalan Kilang Timor #08-03 Pacific Tech Centre Singapore 159303 Tel: (+65) 6637 9888 sales@wokeehong.com.sg www.wokeehong.com.sg
Handcrafted High End Audio Components
The Legendary Name in High-End Tube Electronics returns www.hifi.com.sg
Avantgarde Audio 1 Coleman Street #03-35 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 T: 65-6334-7639 F: 65-6334-4108 E: info@hifi.com.sg
Von Schweikert Audio
Authorised distributor for Singapore and Malaysia
Blk 925 Yishun Central 1 #02-229 Singapore 760925 Tel: +65 6756 5585 www.audioline-hifi.com
KR Audio Electronics hails from Prague, in the Czech Republic offers a line of hand-crafted, high quality tubes (all glass is hand blown by Czech artisans) and audio equipment. KR Audio started as a tube manufacturer, first with the historic Marconi valve reproduction and then tubes for audio as an OEM up-grade option in hi-end audio amplifiers in 1994. Our company began the research to make improved triodes in 1992 and The success we found with our products is a direct result of the comparison between the hand-made KR tube and the mass produced tube made on 60+ year old tube machinery. Given the unique technology developed, KR is able to satisfy the demand for superior 2 channel stereo amplifiers. A KR amplifier in the existing sound system or the application of a KR tube gives the listener increased dynamics, greater detail from the recording, be it vinyl or CD, and an almost tangible imaging.
Kronzilla SXI Mk 2 integrated amplifier
VA340 Mk 2 integrated amplifier
KR continues to manufacture tubes and is the inventor of the Kronzilla, the KR T-1610 tube (left picture) the largest and most powerful audio tube ever made!
Also available as a monobloc power amplifier
P150 preamp
VA350 integrated amplifier
Authorised distributor for Singapore and Malaysia
Blk 925 Yishun Central 1 #02-229 Singapore 760925 Tel: +65 6756 5585 www.audioline-hifi.com
Lansche No 5
New! Lansche No 7
Lansche Corona Tweeter
The Corona ‘plasma’ tweeter is the heart of every Lansche loudspeaker. The plasma tweeter is massless with no membrane hence no coluration. Used in the range from 1.5 kHz to 150 kHz. the plasma tweeter have no equal, it moves nothing but air. The plasma tweeter uses a high voltage to ionize air according to the modulation of the signal. The sound is generated in the small ionized airspace and expands out from within the plasm generating chamber of the tweeter. Hear the Lansche loudspeakers today and experience the most accurate and responsive sound quality in any loudspeaker. Accustic Arts - AET - Acoustic Revive - Acrolink - Audio Replas - B.M.C. - Burson - Copulare - Cryo Audio Technology - CSE Japan - Fiio - KingRex Kojo Seiko - Kryna - Lansche Audio - Nanotec System - Madison Audio Lab - Mimetism - Millennium - MSB Technology - Musica - Octave Oyaide - Parasound - Phase Tech - Phiaton - SAEC - TAOC - Usher Audio - Vivid Audio - Zonotone
X Audio Pte Ltd 1 Jalan Anak Bukit #01-01S Bukit Timah Plaza Singapore 588996 Tel: +65-6466 2642 Fax: +65- 6466 2652 www.xaudio.com.sg
B.M.C. Belt Drive CD/CD transport B.M.C. Phono stage B.M.C. DAC
B.M.C. - Balanced Music Concept Technology is constantly developing. You have hardly left the shop before your piece of equipment is outdated. It is no different when speaking of High End equipment. What is today still state of the art can be totally antiquated tomorrow.
B.M.C. C1 Integrated Amplifier
The BMC components are based on a completely different concept – that of modular construction. Each of our pieces of equipment are individually assembled. BMC components have the advantages of the most modern of digital technology – coupled with a sound pattern which is totally free of regulatory interference.
B.M.C. S1 Stereo Power Amplifier
Excellent sound results do not have to be up in the highest price range. You will be surprised how BMC components measures up against the best you can name, very often against products many times more expensive than BMC.
B.M.C. M1 Mono Power Amplifier Accustic Arts - AET - Acoustic Revive - Acrolink - Audio Replas - B.M.C. - Burson - Copulare - Cryo Audio Technology - CSE Japan - Fiio - KingRex Kojo Seiko - Kryna - Lansche Audio - Nanotec System - Madison Audio Lab - Mimetism - Millennium - MSB Technology - Musica - Octave Oyaide - Parasound - Phase Tech - Phiaton - SAEC - TAOC - Usher Audio - Vivid Audio - Zonotone
X Audio Pte Ltd 1 Jalan Anak Bukit #01-01S Bukit Timah Plaza Singapore 588996 Tel: +65-6466 2642 Fax: +65- 6466 2652 www.xaudio.com.sg
Within the clean classic lines of the ProAc K6 lies the heart of every ProAc loudspeaker the marriage of Technology and Emotion creating the state of the art loudspeaker with carbon fiber woofers and ribbon tweeters Experience the signature ProAc flagship loudspeakers today...
AURAL DESIGNS ... purveyors of fine music
Almarro . ARS-Sonum . Audio Note Kits . Auditorium23 . MR . New Audio Frontiers . ProAc . Tektron . Vimak . WLM
1 Coleman Street #03-11 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 Tel: +65 6339 0134 www.aural-designs.com
Affordable Audio Components Made in Japan Allnic - Atma Sphere - Audiodesksysteme - Jade Audio Isoduo - Karan Acoustics - Kuzma - Marantz - NBS - ProAc - Soul Note - Walker Audio
Jay Audio
161 Lavender Street #01-10 Lavender Place Singapore 338750 Tel: (65) 6292 2773 www.jay-audio.com
The next generation of Sonus faber is here...
Authorised distributor for Singapore and Malaysia
High End Research
317 Outram Road #01-46/47 Singapore 169075 T: +65 6735 1718 www.highendresearch.com
Meitner MA-1 USB DAC The Meitner Audio MA-1 uses custom discrete 128fs-DSD balanced DACs. The DAC features custom DSP & jitter management, DC coupled discrete Class A balanced output circuitry, and a high isolation synchronous switching power supply. The frequency of this switching power supply is locked to the audio clock, one of Meitner's design elements that improves performance. The digital inputs of MA-1 samples the inputs at a very high speed and then decodes the data with an algorithm. The MA-1 achieves picosecond jitter using a single sub-picosecond nanotechnology-based master clock that switches between the 44.1 kHz (44.1, 88.2, 176.4) and 48 kHz (48, 96, 192) time bases. The two frequencies are never active at the same time, further reducing jitter.
Some pertinent acronyms discussed in the user Manual include MFAST and MDAT. According to Meitner Audio MFAST is an asynchronous technology that stands for Meitner Frequency Acquisition System. MFAST acquires the digital signal from any input and buffers it to reduce jitter. This asynchronously decouples the input from output. MDAT is the Meitner Digital Audio Translator. This allows for up-sampling the audio to 5.6 MHz / 128fs, double the SACD DSD rate of 2.8 MHz / 64fs...
To cut a long story short - this is the finest USB DAC you can buy!
The MA-1 supports sampling rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192kHz at word lengths up to 24 bits through all 6 digital inputs (AES/EBU, 2 x S/PDIF RCA (electrical), 2 x TosLink (optical), and asynchronous USB. The USB input uses an XMOS 500 MHz receiving chip. The MA-1 complies with the USB Class 2 audio standard.
Authorised distributor for Singapore and Malaysia
High End Research
317 Outram Road #01-46/47 Singapore 169075 T: +65 6735 1718 www.highendresearch.com
www.belcantodesign.com
new
Source Components
CD3t | CD2 | FM1 Tuner
Processors
DAC1.5 | DAC2.5 | DAC3.5VB
Preamplifiers
PRE3VB | PHONO3VB
Power Supplies
LNS1 | VBS1
Power Amplifiers
S125 | REF150S | REF500S | REF500M | REF1000M
Integrated Amplifiers
C5i
Accessories
USB Link 24/96 | USB Light Link 24/96
Proudly distributed in Singapore and Malaysia
Sound Decisions Pte Ltd 1 Coleman Street #04-49/62 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 T: 65-6733-8227 F: 65-6733 8229 www.sounddecisions.com.sg
Official Malaysian Dealer
Flagship AV Experience
FF-03, 1st Floor, The Waterfront@Parkcity 5, Persiaran Residen Desa Park City 52200 Kuala Lumpur T: +603-6280 7966 F: +603-6280 7166 www.flagship-av.com.my
Residing in some of the finest Home Cinemas is the world leader in planar loudspeaker technology - BG Radia’s In-Wall loudspeakers. BG Radia line source loudspeakers delivers outstanding accuracy and output levels to satisfy the most discerning of Home Cinema enthusiasts. All in a slim in-wall package that will blow your senses but never invade your living space.
BG Radia’s Wideband Planar Transducer
www.bgcorp.com CC-400 Center Channel
Sound Decisions Pte Ltd
1 Coleman Street #04-49/62 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 T: 65-6733-8227 F: 65-6733 8229 www.sounddecisions.com.sg
BGX-512B In-wall Subwoofer
LA-800 In-wall Line Array
LA-600 In-wall Line Array
LA-550 In-wall Line Array
W
hat everyone was talking about for the last one month is the passing of Steve Jobs. Somehow, he seems to have touched
someone’s life at some point. How does Mr Jobs touch the lives of audiophiles and music lovers?
Creative Editor Terence Wong
terence@mod-avi.com
Sales n Marketing
For a start, it is almost certain he made the idea of a music server near universal – Apple iTunes as the principal driver at the helm. Then there is the likes of Apple’s AirPlay for wireless transmission of music files from the computer to
Singapore
your hifi components. A headless Mac Mini used for system
Wong Ng Lai Leng
front ends as exemplified by reader Tarik’s wonderful setup.
laileng@mod-avi.com
Malaysia
Who knows what tomorrow brings if Mr Jobs is still around? Will there be a dedicated Apple Music Server (not just a suped up iPOD)? There is talk of a pending Apple TV
Simon Chang
display with enhanced iTunes store feature.
MOD AudioVideo is published by
What will really be interesting is, should there be more
simon@mod-avi.com
MODAVI Private Limited 10 Anson Road International Plaza Unit 21-02 S 079903
MICA (P) 169/07/2011 The title MOD AudioVideo, its associated logo or devices and contents of this magazine is the sole property of Modavi Private Limited. Reproduction of either in whole or a part of, is strictly prohibited. Modavi Private Limited is not responsible for any ommissions, errors, unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or other materials. We reserve the right to edit all relevant materials. Modavi retain ownership of all materials received published or otherwise.
audio and video media related devices coming out from Apple, all the more so with prices the average guy in the street can afford. Of all the audio companies, it would be a company like Apple to create all the buzz. Not even the likes of Bose can even come close. The year-end period is also the show time for High End buffs – the 2011 Sound and Sight exhibition. If you were reading this in print you would have probably picked up the copy at the show. The show this year will again showcase some of the more exciting products released this year. I look forward to shows every year, I look forward to distributors coming up with creative ways to showcase and sell audio and video products. Without which, hifi would be no different from that commodities in a supermarket.
In pursuit of the finest audio playback system...
47 Lab . Audio Note UK . Air Tight . AMR . Art Audio . Audience . Audium . Avantgarde Acoustic . Blacknote . Boston Audio Design . Constellation Audio Dr Feickert Analogue . Duevel . Durand . Enacom . fo.Q . Golden Note . Grand Prix Audio . Harmonic Resolution Systems . Harmonix . Helius . Leben Lehmann Audio . MIC-sound Acoustics Control . Miyajima Lab . Nitty Gritty . Nottingham Analogue . Ortofon . Reed tonearms . Reiymyo . Rives Audio Shunyata Research . Solid Tech . Sophia Electric . SSC . Stillpoints . Sutherland . Thales . Transfiguration . Triode . Triplanar . TW Acustic . Zerodust
Audio Note Singapore Pte Ltd
1 Coleman Street #03-35 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 T: 65-6334-7639 F: 65-6334-4108 E: info@hifi.com.sg
TAD, well known for their studio
TAD CR-1
Coherent Source Transducer redefines the point source loudspeaker
and professional series loudspeakers, developed the CST or Coherent Source Transducer, an advanced coaxial point source loudspeaker. It was first used in the R1 and now the smaller CR-1 compact reference loudspeaker, designed for controlled dispersion and wide frequency bandwidth. By integrating the tweeter and the midrange together in a coaxial design allows the merging of the tweeter and midrange acoustic centers. Both the tweeter and the midrange unit use beryllium coating thereby ensuring the acoustical and dynamic properties of the material are consistent. The tweeter design enabled the high frequency extension to 100 kHz. This enables the wide frequency range from 250 Hz to 100 kHz to have a consistent dispersion characteristic resulting in a stable and coherent soundstage. To enhance the low frequencies, the CR-1 augments the CST with an 8-inch woofer. This woofer designed for long excursion features a short coil with a long gap design to maintain the linearity the magnetic flux density along the gap ensures consistent accurate waveform reproduction. The tri-laminate composite cone and corrugated surround further contribute to the driver’s linear response.
The point source CST drive unit expanded
TAD recognizes the contribution of the cabinet and crossover to the speaker’s performance – the SILENT (Structurally Inert Laminated Enclosure Technology) cabinet design with 21mm birch ply clad with hot press MDF. The 27mm aluminum base lowers the center of gravity and adds stability to the speaker. The crossover design uses separate tweeter, midrange and bass crossover networks to minimize electrical interactions. With the flowing teardrop shaped enclosure minimizing y.internal resonance and a beautiful piano-like finish of natural Pommele Sapele wood, the cabinet of the CR-1 imparts an air of elegant craftsmanship to the finished loudspeaker.
Discrete crossover for the tweeter and midrange
The 8-inch woofer’s tri-laminate composite cone and corrugated surround
MOD AV 19
Last year, TAD announced a complete high performance system comprising an SACD player, a preamplifier and three power amplifiers - a monobloc, a two-channel stereo and a four-channel amplifier. Each of these models is built to the highest standards demanded by the high-end audiophile and studio professionals for monitoring their production. TAD D600 SACD player The design priority of the D600 CD/SACD player centers on a new Ultra-high-Precision Crystal Generator master clock (Master Clock UPCG) to achieve ‘ultra high clock to noise ratio’ – an order of 50 dB improvement in noise level and reduced jitter. Together with the use of dual high performance Burr Brown PCM 1794 digital to analogue converter, improves audio performance in S/N ratio, linearity, dynamic range, and distortion; creating a greater degree of realism in the music. The D600 also offers digital inputs for coaxial and AES/EBU with conversion up to 24-bit/192 kHz. The construction of the D600 pays attention to screening and isolation – the die cast aluminum double chassis design separates the power supply (in another chassis) from the audio circuits and eliminates resonance. Internally a thick 6mm copper plated aluminum plate dampens vibration and lowers the ground impedance improving the signal to noise ratio. The three aluminum spike feet controls vibration by grounding the chassis. The CD/SACD mechanism of the D600 features high stiffness, smooth operation and superior vibration control properties, thanks to a precise loading mechanism equipped with metal shaft bearings. The pickup employs an infinite conjugate optics system, ensuring both stable operation and precision in reading a disc. The highly rigid disc tray is formed from precisionmachined aluminum to further minimize vibration. A black sheet on the tray both restricts the scattered reflection of laser light to increase reading precision and contributes to vibration control.
20 MOD AV
TAD C2000 preamp The digital section of the C2000 preamplifier draws upon the design of the D600 disc player – the use of a Master Clock UPCG provides a precise and stable with high C/N clock signal. The digital inputs cater for Coaxial, AES/EBU and USB. For the USB input, TAD developed the Asynchronous USB Transfer Engine resulting in a high-precision PCM signal free from clock jitter created within the PC or during transfer stages. The preamp is also a full symmetrical design, with separate circuit boards for left and right channel. The chassis is milled from a solid block of aluminum, creating an ultra rigid and heavy foundation for the circuit boards eliminating all possibility of distortion induced by resonance. Finally separate power supplies for the analogue audio circuitry and digital circuitry ensures complete isolation.
M2500 Power Amplifier The two channel M2500 power amplifier follow along the design concepts of the C2000 preamplifier – full symmetrical construction with dual power supplies and transformers in an aluminum chassis milled from a 90 Kg solid block of aluminum. The power supplies utilizes large torroidal transformers with high saturation cores. The M2500 has high current delivery and high efficiency from the Class D output stage. The M2500 is rated at 500 watts rms per channel into 4 ohms and 250 watts rms per channel into 8 ohms.
For more information on TAD products, please contact Reference Audio 1 Coleman Street #04-27/28 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 Tel: 6338-5577
MOD 21 AV
Cabasse La Sphère
The perfect pulsating sphere loudspeaker?
It was said a pulsating sphere
is the most ideal of loudspeaker and some speaker manufacturers like Bose (2201 system) and even JVC even went as far as making a working prototype – multiple drive units around a sphere. The idea is to simulate a point source loudspeaker where sound emanates from one point. Why we don’t see more of such speakers is the need for extensive equalization for it to work properly. The practical result is the Bose 901, which even then needs active equalization to work properly. Fast forward to this century – the so-called point source loudspeaker takes on many form – full range drive units and coaxial drive units. Both however have limitations – full range drive units having to reproduce from 20 Hz to 20 kHz is well nigh impossible unless you limit power handling. That
Cut-away showing the damping on the speaker ‘shell’
works fine with high sensitive design with SET amplifiers. The coaxial route seems ideal – a tweeter and woofer housed within one voice coil. Physically separating the tweeter from the woofer enables higher power handling, play louder and with extended frequency response as good as a separate tweeter and bass loudspeaker. The limitation of coaxial is the huge amount of intermodulation distortion between the tweeter and woofer. Also if you fry the tweeter from an exuberant work out, you need to replace the entire unit, including the woofer as well. Generally coaxial loudspeakers are used in cheaper speaker designs such as OEM car audio. To create a point source loudspeaker, the coaxial way seems closest to a practical ideal – provided the drive units are isolated from each other and do not cause intermodulation. That ideal has been attained by Cabasse with their BC 10 coaxial unit – this design is a midrange and tweeter coaxial drive unit that works from 800 Hz up. The frequencies below that are filtered to a conventional woofer. The BC 10 looks like a large eyeball – the black ‘iris’ is the tweeter section while the ‘whites’ is actually the midrange membrane! But the BC10 is not a full range transducer. The BC10 is a practical and cost effective solution to meld the midrange and tweeter into one ‘enhance bandwidth’ drive unit. The next level in Cabasse coaxial drive unit is the TC-23 tri-axial driver with an additional 8-inch woofer. This extends the low frequencies to about 80 Hz. For the system to work properly, it needs a ‘lens’ to disperse the frequency range of the 8-inch drive unit so as not to interfere with that of the response of the tweeter and the midrange. As you can see, the concept of coaxial loudspeaker while still achievable requires more intensive engineering to work well. Next, we extend the frequency response to 20 Hz to create a full range loudspeaker. That was the design concept of the La Sphère – the ultimate expression of the coaxial concept – a single acoustic center for all the drive units with the benefit of high power handling and capable of producing live like sound pressure levels. The La Sphère uses a new coaxial design – the QC55 transducer – essentially the TC-23 is augmented with a 22 MOD AV
MOD 23 AV
22-inch woofer. Again, it needs an acoustic lens for the larger woofer. More important, the complexity of the design requires digital crossover, time alignment and equalization. To this end, Cabasse La Sphère comes as a complete system including the digital electronics and amplification. The QC55 is housed in a new enclosure – a dual shell made from a rigid polymer with a layer of damping material. The use of an air pressure sphere has been used by many including B & W but primarily for their subwoofer. In comparison, the 22-inch Nomex honeycomb woofer is massive in comparison! It is loaded as an acoustic suspension drive unit and internal standing waves are damped with acoustic material. A lens is then placed in front of the woofer before the three-way tri-axial, TC23 is then loaded into the cavity. Talk about a really tight fit! The entire sphere is placed on a stand which is designed for both aesthetics and engineering point of view. There are no sharp edges for diffraction on the spherical enclosure. The acoustical centers of the four drive units are then time aligned digitally. The La Sphère loudspeaker looks like no other. The electronics The system as it should be called, begins with the DSP processor where the input signal is digitised with a 24 bit analogue to digital processor, after which the digital data stream goes through equalization, time alignment and crossover networked. Also possible is room correction. The eight channel digital data is then converted back to analogue to feed the power amplifiers. For the eight channels of amplification required to drive the La Sphère, the 22” woofer and the 8” midrange is each driven by a 1000-watt amplifier while the 3” midrange and 1-inch tweeter each has its own 300-watt amplifier. Cabasse chose to provide the necessary amplification together with the digital electronics to optimise the performance of the La Sphère. The La Sphère comes closest to a full range pulsating sphere loudspeaker than any other. As a high-end loudspeaker, the La Sphère is comparatively compact but behind the simple looks is a loudspeaker with extensive engineering on acoustic and electronic technology!
An Acoustical Masterpiece
` La Sphere
KEC Sound System Pte Ltd 1 Coleman Street The Adelphi #01-25/#04-36 Singapore 179803 Hotline: 6564-3188 www.hifibargain.com
B.M.C. C1 amplifier B.M.C. hails from Germany, it is one of the rising stars in the high end circle though the company only started in 2009,. Their small range of electronics as it stands today includes the C1 integrated amplifier, a stereo power amplifier, a monobloc power amplifier, a CD player, DAC and a phono stage. The C1 integrated amplifier follows the modus operandi of a classic solid state amplifier – a huge 2 kVA power transformer, well in excess demanded by the 200 wpc rms rating of the C1. In addition, the power supply section comes in four circuit boards – the preamp and power amplification have their own power supply section making it a proper pre and power in one chassis. On the power supply boards, there are whole bunch of small capacitors instead of a pair of larger capacitors points to the design parameters favoured by BMC – speed. Smaller capacitors charge and discharge much faster than larger capacitors. BMC makes a bit of noise about their design philosophy of their amplifiers – namely CI, DIGM and LEF. If you did not know by now, these are ancronyms. CI stands for ‘Current Injection’, using a low impedance signal and allow the current of the signal source to maintain until it reaches the desired speaker output stage. DIGM stands for ‘Discrete Intelligent Gain Management’, the gain stage is at the speaker output stage, avoiding unnecessary amplification and signal attenuation in the signal path. Finally LEF stands for ‘Load Effect Free’ this is an output stage that adjusts the output voltage to the load. If all this is a tad too technical, I suppose you can blame the poor German translation. With these design precepts, BMC amplifiers do not use any negative feedback. The C1 is one hefty amplifier – you will need a strong shelf to hold up the 40 Kg chassis. The huge VU meter gives the BMC electronics a unique identity. In fact the stereo and monobloc amplifier looks virtually identical save for the minuscule source selector button and dim function for the meters. A balanced and three coaxial inputs are offered. The amplifier comes in a nice aluminum casing and massive heat sinks running from one side, over the top and then to the other side. As mentioned earlier, the amplifier is a dual mono design with full discrete power supplies for the left and right channel. If you like to know more about the BMC line of electronics, please contact X Audio for more information.
MOD 25 AV
mind 20 years ago. A turntable design that would push air-bearing technology to its limit. The result is the Bergmann turntables. I was aware that the airbearing turntables available in the eighties, had some critical drawbacks - like noisy pumps; condensation and oil entering the air-system; difficult to setup; frequent tonearm fine-tuning.
I first chance upon Bergmann
turntables last year while surfing the internet. The clean, minimalist lines of the design seem too good to be true. Add a parallel tracking air bearing tonearm and air bearing for the main bearing, which supports the platter, it seems an interesting turntable that is set to upset the proverbial applecart, so as to speak for the likes of the Walker Proscenium Gold.
One of the main goals in developing the Bergmann turntables and tonearms was to eliminate these drawbacks!
I wasn’t surprise when it got here, so soon. Modular Audio, one of the strongest proponents of vinyl, witness their LPAD or LP Appreciation Day where they invite just about anyone to come down to their shop to listen and enjoy some LPs, is now the authorized distributor of Bergmann turntables. To officiate their latest brand acquisition, Johnnie Bergmann, the founder and designer of Bergmann turntables made a visit for a weekend of vinyl and air bearing chatter at Modular Audio. MOD AV: Hi Johnnie, you’ve got an interesting turntable, perhaps you can tell us a little about your inspiration for the design.
We have 3 main goals for our turntable designs: A natural and uncolored sound reproduction, by using a mix of different materials Simple and strong technical design, made in few parts, which avoid resonances and interference with the sound. Everything encapsulated in a clean Scandinavian modern look.
The Art of the Air Bearing: Johnnie Bergmann
JB: I love music from a young age and my first exposure is my friend’s dad system – it was an STD 305M turntable (Strathclyde Transcription Development, a British made turntable around the late ‘70s). It was nothing like what I have ever heard before. As a teen then, I don't have much money so I inherited my dad’s system using tape deck and a Rotel receiver, making tapes from my friend’s dad vastly better system. When I left school, with my first paycheck, it was a trip to an audio store! I couldn't afford the whole system at one go, so I bought an amplifier first – the NAD. Then a pair of Dali loudspeakers followed by a Micro Seiki turntable…. MOD AV: Your first turntable is a Micro Seiki?! (Incredulous look!)
JB: There was this new hifi shop in Denmark started by a bunch of young guys – call themselves the Danish Hifi Club. Now they are the biggest hifi chain in Denmark. In particular, one of the owners, this a guy by the name of Lyngdorf… MOD AV: Peter Lyngdorf? JB: Yes, he was the guy who started their own loudspeakers so they don't have to import – Dali Loudspeakers. They did many well-known brands like NAD, Denon, Cerwin Vega, Accuphase and Micro Seiki. He taught me a lot about hifi, turntables in particular that’s why I ended up with a Micro Seiki, the DDX-1500. In Germany today, there is even a Micro Seiki turntable fan club! I get to meet many audiophile friends at the shop, talking about how to modify and upgrade our turntables especially with cheaper turntables like the Rega Planar 3 to get better sound. That’s when I started to look at how various turntables are put together and how they work. Like this device call ‘polypush’ – a suction system. The kit comprises a special rubber mat and a clamp. When you press the clamp over the record spindle, it will suck the air out from under the LP pushing the record down to the mat and platter. Back then I also heard other air bearing turntables like the Forsell and the Maplenoll. This experience was an eye-opener to me, and realized that airbearing design, is the way to go to design the ultimate turntable. The idea of making my own airbearing turntable took shape. I was trained in mechanical engineering – metal finishing. I had this reference model (Sleipner) in
This simple design coupled with the airbearing system means that all information stored in the record grooves, wouldn’t get lost. Remember that once information gets lost in the source, is gone forever and cannot be re-created by the downstream components….
MOD AV: The idea of air bearing tonearm has been done by many others, most notable the ET arm… JB: Air bearing tonearms have had a bad reputation because of the difficult setup and the need of frequently fine-tuning – sometimes after every played record. In theory, the idea of a parallel tracking tonearms is to reduce tracking distortion to zero. However some linear tracking airbearing tonearms have different behavior at the beginning, the middle and end of the record. The arm tends to tilt one way at the beginning, then track perfectly around the middle of the record and finally tilt the other way towards the end of the LP. Bergmann got around this problem by using a longer fixed air bearing tube via a shorter sliding pipe, holding the armtube which floats frictionless which translates to having the same balance from beginning to the end of the record. Another area that needs attention in the arm tube is azimuth. The Bergmann tonearms are precisely aligned to the cartridge mounting at our factory thereby it is not user adjustable. We have made our tonearms without azimuth adjustment, to obtain as stiff assembling as possible, which again reduce resonances, at this very critical part of the tonearm. We offen discuss this issue with users at different Hi-Fi shows around the world. But we believe that the users wouldn’t be able to do this adjustment as accurately as we can, as we have our high precision special tool when assembling the tonearms. The top model Sleipner uses a one-piece carbon fiber arm tube with headshell, the Sindre and Magne uses a two-piece arrangement – a carbon fiber arm tube and a milled aluminum headshell. The arm tube is damped with a second arm tube inserted inside of the outer arm tube with a damping layer in between. The arm tube is very well damped and no resonance.
with the vacuum platter. The mat is 2 cm thick, it comprises a three-layer construction – the top layer is acrylic followed by two layers of polycarbonate. The air bearing is also different, instead of a inverted bearing shaft, the Sleipner uses a side air bearing that counter balance the pull of the drive belt and floats the platter. (see picture)
1 & 2 - The hole where the air cushion ‘lifts’ the platter from the spindle 3 - the Modular Audio team with Johnnie Bergmann 4 - Johnnie showing the sub platter of the Magne
The Sleipner’s plinth is a multilayered design – a polished poly vinyl outer shell with a layered honeycomb aluminum, solid aluminum, bitumen and solid aluminum again making a 9.5cm thick plinth. It uses a machined aluminum platter. The pump housing is larger than the other two models – it incorporates the air pump as well as the suction pump for the vacuum platter.
Below - The flagship Sleipner with the unusual air bearing arrangement
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The Sindre is our first model and uses an acrylic platter. The plinth is a 4-layered high density composite material design, without the vacuum platter option. A clamp is provided to hold down the LP. The entry Magne and Sindre have a lot of similarities – the same arm tube design, the same main bearing design, similar high density composite material- Magne one layered, Sindre 4-layered construction for the plinth. The Magne integrates the power supply onto the chassis while the Sindre and Sleipner have a separate power supply. The Sleipner power supply is more sophisticated – DC motor controller – very accurate as it uses a sensor continuously to check on the speed.
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MOV AV: What about the reliability and the noise from the air pumps? Air pumps are noisy devices so we have search for many options – we decided upon an oil free linear air pump which has an even airflow and long lifespan – at least 30,000 hours which is ten times better than f.ex. an diaphragm membran pump. The noise level is reduced to a minimum – you can put the pump in the listening room. Each pump comes with two air tanks – it evens out the pressure variation giving a very stable air pressure with high airflow to the turntable. The pressure for the bearing and the arm can be adjusted independently.
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MOD AV: Bergmann turntables have funny unusual names, I suppose they are Scandinavian? JB: Yes, the names have Scandinavian origins – Our products are named after the Northern Mythology - a collection of truly vigorous and positive tales. Sleipner is an eight-legged steed owned by Odin, the supreme of the Nordic Gods. Sleipner means smooth or gliding. Sleipner would bear Odin over the sea and through the air… Sindre is the legendary blacksmith, who forged Mjolner, the hammer of Thor, God of thunder. Thor could hurl Mjolner at the target, whereupon it returned to the Gods hand of its own accord, having hit the target with great accuracy… Magne means “strength” and is the super baby in the Nordic Mythology. Magne was one of few Gods, who survived Ragnarok and rebuilt the new world… MOD AV: Thank You Johnnie!
The construction of the turntables – The Sleipner comes with a low-pressure vacuum platter – it is offered as an option but so far every Sleipner sold is ordered 26 MOD AV
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AnalogueAirbearingTechnology Handcrafted in Denmark
Magne
Standard model
Awards The Absolute Sound Editor’s Choice 2011 Turntable of the Year 2010: HiFi+ Turntable of the Year 2009: High Fidelity Turntable of the Year 2009: Stereo Mojo
Sindre
High-end model
Sleipner
Sleipner Air Pump and Controller
Reference model
Airbearing turntable and linear tracking airbearing tonearm Proudly representing
Modular Audio LLP
1 Coleman Street #04-25 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 T: +65 6333-0286 M: +65 8201-0233 W: www.modularaudio.com.sg E: info@modularaudio.com.sg
Von Schweikert VR44 materials to provide stiffness without the penalty of ringing. A new 6” full-range driver cone is made of composites of cellulose acetate pulp, acrylic plastic, and carbon fiber, while the tweeter is a similar organic material with a soft plastic coating. To provide extreme rigidity, the new 8.8” woofers are formulated from ceramic-coated alloys of magnesium and aluminum, which is damped with a layer of electrostatically applied oxide powder. The result is a cone with high stiffness and internal damping yet remain light and responsive. Since the twin 8.8” woofers are crossed over to the full-range driver at 100Hz, the woofers are not audible as a separate source of sound; the full-range mid drivers provide the dominant sound output. The VR44 like the earlier VR4 has a rear tweeter to improve the ambience response balance. To ensure that the drive units remain linear, the crossover point for the bass to midrange transition and midrange to tweeter is set well away from the critical midbass to lower treble area - at 100Hz and 4kHz. Only audio grade crossover components, such as Mundorf resistors and capacitors, Delphi Aerospace wiring, and WBT posts are used. The cabinet baffle tilts backwards for Time Alignment with special attention to the phase alignment of the new driver array. The VR44 is available in two versions – a passive 4 ohm version and a ‘semi-aktive’ 8 ohm version with its own internal 300 watt amplifier to drive the twin 8.8-inch bass drivers. The passive version would be suitable for partnering with high powered amplifiers. The active version allows the use of lower powered amplifiers to drive just the midrange and tweeter and at the same time, dispense with the need for an RCA cable to the woofer amplifier. In additional, the active version allows user adjustments to the bass response to match the room.
When Albert Von Schweikert set out
to improve successive generations of the VR4 (first launch in 1995!), he draws upon some of the developments from the newer models such as the Unifield series. The current VR4SR mk 3 stands at the peak of the development of this lineage, its replacement would need to improve its resolution especially for playback of high resolution digital music files. To achieve that goal, it will need a cabinet design using the Unifield series triple-wall laminate cabinet construction (where each of these materials resonates at different frequencies and when bonded together, effectively eliminate the cabinet as a source of resonance) as well as new transducers. Von Schweikert was out to improve some key areas – resolution, transparency and room adaptibility. The new cabinet design having such a high level of internal damping, need not utilise a two cabinet construction of the VR4SR – hence the new VR44 is a single cabinet design. For the new high resolution transducers Von Schweikert worked closely with European speaker manufacturers to design a complete transducer set that is matched to each other in transient response speed and low distortion, using a highly damped cone with linear frequency response for the VR44. The new cone technology is based on laminating different types of
SPECIFICATIONS System Type: Three-way dynamic speaker system with quasi-transmission line Cabinet Design: Exclusive Triple-Wall Laminated panel design, with thicknesses ranging from 1” to 3” using High Density Fiberboard, plasticene damping, and artificial stone blocks. Bass Tuning: The twin woofers are mounted in a four-chamber labyrinth, where each chamber is filled with a specific quantity of crimped Dacron. The rear-mounted exit port is tuned to 20Hz. Midrange Loading: The 6” full-range driver is loaded into a sealed labyrinth, using Gradient Density stuffing to gradually absorb the rear wave. Tweeter Loading: The Wide Surround, dual-ring tweeter has an open back, loaded with a plastic cup filled with highly absorbent material. The free air resonance of this unit is 540Hz! Ambience Retrieval System: the rear-firing midrange-tweeter is controlled by an ambience-extraction circuit with Level Control. Crossover Design: The crossover network is a simple circuit that utilizes the best parts available and has a very low level of phase shift. Mundorf resistors and capacitors are used. Crossover Points: 100Hz and 4,000Hz Drive Unit Sizes: Two- 8.8” composite alloy woofers, one-6” composite full-range driver used as a midrange, and two-1” tweeters, one in front and the second at the rear. Rear unit is horn loaded. For more information on Von Schweikert Loudspeakers please contact Audioline at 6756 5585
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Stenheim and Swiss Made Audio Excellence Jean-Loup Afresne, MD of Stenheim speaks to MOD AV An idea germinates from the mind,
it develops into an idea, following a collaboration of creative minds brings that idea into reality - such is the precept of Stenheim – a collaboration of five very creative engineers from varied disciplines come together to create their vision of the finest audio playback system. Four of them were formerly colleagues from Goldmund S.A., one was an acquaintance recruited to fulfill the required disciplines. Each of the five partners are experts in their own field, each contributing to the acoustical and digital development of their growing range of products. At the moment, their product portfolio stands at just one pair of loudspeakers (with an attendant woofer modules for each speaker), their long term plan is to develop from ground up – a complete audio playback system of the highest quality, using technologies not commonly used in audio. Jean-Loup, the Managing Director of Stenheim and one of the five partners was in town recently and MOD AV got the chance to catch up with the man behind the operation. MOD AV: So what is the Stenheim sound? JL: Stenheim sound is distortionless, easy on the ear. Some people like certain kind of distortion – like tube amplifiers for example. But a sound with low distortion and wide bandwidth is better at reproducing any kind of music – clean, detailed, non fatiguing and with good presence. Our focus is on engineering – what measures well must sound good as well. Unfortunately, today’s measurements are not good enough to show differences in sound quality. Our plan for the next 5 years is to create a new kind of measurement that can show the sound quality of audio products. The usual measurements – frequency response, amplitude, phase, noise and total harmonic distortion cannot say anything about sound quality since they only refer to static signal like sine waves. Music by nature is extremely complex. We need to use dynamic measurements – for example to give us a good idea of what contributes to good Sound Quality or explain how amplifiers with and without negative feedback behave. We are working with University of Lausanne and Swiss Federal Polytechnic to study on acoustics and signal processing. The focus on both listening and measurements – to better understand the relationship of what we can hear vs what we measures. We find something very interesting – many will think digital processing is the future of high performance audio. Combining both analogue and digital processing yields better performance than rely purely on digital processing. For example, for a phono stage, we can correct the source for RIAA filtering and takes care of phase errors. For amplifiers, we can measure and correct each part of the chain separately. Tube amplifier uses output transformers, which introduces phase errors especially at different impedance tapping. The volume control is better retained in the analogue domain – a digital
volume control has a wide dynamic range, over 100 dB but when used with a digital volume control, when you turn the volume down by 40 dB, you lose that amount of headroom as well. For an analogue volume control – the distortion rises with the signal level. For digital, it's the reverse, when you turn down the volume, you are dealing with the least significant bit and that’s where all the problems with digital audio are. A digital volume control on 24-bit music is even worse. While typical D to A converters may be adequate, the ICs have limitations – you need to add buffer to the analogue stage. If we use normal D to A and A to D chips, we will be very limited in our ability to correct the distortions, not to mention DACs themselves also generate distortion. MOD AV: So your next product is some form of digital signal correction device? JL: Not yet, a lot of things are in development now and some may not be ready for the next year or two so it would not be useful to discuss them now, for instance they may change significantly by then. The reason why I bring them up is to show how difficult it would be to move away from the traditional way of doing things. Many companies take the short cut, which introduce more problems than it solves. I mentioned we would be creating a complete music system; the next 5 years will be a very challenging time for all of us in our company. MOD AV: So let’s talk about your loudspeaker… JL: The Alumine is a very high performance loudspeaker though it looks simple. The aluminum cabinet is a very strong enclosure. And if you noticed, there are no visible screws on the enclosure. The midwoofer is from a pro audio company, it can play very loud, 90dB though we selected this unit for its high sensitivity and high power handling. As such they don't need to be played very loud to hear the low level details – it has very low compression and at low volume levels, it has very dynamic sound. The lightweight carbon fiber cone uses a double surround – a normal surround combine with an inverted surround - effectively an ‘S’ shape surround makes for a very responsive sound with long throw. The tweeter complements the midbass driver very well, the tweeter crossover from the midbass at 2.5 kHz using a very steep 4th order crossover. This allows the drive units to handle more power with less artifacts (due to the overlap of frequencies of the drive units – Ed). The Alumine is a full range loudspeaker, which can be augmented with a woofer system below 50 Hz. You will find the sound of the Alumine representative of the sound of Stenheim, the sound of purity and low distortion, very listenable and non fatiguing in all types of music. It will be a sound that allows you to explore beyond that of audio components, into the depth of the music. The Alumine lays the foundation for the sound of Stenheim.
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Audio Note UK
, one of the strongest proponents of the Single Ended Triode (or SET) movement also offers one of the most expansive (and expensive) music playback systems available. Peter Qvortrup, the driving force behind this company, has always been outspoken about his apparent disdain of the way the hifi industry conducts itself, which he felt takes short term view, applying short cuts in product development and in doing so shortchange the customers who would eventually buy them. Instead, Audio Note UK developed a means where quality of products can be easily differentiated, easily understood and in doing so, enable systems to be properly matched for optimal performance. The Audio Note level platforms as they are now known, cites that the price incremental up the range can be justified on sonic grounds and demonstrated with repeatable consistency. The price platform allows a music lover to determine the level of performance desired vis a vis the level of affordability. There are seven levels in the Audio Note hierarchy, each graded according to the design philosophies of the SET, each level to be used as an indicator of the quality of sound achievable at a particular price point. The level is a system-based approach – components are recommended to match with products from a similar level or no more than one level above and below the set level. The level starts with level one as the basic Single Ended based system to the flagship level seven. To demonstrate this aspect, Audio Note Singapore has setup a new Audio Note boutique, the first in Asia. Most Audio Note fans and customers over the last two decade are familiar with Audio Note products like the Oto SE or the Meishu 300B integrated amplifier, the new showroom is introducing for the first time, many new products in the higher level of the Audio Note heirachy. Here, we provide an overview of a level 5 system. “Class A single-ended directly heated no feedback triode amplifiers, with only the very best parts and materials available, fully silver wired high content nickel iron C-core output transformers, Black Gate capacitors throughout where available, silver foil signal capacitors, and both circuit and power supply hard wired with silver wire.Level Six: As Level Five, single-ended directly heated no feedback triode amplifiers, but all-out versions with no expense spared on parts, silver wire even in the mains lead, mains transformer, chokes, likewise highest grade C-cores in mains transformers, valve rectification and regulation, no signal coupling capacitors but silver wired C-core inter-stage transformers between each gain stage, super thin lamination Super Radiometal 48 C-cored driver and output transformers…” CDT-5 CD transport This is the top of the line CD transport for use in systems from level five and up. It uses a valve digital output stage with valve rectified power supply with a custom designed and built output transformer. The top loading CDT-5 uses a Philips CD Pro2LF CD mechanism mounted on a sprung subchassis to isolate the playback system. The chassis is heavy at 22 Kg (with all the transformers inside) and with its rigid structure better to resist vibration. Internal wiring is all silver wired with a new digital interconnect, the Pallas, for internal digital signal transfer. DAC 5 Signature The ultimate D to A converter, the DAC 5 Signature is the top model in the line up. Full silver wiring including a silver wired output C-core output transformers with very high percentage of nickel iron alloys. The digital and analogue stages each have their own power transformers and power supply section. You have to see the inside of this component - this is one massive DAC! Like the CDT-5 transport, the DAC 5 also uses tube amplification in the digital input stage!
The DAC is a specially selected AD1865 18-bit chip. Black Gate capacitors are used liberally throughout the DAC 5, especially in critical places, as are Audio Note carbon film resistors and silver foil caps on the digital board. Full tube rectification and some unusual capacitors ’35 uF Joule cap’ on the analogue power supply board, speaking of which is not a PCB but a wood board where the components are all hard-wired! The output stage is transformer coupled. Digital input is available in single ended or AES/EBU with user selectable switch. The CDT-5 together with the DAC 5 signature is the finest expression of a digital front end by Audio Note UK. M6 preamp The M6 preamp, like the DAC 5 Signature uses a transformer coupled output stage, full tube rectified power supply with dual power supply, double C-core transformers with copper primary windings and pure silver secondary windings. The preamp stage has copper foil capacitors and silver wiring. The volume pot is a single channel stepped resistor pot, hence there are separate volume pots for left and right channel. Output in single ended or balanced. Jinro power amplifier With 4 inputs, the Jinro is strictly speaking an integrated amplifier. Like the famous Ongaku, the Jinro uses the 211 output tube, each of this large valve is able to produce 18 watts in pure class A. The driver transformer, output transformer and power transformer are all double C-core copper wired designs. AN-E SEC Sogon loudspeaker The E series loudspeakers may look simple for its two-way ported stand mounted design but beneath the veneer is an exceptional loudspeaker with special design drive units and crossover design. The AN-E SEC SOGON comes with Alnico magnets for the tweeter and woofer, silver voice coil, silver inductors, Black Gate capacitors and SOGON cable to the external crossover. The AN-E SEC SOGON is highly efficient with a very wide bandwidth. Designed to be used close to room boundaries. Audio Note system cables With the exception of cables, Audio Note recommends the best you can afford – even with entry Level One products benefit from the use of the finest Audio Note silver cables. Pure silver cables have been wrongly blamed for being bright sounding with lean bass and other anomalies. Instead, the transparency of pure silver merely reflect the flaws in the other components in the system! Audio Note silver interconnects and speaker cables are not only smooth and detailed sounding but also very dynamic in its presentation, especially when you start comparing from one level to the next, the considerable sonic gains are all too apparent. SOGON interconnects and speaker cables represent the apex of Audio Note cable development. SOGON interconnects – 42 stands of 99.99% pure silver litz wire with copper screen and silver plated RCA. SOGON speaker cables – 4 individual conductors of 40 strands each 99.99% pure silver litz wire in one jacket.
Audio Note Level Five www.hifi.com.sg
Clockwise from top left: CDT-5 CD Transport, DAC 5 Signature, Jinro 211 amplifier, AN-E SEC Sogon Loudspeaker, M6 Preamp
No 1 Coleman Street #02-17 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 Tel: 65-63347639 32 MOD AV
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Much attention on Focal’s flagship Utopia series by the
media that it is easy to overlook the fact that Focal makes a fine line of loudspeakers that are priced and sized to accommodate smaller budgets and domains below that of the Utopia. Using many of the Utopia’s technology such as the state of the art Beryllium tweeters and proprietary Focal signature sandwich membrane design for midrange and woofers. A simpler cabinet design brings down the cost of manufacture significantly. The Electra series comprise a complete eco-system not only for 2-channel music playback and home cinema but also in-wall and in-ceiling custom solutions. Standing at the apex of the range is the Electra 1038 Be – standing at 50” tall, the 1038 Be comes in an elegant enclosure. The 1038 Be looks exquisite in its two tone finish choice of three finishes are available - champaign, mahogany or basalt side panels over the gloss black enclosure. The curved front baffle suggests a very solid foundation for the drive units to anchor themselves on. The 1038 Be indeed does make use of a 50mm thick slab of MDF, carved out for the drive units to eliminate any possibility of diffraction of the sound waves. The sides of the enclosure are tapered towards the back thereby eliminating the parallel sidewalls to break up whatever standing waves generated within the enclosure. Quite a change from the typical speaker enclosure. I am sure this makes the Electra’s enclosure well nigh impossible to fabricate from the traditional V-cut and fold mass manufacturing technique. The speaker’s finishing is exquisite – I am told it has an 11-layer lacquer finish. The Electra 1038 Be is a 3-way loudspeaker – a 27mm beryllium ‘inverted’ dome tweeter, a 6.5 inch midrange and three 7 inch woofers. The use of three 7-inch woofers offer the equivalent of a 13-inch woofer with faster response and superior impact from the use of lighter membranes compared with a larger and heavier woofer. The midrange and woofers all use the famed Focal ‘W’ composite cone which offers an ideal balance between lightness, rigidity and self-damping. The 27mm beryllium tweeter has been re-engineered from the 25mm unit used in the Utopia II, offers lower Fs (Focal claims a low of 2 kHz crossover range) to enable a better integration with the 6.5-inch midrange. The bass reflex Electra 1038 Be has a slot port on the front lower half of the cabinet. The slot port allows better airflow with minimal noise compared to a round port. The crossover design is said to optimize phase response of the multiple drivers. With the multiple drive unit configuration of the 1038 Be, mid to large sized rooms would be ideal to allow enough distance between the speaker and the listener for the drive units to integrate properly. If your room is on the smaller side, the smaller floorstand Electra 1028 or even the bookshelf Electra 1008 Be may be better options. The 1038 Be is rated at 93 dB sensitivity, power handling of 40 – 400 watts with a nominal 8 ohm load (min 3.3 ohm). The low frequency cutoff –6 dB is at 26 Hz and weighs in a hefty 51 Kg a pair. Focal speakers are best driven with mid to high powered amplifiers, anything from 100 watts rms onwards would be fine though that would be generalizing since many fine amplifiers today have good current delivery capability even with low wattage ratings. As always err on the side of more power, there is never too much! The Electra runs on a single wire configuration. Focal feels biwiring does not offer any sonic benefits; if you have to buy two pairs of speaker cables, wouldn't it makes more sense to buy a superior pair of speaker cables instead of two lesser pairs? First impressions The 1038 Be burst forth with a lively and energetic performance. If the likes of BBC derived monitors (the so called Brit sound) bores you to sleep, the Focal is likely to induce a night of frenzied dance. The foot tapping characteristic of the well-loved Focal sound is all too apparent in the 1038 Be, all this without a sense of brashness or roughness in the sound. Tonality Classical music aficionados would embrace the 1038 Be for its sweet, airy and extended high frequency performance. The Beryllium tweeter is in its element here, the lightness and speed of the membrane together with the inverted dome design allows for a very wide and controlled dispersion. The transparency of the high frequencies is nothing short of astounding – one of extreme delicacy and poise, at the same time precise and dynamically well controlled. Metal dome tweeters have been accused of being ‘splashy’, I think we cannot assume all metal dome tweeters are like that, only poorly designed or poorly implemented metal dome tweeters will behave as such. Focal’s optimum phase crossover place great emphasis on harmonizing the phase response, this is most apparent during the transition stage of the tweeter and midrange. This must have made a big difference to the performance of the beryllium tweeter with the composite W midrange unit. As the midrange is crossover to the three woofers at a low of 230 Hz, it is relieved of having to bear the load of bass frequencies allowing the midrange unit to handle higher power and play louder with less distortion. The use of three bass units offers a vigorous low frequency performance second only to
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the even more massive Utopia series. The use of two or more smaller bass drivers instead of one larger drive unit is more difficult to implement – the use of more than one driver operating in the same frequency range tends to create problems like lobing. To cut a long story short, Focal’s implementation of triple bass units in the 1038 Be is an unqualified success – I hear non of the anomalies associated with using multiple drive units operating in the same frequency range. Top marks for a neutral tonality of the 1038 Be. Soundstaging Soundstaging can be further broken down into three elements – the sense of depth (layering), scale (proportionality) and dimensionality. With all these three elements working in unison, it completes the illusion of a performance in front of you. Isn’t what this we are after? Many elements work to prevent this from happening – for a loudspeaker, phase response is one of the culprit that destroys this illusion. With the use of multiple drive units in a loudspeaker, each with a different phase and impulse response characteristic literally tears apart any semblance of the illusion of a good soundstaging performance. Focal claims their optimal phase crossover seems to hold up well, the 1038 Be conveys a convincing soundstage with a very good sense of depth. Recordings with simple mike placements are most convincingly conveyed. The mid priced Electra 1038 Be offers a good measure of the flagship Utopia – the Beryllium tweeter, composite ‘W’ cone midrange and woofers and a really nice enclosure. Lacking the more extensive crossover, complex drive unit configuration and cabinet design of the Utopia place less demands on the electronics; you probably could get away with a good integrated amplifier or use your existing amplifier and just upgrade the speakers. The Electra series is one formidable line of speakers you should shortlist when the time has come for a loudspeaker upgrade.
A Continuum State of Bliss Every once in a while there comes an opportunity to hear a wonderful music system, one which transcend hifi into another realm – one of music making without the slightest hint of anything mechanical or electronic getting into the picture. This setup by one of our reader, which shall only be known as Chris, is close enough to that ideal. But where do I start when each and every component causes my heart to skip a beat?
It would be most logical to start at the front end – then it would be the rare Continuum Caliburn from Australia. Rare because the price tag almost guarantees a certain exclusivity – we are talking about a S$150,000 turntable here. To delve into the intricacies of the Caliburn is beyond the system feature here so we’ll leave this for another time. Needless to say, it will be hard pressed to find another Continuum Caliburn turntable in Singapore. The Caliburn comes with its own tonearm, the Continuum Cobra. This distinctive tonearm looks utterly different from other tonearms, in fact a little retro; the entire arm is a one-piece design from the headshell to the counterweight. The arm tube is fabricated from some ceramic compound. The counterweight sits well below the cartridge so as to bring the center of gravity low, which enhance tracking stability. Another rarity rests on this arm – the Air Tight PC-1 Gold of which there are only 5 pieces ever made. The pre and power amplifiers are another audiophile stand out – the Kondo M7 mk 2 K Signature preamplifier with a Kondo SFZ step-up transformer for the PC-1 Supreme and the Kondo Gakuoh (pronounce GA-KUOH) monobloc 300B power amplifiers. If you are not familiar with Kondo, formerly known as Audio Note Japan before a dispute over the trade name forced this company to adopt the name of its founder, the late Hiroyasu Kondo. Audio Note Japan as it was known back then, introduced the famous Ongaku amplifier, still highly revered by the tube fraternity as the standard where single ended tube amplifiers are judged. Kondo only make amplifiers and their line of pure silver litz cables, no speakers (at least not any more), and definitely no to D to A converters! 36 MOD AV
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The Gakuoh is the next generation, post Hiroyasu Kondo, series of amplifiers. In fact Kondo has extensively improved the entire range of product but stay true to his design objectives. Together with the M7 preamplifier, the Kondo amplification is like a well-made Swiss watch, “you merely save it for the next generation”. A well built and well design tube amplifier like the Kondo products will last beyond one’s lifetime. I don’t think many will dispute the fact that a Kondo amplifier is an investment. Now the most obvious part of the system, the Avantgarde loudspeakers loomed large and imposing with the massive horn. The Duo Primo is the top of the Duo series – at 1.8 meter tall, it comes with self powered 500 watt driving a quartet of 12-inch horn loaded woofers in each enclosure. The Duo Primo horn loaded woofer system is the closest thing to the massive Avantgarde Bass Horns. The Gakuoh drives the Duo Primo’s midrange and tweeter while a full range signal is fed to the woofer’s active crossover network. The 7-inch midrange comes with a large and distinctive 26-inch Avantgarde style horn while the 1-inch tweeter has a comparatively smaller 7-inch horn. The system resides in the split living room, as you can see from the pictures, the room isn’t exactly very big. The Duo Primo manages to sound absolutely fantastic is a testament to its ability to adapt to the room via the crossover setting for the woofer system. As expected, we listened to nothing but vinyl, the AMR no doubt a respectable CD player, but hey, I doubt I will see or hear another Continuum Caliburn or will there be a second PC-1 Gold in Singapore! 38 MOD AV
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With a sleek stand and minimal proportions, Yamaha’s Restio ISX800 is like a work of art, created as a concept of a music source as part of the interior. The strong interior design element, accentuated by the slant sides, which streamlined the unit as if it was much slimmer. The front uses a metal grille, providing an attractive texture. The striped pattern printed behind the grille conveys a feeling of depth, giving the impression that the music emerges from within the entire front surface. Merging beautifully into your living space, this is an entirely new form factor that you can matches to your lifestyle. Minimal Design Allows Flexible Placement With a depth of only 9cm perched on a half-moon shaped stand, you can position the Restio right up against a wall. Alternatively, you can remove the stand and hang it on a wall (requires an optional bracket AT-800). It’s the perfect way to match your music source to any room’s decor. Sound That Lets You Appreciate Music Using a two-way, four-speaker system finely tuned to HiFi audio standards, Restio is designed for premium quality sound. Delivering powerful, expansive bass and crisp, precisely contoured treble, it ensures complete mastery of sound; everything from the fast kick of a bass drum to gentle sounds and vocals that seem to be right in front of you. Also included, a three-band equaliser, so you can adjust the sound to match the type of music of your own preferences. Music in the Air...From Everywhere You can dock your iPod or iPhone directly into the top of the unit, for a digital connection that delivers high quality sound so you can thoroughly enjoy your music library. And if you have an app, such as one that lets you receive streaming music, you can further expand your listening pleasure. The USB and Aux-in terminals are available for your USB memory devices and other sound sources. Time — Artistically Displayed The stylish digital clock gives you a choice of two patterns: the usual number display and a unique display that combines numbers and an indicator. An auto dimmer function adjusts the brightness of the display to match the brightness of the room. It also features Yamaha’s IntelliAlarm, which first gently plays the music of your choice and then beeps to ensure that you are fully awake. Please contact Yamaha Music (Asia) Pte Ltd at 6747-2668 for more information and availability. 40 MOD AV
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Sounds like Bits and Bytes... A Computer Audiophile’s Adventure
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Reader Tarik works in the motor racing industry,
and I am not talking about your weekend car park races. We are talking about Formula One here. When he is not spending time on the tarmac in the regional races, he sits back with his Japanese fiancee Akiko and listen to a selection of classical and jazz music collection. Being an expat means a constant state of flux, he never invested in a good sound system until he came to Singapore three years ago. Perhaps Akiko’s father may something to do it, he is an audiophile back in Japan. Tarik heard some interesting systems when he was in Japan, one of which he relates this guy and his huge JBL loudspeakers, yet he cannot play them too loud as it would be deemed impolite to disturb the neighbours. But when he played the system at very low levels, the sound came through nice and clear, all the instruments can clearly be heard. When I got off the lift of his condominium, the first thing I heard was probably Wagner from his doorstep! So I know I am on the right floor! Thank goodness, this isn't Japan! As I was ushered into his living room, the system stood out from the rest of the amenities. I guess for an audiophile cum music lover, everything else is secondary.
1 - The headless Mac Mini is, for a Mac inexpensive, hence a popular choice for computer audio fans 2 - The Weiss DAC 202 for some reason DOES NOT have USB inputs but of course, that won’t bother Mac fans the least bit...
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3 - The Harbeth Super HL 5 is a fine example of the classic British loudspeaker that still have their following
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4 - Octave RE290 power amplifier benefits from the addition of the Super Black Box
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This system is our first dedicated computer audio setup feature on MOD AV or even its predecessor SPL! magazine. No vinyl, no CD player, just a headless (no monitor) Mac mini on Lion OS with a Weiss DAC 202 as the front end and the music files carefully ripped and stored in an external harddrive. Tarik ordered a custom Mini which substitute the 500GB HDD for a 256GB ‘diskless’ solid state drive or SSD. Memory was also increased from the paltry 2 GB to 8 GB to ensure sufficient headroom for Pure Music especially when playing 24bit hires files which could be as large as 4 GB. Caching in the RAM is preferred in the harddrive even for a SSD, the RAM having less latency. Redundant applications were offloaded from the OS to reduce the workload on the CPU. All in the name of bit perfect rendition of music.
5 - The Oonto USB HDD with dual drives in RAID 1 for 100% data protection of all the music files that are stored within
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having dinner on the coffee table! With the system set up on a TAOC rack supplied by X Audio who also supplied the Octave amplifiers, the Super Black Box power supply was recommended to add 10 times extra energy storage via large capacitors to provide extra power and low frequency grip for those 'Wagnerian dynamic swings.' All it took to convince Tarik was a short audition and it stayed in the system. Cabling is important too and X Audio supplied most of the cables – Powercords: Acrolink 7N-4030 II PC-R on an Oyaide MTB-6 – Interconnects: Acrolink 7N-D5000 RCA for DAC to Pre-Amp, Acrolink 7N-A2070 for Pre to Power amp Speaker cables: Acrolink 7N -1400 terminated with Oyaide spades - Firewire cable: Oyaide NEO for Weiss DAC202 to Mac Mini - USB 2 Cables: Wireworld Starlight for Mac Mini to external HDD.
The Weiss DAC 202 makes use of Firewire instead of the more prevalent USB to connect to your computer. Macs love Firewire so I guess it's a foregone conclusion. It also has normal SPDif inputs (AES/EBU, toslink and Coax) so you can plug in your CD player. The DAC 202 is a 24 bit converter and samples up to 192 kHz. Tarik can control the Mac Mini via his Macbook Pro or his iPad using the Apple Remote or Screen Share application which in turn controls his favourite music playback software - the popular Pure Music, widely regarded as one of the best for the Mac platform, and sounds better than iTunes. He rips his CD collection using XLD on his MacBook pro and stores the un-compressed, lossless AIFF music files in a Onnto 2-bay USB external drive with 2 x 2 TB HDD, in RAID 1 for 100% backup. Tarik explains the ripping software is very good, it enables a 'Bit Perfect Accurate' rip as he calls it. He illustrated to me on each and every CD he ripped, he keeps the history of the rip to know the quality of each disc. 'Ripping is not about going through 50 CDs a night, it may take about an hour for some discs though generally it's a 15 to 20 minutes affair. Scratched disc are more problematic though.' Tarik is happy with the Weiss/Mac Mini combo, for the moment.
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Tarik's parting words were ominous - 'One day I came home from work, opened the door and the first thing I saw was my coffee table stacked with CD’s with nowhere to put my cup of tea - I thought, this has got to change! This led to weeks of late night reading and investigation online of how computer audio works and reviews of equipment. This was followed by a few months of auditioning a fair bit of equipment and the rest as they say is history… I feel that computer audio is the future without a doubt and the most important aspect, its sound quality rivaled the best CD transports at CD resolution, but completely blows spinning any form of discs out of the water at 24 bit hi-res. CDs will be history in 3 -5 years - Why do I say that? Just take a trip to Oxford street, London where the once busiest HMV looks like a ghost town for the last 18 - 24 months.... but I think Vinyl as always will be around for years to come.'
The choice of speakers and amplifier is not as simple as expected! The Harbeth Super HL 5 suited his personal choice of music – mainly classical with some jazz. For the amplifier department, the contenders shortlisted was either the new Mosfet Accuphase P6100 or Octave HP500Se preamp/RE290 power amplifier combo. It was a difficult choice between the two as both vendors actually loaned him the amplifier, not at the same time of course, to try out over a few days. In the end he and Akiko settled for the Octave, a sound that leans neither towards 'tube or solid state' but close to his experience with a live performance. Tarik also pays close attention to the acoustics of his living room. The two-bedroom condominium has a very small living room together with a very small dining area. The living room extends into the dining area like a T-shape with the horizontal stroke the dining area. Originally he had the system set up in the living area, firing towards the dining area, as most people normally would. However the speakers generated a lot of boom – it later dawned to him the width of the room and the ceiling height is identical – not good for sound! He then switched the system over to the dining area, the dining table has to make way for the hifi! It worked much better and there it stayed. For good sound, some sacrifices must be made! Even if it means
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Rock on, computer audio!
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Pioneer introduces a new genre of music enjoyment,
one catered for those who listen as well as move to the beat. Pioneer has created sound systems for the home, in the car, in the club for Pro DJs now brings music to the streets – STEEZ. The compact sound systems are portable – the Type S and Type T are just over a foot long plays music files stored in the internal memory. Transfer your dance music from your computer or connect your iPod (check with Pioneer website for model compatibility list) to it, the S and T use a pair of 40mm full range drive units. The larger Type Z is even more powerful sounding, with its built-in 135mm
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subwoofer complementing the 26mm tweeter and 80mm midrange. Running on batteries or AC power, these units are ruggedly built to withstand the weather. The S, T and Z offer various functions for dance practice such as tempo control, skip and dance queue function and other dance practice features like DJ Mix for non-stop mix play of music. If the music prompts an impromptu group dance, the ‘Auto Battle Mode’ Pioneer’s unique technology that makes it easy to battle at anytime anywhere. Simply set match-up (playing) time or music genre, and the mode automatically selects and edits tunes for dance battle. Select
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“Circle” for multi-dancer match-ups or “Normal” for one-on-one, two-ontwo and team dance battles. STEEZ AUDIO covers what a DJ or timekeeper would normally do, and lets you smoothly switch music for battle by cutting in on and echoing tunes. It even prompts you with your choice of a voice or tone call signal 10 seconds before a change of dancers in a battle. The STEEZ portable offers a personal music system on the move, together with the STEEZ headphones, with its heavy emphasis on the beat, makes for the music lover on the go.
Batteries Included Bel Canto’s Virtual Battery Supply 48 MOD AV
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How does one go about managing their collection of CDs
bought over the years? Some would catalogue them, some would keep the lesser played ones in boxes, perhaps to dispose of them to Cash Converters in the near future. How about digitising your music collection? That allows for instant access to your much loved music collected over the years. That’s what the owner of this system did, he invested in a music server – the Qsonic Q205 Music management system with a touch screen access or iPAD access to the digital music files, via a free app. The Qsonic is a real gem, connected to the internet, it will retrieve album artwork and information about the CD and display as such. The built-in 2 Terabyte hard disk drive provides ample storage of lossless FLAC files which sound as good as the CD itself. Of course it is ready for the future – downloading and playback of 24Bit music files. The Qsonic outputs the signal into balanced ASE/EBU, coaxial digital and toslink, instead of the usual ‘computer audio’ USB which does’t sound as good. With the music server, a new system beckons for his freshly renovated Executive apartment. The large living room afforded the space for a pair of Thiels CS3.7 loudspeakers with a pair of JL Audio F110 subwoofer, one for each channel. Why add a subwoofer? ‘It just sound better’ said the owner, ‘I felt it sounded really nice with the subwoofer, the difference it makes is quite apparent.’
Sound Decisions who supplied the system suggested that the subwoofers be used in pairs for full discrete stereo, an advice I would agree. Driving the Thiels are the compact Bel Canto electronics – the PRE3VB preamplifier with the VBS-1 virtual battery supply and a pair of REF1000M monobloc power amplifiers. The Qsonic feeds a coaxial digital signal to the Bel Canto DAC3.5VB. The DAC is also one of the components suitable to be used with the VPS-1, which has 3 DC battery output. To play music files from a computer, a Bel Canto USB 24/96 Link takes the digital audio signal off the USB and converts the signal to a coaxial feed into the DAC3.5VB. The battery power is interesting, battery power offers very stable and clean power for low level power requirements as in preamps and DACs for improved performance. Synergistic Research cables were used in the whole setup – a D1 AES/EBU digital interconnect between the Qsonic Q205 and the Bel Canto DAC3.5VB. Balanced Tesla Au-79 interconnect between pre and power amplifiers, Tesla Accelerator speakers cables to the Thiel CS3.7. The JL subwoofers, accept both coaxial and balanced XLRs, are fed from a a single strand of Synergistic HDAV interconnect from the Bel Canto Pre3VB into the first unit and the second subwoofer is slaved to the first via a Alpha Sterling AES/EBU.
Qsonic Q205 with 2 TB HDD and Optical drive for ripping your CDs
Roommates, the Thiel CS3.7 and JL Audio F110
Qsonic 17-inch Touch Screen LCD for music selection, alternatively you can use an iPad
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Qsonix Music Management System 2TB HardDisk with 17-inch Touch Screen BEL CANTO DAC3.5VB digital-to-analogue converter BEL CANTO VBS-1 virtual battery BEL CANTO PRE3VB preamplifier BEL CANTO REF1000M 1000W mono amplifiers (pair) BEL CANTO USB 24/96 Link THIEL CS3.7 (Walnut color) JL AUDIO F110 (1 pair) SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH D1 Digital Audio Interconnects (AES/EBU Pair) 1m SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH Au-79 Analog Audio Interconnects (XLR Pair) 1m SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH Accelerator Speaker Cables 8 Ft (Pair) SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH Alpha Sterling (AES/EBU) 3.5m SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH HDAV interconnect 2.5m MOD 51 AV
Loudspeakers are designed and measured
to work properly in a typical room, except there is no such thing as a typical room. Rooms can vary in size, shape and its acoustic properties. Speakers that measure flat in an anechoic chamber (a utterly 'dead' room to enable the measuring microphone to measure nothing but the output of the speaker on test) will sound anything but a flat frequency response in a 'typical' room. What every room has is boundaries - walls, a floor and a ceiling. The acoustic properties of these boundaries can either be very reflective as in hard flooring and concrete walls, semi absorbent as in timber panelling for walls and floors or absorbent as in gypsum board partitions. The general rule of thumb is to avoid placing the speakers close to a wall and especially in corners to avoid 'exciting' the sound.
The Cornered Advantage Seeing corners in a brand new light
Now when I heard there is a new loudspeaker that makes use of corners, I am intrigue. Who dares upset the golden rule? For that I have to ask Mr Cornered himself – Hans Madsen. MOD AV: How did the idea of placing the speaker in a corner come about? Aren’t corners a place NOT RECOMMENDED for speaker placement? HM: The idea of a corner speaker actually came to me during a meeting, where the corner speaker suddenly appeared for my inner eye. People love discreet speakers, but on-wall speakers are not always loud enough. The corner placement opens for an opportunity to deliver a discrete speaker that also plays very loud with a rich full sound and after checking the market I decided to move forward with the concept and started Cornered Audio.
Mr Hans Madsen of Cornered Audio
You are right that the general perception is that corners are not recommended, but the reality is that it depends on how the speaker is designed. In old days, speakers were normally designed for corners and in today's world, you have both in-wall and on-wall speakers, which also calls for different acoustic designs. Two things are especially important when designing speakers for corners: 1. Corners give a predictable boost in the bass of +6dB per octave below 160 Hz. So the bass output has to be tuned with this in mind and we roll our speakers off by 6dB below 160 Hz, making them linear when placed in the corner. 2. If you place a traditional rectangular speaker in the corner without placing it at an angle away from the corner, it will create serious comb filtering which in turn will make the frequency response look like the Swiss Alps - which of course is not desirable. But, placing a triangular speaker in the corner with the drivers at a 45 degree angle to the walls, comb filtering is not an issue - provided that the off axis response of the speaker is controlled.
2. The corner placement gives a more uniform bass response in typical listening rooms. I will bring some measurements for you to see (they are unsmoothed and not practical for magazines) at the show. They show that the bass response is more linear compared to speakers placed away from the walls; the peaks and dips are fewer and at a much higher Q, making them less audible.
MOD AV: Is there a science to corner speaker placement? The only corner speakers I know of are corner horns; are there some ideas you may have 'adopted' from such loudspeakers?
MOD AV: Tell me a little about yourself, your company, etc.
HM: In addition to bass boost and comb filtering as mentioned above, the corner placement has a couple of surprising advantages: 1. The early reflections from the speakers come immediately after the sound has left the speaker. The time is not long enough for the brain to process it so the early reflection is not audible. The late reflection is very low in level as it - in a typical listening room - will come from behind the listener. That makes the corner speaker surprisingly room independent. 52 MOD AV
HM: My background is business with a diploma in strategy and management, but I was always a Hi-Fi nerd and bought my first speakers - JBL LE36 - when I was 13 years old. I started in the industry with Dynaudio in 1988. Later I worked with Dali, Primare and Vifa/Peerless and I had 8 years as managing director in Mach, a company doing professional sound reinforcement as well. I started Cornered Audio in 2005 and during the first years we focused only on the professional installation market. Since summer last year we expanded into the consumer market and we are now present on 15 markets globally.
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Cornered Loudspeakers are distributed by Raindrop Audio MOD AV: About the cornered loudspeakers, anything unique about the design, the construction, the crossover design (any requirements in the crossover top compensate for room gain in corner placement?) and the drive units. HM: Cornered speakers stand out because they are made in a strict 90-degree design. But what is very unique to us is that mounting points are integrated into the design, enabling Cornered speakers to mount flush onto walls and ceilings without external brackets. Most speaker manufacturers aim for controlled dispersion through the crossover point, but in the case of corner speakers, it is even more important, so we have very strong focus on this. In addition, the dispersion of our tweeters is optimised for corner placement. You will note a very discrete wave guide that gives the tweeters a highly controlled off-axis response. We use an advanced slave bass design that enable us - first of all to allow the compact cabinet to deliver very nice bass performance, we also use the slave to adapt the bass output to the corner placement. When allowing the speaker to roll off in the bass, in return we gain sensitivity so you will note that the output of cornered speakers is typically 2-3 dB higher than that of comparable speakers with similar woofer size. So customers get a very compact speaker that plays significantly louder than comparable on-wall speakers. As a final remark, the cable connection is unique in the way that the cable runs in a slide at the back of the cabinet, goes through the cabinet and come out on the front baffle behind the grille. This means that there is no visible cable terminal, and the speaker can be installed horizontally and used as a centre channel, without having visible cable terminals. MOD AV: Obviously corner placement work well for small rooms, maximising
the space. How does it work for larger rooms? How about the case with tall ceilings? Is there a good ratio (L x B x H) that benefits corner placement? HM: In this respect, cornered speakers are not special and share conditions with normal rectangular speakers. The size and ratio of the room will only influence on placement of standing waves in the bass and overall bass output. If the room is very wide, you can mount the corner speaker away from the corner, on the wall, using only the mounting points in one side of the cabinet. And if the ceiling is very high, you can move the speaker down. Like normal speakers, the bass output will change a little compared to how far the speaker is placed from the walls. MOD AV: You advocate using dual centre channels, will that create lobbing effects? HM: You can use one or two centre channels, but our triangular design elegantly enables the use of two centre channels. The advantage is, that the voice will be perceived as coming out directly from the screen itself. As long as the speakers are not placed very far from each other (upper centre channel should not be placed higher than 3 meters), using two will not create looping effects; just as using two front or side channels will not. MOD AV: Will there be a cornered subwoofer? What are the challenges in designing such a sub? HM: Yes, there will be a Cornered subwoofer early next year. The corner placement is only an advantage for a sub, so apart from dealing with the limited air volume inside a triangular cabinet, there are no special acoustic challenges related to corner subwoofers.
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aurender
The new Aurender S10 is a superb hardware and software solution for reference-level music storage and playback
“ Finally someone has built a music server like a true high end audio component… “ (Chris Connaker of Computer Audiophile)
Distributed in Malaysia and Singapore by
Raindrop Audio Pte Ltd 520 East Coast Road #01-01 Ocean Park Oranda Singapore 458965 Tel: +65-8228 8187 www.raindropaudio.com
Picture Perfect wall to wall Home Cinema
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When it comes to remodelling
the home, it gives one the priviledge to look into a dedicated home cinema room. So it was for the owner of this home in Bukit Timah. A two and a half storey bungalow, the ‘half’ storey is actually the extended roof. However unlike the high pitched roof that was an eyesore, this one is tastefully done. There is a lot of glass instead of concrete walls, all the more for a super airy feel of space despite the relatively narrow footprint. The unit is actually semi detached but remodelled into a stand alone unit.
hide the speakers. In essence, the speakers are totally concealed without affecting their dispersion of sound. The front speakers are the full height BG Radia LA550 full range speakers each with a BGX512B subwoofer. The surround speakers are the smaller BG Radia SA320 again with a BGX512B. A BG Radia CC400 center channel is the only speaker left exposed, directly under the 130-inch Cyrus JVC RS60 2D/3D projector Panamorph anamorphic lens Cyrus 130" 2.4:1 widescreen BG Radia LA550 in wall speakers - Front left & right BG Radia CC400 in wall speakers - Centre BG Radia SA320 in wall speakers - Rear left & right BG Radia BGX512B in wall subwoofer - 4 piece BG Radia A2 subwoofer amplifier x 2 Marantz AV7005 Processor Bel Canto REF500S amplifier Bel Canto M300 amplifier Bel Canto S300 amplifier OPPO 95 BluRay player Synergistic Research HDAV interconnect cables
As I took the lift (!?) up the third level, a small room has been converted into a home theatre enclave. The owner has looked at various vendors for his home theatre and decided upon Sound Decisions for their cost effective and attractive solution in the form of the neat in-wall BG Radia and compact Bel Canto electronics. The squarish room, I estimated about 16 feet square, was to be the dedicated home theatre room, working with the interior designer, Sound Decisions used feature walls and cabinetry to sink in the BG Radia in-walls and subwoofers. An acoustic transparent fabric was then stretched over a door which then
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2.4:1 anamorphic screen. The projector is the latest 3D projector JVC RS60. In this system, the use of four subwoofers instead of just one, enable the bass energy to be evenly distributed all over the room. Three Bel Canto amplifiers drive the system – a stereo REF500S Dual Mono amplifier (250 watts rms x 2) for the front speakers, a mono M300 (250 watts rms) for the center channel and a stereo S300 (150 watts rms) for the surround speakers. Two units of the BG Radia A2 amplifiers were used for the four subwoofers. A Marantz AV7500 processor preamp functions as the control unit for all the digital sources including MIO cable TV and the Oppo BD95 universal player. All the cabling were Synergistic Research HDAV cables.
1 - The surround speaker and subwoofer hidden behind the equipment cabinet. 2 - With the doors closed, only the electronics are visible. 3 - The Panamorphic lens in front of the JVC RS60 projector to display ultra widescreen.
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4 - Below the Cyrus Screen is the BG Radia CC400 center channel speaker. 3
5 - The front LA500 speakers and BGX512B subwoofer.
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Aventage RX-A810 AV Receiver The Yamaha ‘Aventage’ series AV components sits above the entry level ‘V’ series offers much of the technologies developed for the now defunct flagship Z series. Technology moves on rapidly, year after year, what seems to be cutting edge then, becomes a basic necessity down the entire product line just to stay competitive. How then, do the likes of the Aventage series have over the less expensive V series?
The key to the Aventage is mechanical integrity, Yamaha’s Anti Resonance Technology or A.R.T. – the foundation of the amplifier is the chassis. Yamaha uses a strong steel chassis for the Aventage series with an additional fifth footer situated in the middle of the chassis bottom to damp and ground the chassis resonance. If left unchecked, the vibration can contribute to the noise and interference in the AV receiver. The higher model RX-A3010 even incorporates a double-bottom construction to strengthen the chassis. The A810 have an attractive clean line – two knobs for input and volume selection. In addition there are four ‘scene’ buttons which you can programme the sound function accordingly eg Radio in stereo mode, Blu-ray/DVD in 7.1 surround sound or
CD in Dolby Pro Logic. Below the four scene buttons is a flip-down flap exposing the lesser use connections – headphones, USB (also for the iPod/iPhone connectivity), composite AV input, one of the HDMI inputs plus the YPAO microphone input. YPAO is Yamaha’s proprietary auto system setup for your multi-channel setup without which you would need professional help. The latest ‘Multipoint’ YPAO takes the system setup to a new level – up to eight positions can be optimized around the room using the YPAO-R.S.C. (Reflected Sound Control) sound optimisation.
The A810 is rated at 100 watts rms x 7 channel (all channel driven) with a .2 dual subwoofer output. For convenience, there is an iOS and Android app you can download to the respective phone or tablet which controls literally everything after the unit has been setup by YPAO. There are eight, yes eight HDMI inputs, of which one of them is hidden behind the front flip open panel. Yamaha is expecting more and more of your AV devices will default to HDMI in the years to come. Legacy analogue connectors are slowly but surely being cannibalized by HDMI but the component and
composite should suffice for your last remnants of analogue audio and video components. The two HDMI outputs would suffice if all you have both a flatscreen TV and perhaps a projector. Yamaha’s DSP processing is legendary in the AV arena, so I was curious when Yamaha claims the new Aventage series, are sound performers (pardon the obvious pun) in two channel for music playback. Given the AV Receiver is to be the center of your multimedia experience, its performance on two channel must be up to it. The RX-A810 reads and plays optical discs CD and DVD, FM radio, internet radio, streaming music from a network storage HDD, thumb drives, an apple device like the iPod/iPhone/iPad and any DLNA certified device. The A810 will decode music files like MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, etc. For purpose of this test. I stick to the CD for consistency. A Yamaha Blu-ray player, the BD-A1010 (also the Aventage series) was pressed into service as the optical disc player output via HDMI and signal processing via the Analogue Devices chip in the A810.
so chock full of features for multi-channel, surround sound, etc that they are more features than necessary for the average user. While I am sure there will be those who would felt short changed if otherwise, most of us, me inclusive, is just too darn lazy to change settings. Stereo for music and Dolby Digital for movies is about right. Putting all those features means very little attention to what’s really important: the sound quality. That’s where Yamaha comes in. The Z11 I reviewed back some years ago really blew me away for its sound quality. That is a monster of an AV receiver proves once and for all, an AV receiver need not be second grade when it comes to pure two channel audio. Sadly Yamaha did not see fit to update the Z11 with all the latest digital interface like HDMI. So for all purpose, the Z11 has become irrelevant today. But I still remembered the couple of weeks I spent with the Z11 is one of the
Now I must state at the onset that AV receivers are The flip down flap hides your connectivty options
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highlights as a reviewer, because I ceased being one. I was enjoying myself. I can understand the need to keep up with the competition in terms of features. Is there room for some element of sound quality? I was hoping the A3010 would be the first model to be launched and I have high hopes the extra features in that model would be able to enhance the performance of the Yamaha receivers. Well all I have to settle for the A810 for the moment so if there is a chance I can lay my hands on the A3010, I certainly will! Yamaha has always been an advocate that passive parts like capacitors, resistors, power supplies, power transformers and built, ie its mechanical integrity can play a part in the sound quality of their audio components and even for AV receivers. Obviously the parts cost for a cheaper AV receiver like the entry V series would not be able to afford such premium parts, perhaps the Aventage series might get some measure of premium parts. And it does. The A810 needs a little warming up before it gets down to business. I listen to the unit in Pure Direct stereo mode driving a pair of Yamaha’s Soavo bookshelf speakers. The Soavo is Yamaha’s line of serious loudspeakers for the Audiophile but I can imagine the competition in the two channel audio market. All being said, the Soavo series are honest loudspeakers. The A810 did not sound too happy with some no-brand speaker cables, sounding a tad coarse and lacking resolution. A switch to a pair of inexpensive entry level Kimber speaker cables transformed the sound quality by a huge margin. The sound was airy and rich with loads of detail. Vocals were natural and fluid. The bass end sounded balanced without being too lean or too over powering. In fact the midrange dominates, the high frequencies was clean though at times complex passages could catch the tweeter misbehaving a little, but generally it's a polite and musical sound. I am starting to be a little impressed. I have not heard that many decent sounding AV receivers, let alone something stunning like the Z11. I would always suggest a separate audio amplifier and speakers for your musical enjoyment and just buy a cheap AV receiver for your movie addiction. May be the A810 would be one of the few I can whole heartedly recommend if you have to make do with just one. The A810 in terms of sound quality, is about the equal of a good entry level amplifier. And that’s good, because for once
you will pay a little more attention to order some good speaker cables to match. You won't be doing justice to the Aventage RX-A810 with speaker cable selling for a dollar a foot.
Specifications and Features: Amplifier section: 7.2 channel - Rated Output Power (20Hz-20kHz, 2ch driven) 100W (8ohms, 0.06% THD) Surround Sound Processing: CINEMA DSP 3D - DSP Programs 17 Compressed Music Enhancer - Virtual Presence Speaker - Dialogue Lift SILENT CINEMA / Virtual CINEMA DSP - Dolby TrueHD - Dolby Digital Plus - Dolby Pro Logic IIx - DTS-HD Master Audio Audio Features: Pure Direct - YPAO multi-point measurement - Adaptive DRC (Dynamic Range Control) - Initial Volume & Maximum Volume Setting - A.R.T. Wedge - Bi-amp capability - Audio Delay（0-250 ms）- 192kHz/24bit Burr Brown DACs for all channels Video Features: HDMI 3D passthrough - HDMI Audio Return Channel Component upconversion - HDMI upscaling - Analog to HDMI / HDMI to HDMI - Deep Color/x.v.Color/24Hz Refresh Rate /Auto Lip-Sync Extensive Connection - HDMI Input/Output 8 (front 1) / 2 (Simultaneous) HDMI CEC (SCENE, Device control) - USB Input iPod/iPhone, USB Memory, Portable Audio Player - Network Port vTuner Internet Radio Dock Port 1 (YDS-12, YID-W10) - Front AV Input HDMI/Analog Audio/Composite - Digital Audio Input/Output: Optical 2 / 0 - Digital Audio Input/Output: Coaxial 2 / 0 - Analog Audio Input/Output 6 (front 1) / 1 Phono Input 1 - Component Video Input/Output 2 / 1 - S-Video Input/Output 1 / 0 - Composite Video Input/Output - 5 (front 1) / 1 - Preout 7.2ch Headphone Output - Tuner Section FM/AM Tuner User Interface: On-screen display Graphical User Interface - SCENE 4 sets - iPhone App Control - Web Browser Control - Remote Control Unit - Zone Control Zone 2 Audio Output Line output - Powered Zone Zone 2 RS-232C Interface - +12V Trigger Output - Remote (IR) Input/Output 1 / 1Party Mode General: Standby Power Consumption (IR only) ≤0.1W - Auto Power Down - Dimensions (W x H x D) 435x171x369mm - Weight 11.1kg
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$5999
with mystery bundle package!
Sony VPL-HW30ES Full HD 1080p 3D Projector 70,000:1 Contrast Ratio 1,300 Lumens 2D to 3D conversion
Variable Iris 240Hz SXRD panel drive system Low Noise < 22dB
Special Price Sony VPL-HW95ES Full HD 1080p 3D Projector 150,000:1 Contrast Ratio 1,000 Lumens 2D to 3D conversion Iris3 Technology Motionflow Technology Motorized Lens Shft SXRD panel One touch 2.35:1 aspect ratio Low noise < 20 dB
KEC Sound System Pte Ltd 1 Coleman Street The Adelphi #01-25/#04-36 Singapore 179803 Hotline: 6564-3188 www.hifibargain.com
$4299
$2999
The High Performance 3D LCD Projector!
EH-TW8000
Best Value 3D LCD Projector!
EH-TW6000
Full HD 1080p 2,200 Lumens 40,000:1 Contrast Ratio Split Screen feature
Full HD 1080p 2,400 Lumens 200,000:1 Contrast Ratio 2D to 3D conversion Split Screen feature 480Hz Active Shutter Technology Fine Frame Interpolation for judder free image
KEC Sound System Pte Ltd 1 Coleman Street The Adelphi #01-25/#04-36 Singapore 179803 Hotline: 6564-3188 www.hifibargain.com
OS Projection Screens for 3D 3D Projections systems require a new generation of screens
Projectors vary in degree of illumination
it projects, depending on the projection chip – DLP, LCD, SXRD or DiLA. Screen manufacturers supply the appropriate screen to optimally match the type of projector used. There are screens that increase or reduce the apparent brightness for optimal comfort and image quality. The first generation of 3D projectors was proven incompatible with the generation of screens that were optimized with earlier 2D projectors. When the shutter glasses were in use, the light output drop by one to two stops, rendering the image too dark on conventional screens with a gain of 0.9 ~ 1.0. Clearly there is a need for screen gain to maximize reflection to a gain of 1.0 ~ 1.5 to render 3D accurately. However 3D projectors are also used for 2D projection. Without the shutter glasses, a high gain screen (>1.0) will exhibit glare and hot spots with 2D
OS Screens has been one of the key suppliers in the high-end projection screen for the last few years and has been actively exploring the needs of the 3D projection system. The latest OS screens offers two new fabrics - the Ultra Beads Premium White BU 201 gain @ 2.7 and Ultra Beads Premium Gray BU 202 gain @ 1.5. These new screens are embedded with extra fine 20µ glass beads on the fabric and sealed with urethane coating to compensate for light fall off and increase reflectivity. The coating also prevents the beads from falling off over time, inherently sealing the screen against the elements.
It is good to have a choice of the extreme high gain white screen BU 201 or high gain gray screen BU 202 to match with your projector light output levels and desired image quality. The gray screen will exhibit better black and colour saturation, yet enough light gain to compensate for expected light fall off from the use of 3D shutter glasses. It will also suit projectors with higher light output, especially the newer generation of projectors taking into account the additional light requirements when used in 3D mode. The high gain BU 201 white screen would be more suited to projectors with lower level of light output, especially if you may be using the earlier generation of 3D projectors where your existing screen may be too dark when used as such. projection. A high gain screen needs to resist these reflected anomalies. Clearly there is a need for a new generation of projection screens that works well with both 2D and 3D applications giving a comfortable viewing experience, accurate colour rendition and without screen related artifacts.
The new OS screens are even better than the earlier generation of screens with a tighter weave on the fabric allowing less light leak through and more light to be reflected. The glass beads are also much smaller (20µ vs 70µ) than the earlier generation of glass beaded OS Screens giving a sharper and cleaner image quality. The new BU 201 and BU 202 are now available at all authorised OS Screens dealers. For more information on products and availability, please contact Wo Kee Hong Distribution Pte Ltd at 6637-9888.
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LuXury status Pioneer LX series AV Receivers
sound stage, enabling you to automatically adjust speaker set-ups and fine-tune your system to the unique dynamics of your space for outstanding performance. · HD Audio Formats Decoding - All models are equipped to decode all mainstream HD audio formats, including DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS Neo X (SC-LX85 and SC-LX75), as well as Dolby TrueHD and Dolby ProLogic IIz. · Virtual Depth - In addition to Pioneer’s original Virtual Surround Back (sound field between the surround speakers) and Virtual Height (sound field over the front speakers) processing, these new models now add Virtual Depth, creating a sound field that is ideally matching 3D pictures through a virtual deep sound field stretching behind the display. · Precision Quartz Lock System (PQLS) - When used in combination with a compatible Pioneer Blu-ray Disc player connected through HDMI, Pioneer PQLS eliminates audio distortion caused by timing errors (jitter), resulting in playback with dynamic sound quality.
SC-LX85
9.2 ch 3D AV Receiver - 9 x 190 watts (1 kHz, 1% THD, 6 ohms) - Direct Energy Amplifier- - THX Ultra2 Plus certified - HDMI 7 in 2 out - TI Aereus Digital Core Engine - 192 kHz/32-bit DAC - 192 kHz/24-bit ADC - AIR STUDIOS Monitor - Dolby Digital/Dolby Pro Logic II - Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Digital Plus - Dolby Digital EX/Dolby Pro Logic IIx/IIz - DTS/DTS 96/24 - DTS-HD Master Audio - DTS-HD High Resolution Audio - DTS Neo:X - DTS-Express/DTS-ES - Neural-THX Surround/DTS Neural Surround - 15 advanced surround modes and wide surround - virtual height, virtual surround back, virtual depth - video converter to HDMI with upscaling to 1080p - iControlAV2 ready - Airplay - Air Jam DLNA certified - LAN/USB/Phono input - Bluetooth ready - Internet Radio.
Pioneer has launched their new top of the line AV Receivers: the SC-LX85, SC-LX75 and VSX-LX55. Exceptionally well-equipped, the AV Receivers include an exciting host of features and benefits ready to create the most advanced home cinema system. The top of the range SC-LX85 and SC-LX75 have a number of unique features: · Direct Energy HD amplifiers built on Class D technology. Building on experience gained from more than 4 generations of audiophile Class D implementations, the latest platform delivers overwhelming power free from any distortion. · The Direct Energy HD design gained the THX Ultra2 Plus (SC-LX85) / THX Select2 Plus (SC-LX75, VSX-LX55) certification. Additional certification for the SC-LX85 and SC-LX75 also comes from the AIR Studios. Their engineers have been actively involved in the tuning of the AV Receivers to assure the recreation of the studio experience in the home. · Hi-bit 32 and hi-sampling audio processing in the SC-LX85 and SC-LX75 revives the original sound, smoothing out distortion. A brand new DAC filter is used in these two models that let you enjoy three types of sound characters through
switching: slow, sharp and short. Audiophiles will then be able to hear soft and warm, solid and tight and quick and forward music respectively. Ready to Create the Most Advanced Home Cinema All models feature HDMITM (v1.4a with 3D and ARC) connectivity. As such they are ready to pass 3D content from a 3D Blu-ray Disc player or 3D cable or satellite broadcast to any compatible display. Audio Return Channel (ARC) enables the AV Receiver to receive audio signals, e.g. from a TV program, from a compatible TV over the same HDMI cable used for transferring content to the TV. For those who intend to periodically use the built-in speakers of their televisions, our line-up includes an HDMI Standby Through feature. This passes audio and video from a set top box through the AV Receiver without the need to turn on the component. Pioneer’s proprietary audio enhancement and room calibration technologies in the new models: · Phase Control Technology - to overcome phase lag between channels and significantly improve multi-channel sound. · Auto Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration (MCACC) Advanced MCACC operates in the same way as a professional
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· Advanced Sound Retriever - The Advanced Sound Retriever compensates the quality of lossy compressed audio such as MP3, AAC or WMA and conventional multi-channel soundtracks such as Dolby Digital or DTS. Works with any compressed digital sound source (portable audio and disc players, digital broadcast sources, etc) to return depth and vibrancy to audio lost in compression. Similar benefits are achieved by Sound Retriever AIR, the first quality improvement technology for Bluetooth® which restores sound pressure and density while significantly reducing transmission noise. Auto Sound Retriever automatically optimizes the Advanced Sound Retriever algorithms to best match the compression level (bit rate) of the source signal and is especially effective for improving the sound when switching between internet radio stations with different bit-rates.
even the most demanding video aficionado will be pleased. · Advanced Video Adjust - Smartly using the information accessible from displays connected via HDMI, video signals are optimized according to the connected display type, such as plasma display panel, LCD or projector. Further integrating also the distance data acquired through the MCACC measurements, it automatically adjusts the image in function of the user’s seating position, through automatic viewing-distance optimized adjustment of the picture enhancement and noise reduction parameters. · Stream Smoother - The presence of highly compressed (lower bit-rate) video content is increasing e.g. through the popularization of on-line content sources. To offer you a better viewing experience Stream Smoother typically reduces compression noise and realizes more fine detailed images. Convenient Control & Playback All models include the features below to offer convenient control and playback of content with the AV Receiver: · Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad – Included USB/video cable for iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch® enables fast "plug and play" capability with no optional dock required. This allows convenient playback of audio, video and photos stored on your device(s). Now includes full support for iPad, including 2.1A battery charge facility via the USB port. · viControlAV2 - the next generation iControlAV2 App gives you even more control of your home cinema settings. The app enables control of volume, bass, balance and room settings and is further enhanced when used with an iPad, as all four app controls are integrated into one intuitive screen.
· Auto Level Control - Ensures consistent listening from all entertainment sources by compensating for fluctuating volume levels across digital audio tracks, television channels and commercials that can cause unexpected disruptions to the users’ entertainment experience. Enhanced Video Performance Resolution of 1080p true 24-frames per second is complemented by 36-bit HDMI Deep Color support for cinema experiences of stunning depth and clarity. A powerful video upscaler is included to automatically up-rate standard definition video to 1080p. Compatibility with HDMI version 1.4a ensures that 3D content from broadcasting, games to home cinema can be processed with resolutions of up to 1080p.Triple HD video Noise reduction and extensive video parameter settings further guarantee that
SC-LX75 9.2 ch 3D AV Receiver - 9 x 180 watts (1 kHz, 1% THD, 6 ohms) - Direct Energy Amplifier - THX Select2 Plus certified - HDMI 7 in 2 out - TI Aereus Digital Core Engine - 192 kHz/24-bit DAC/ADC - AIR STUDIOS Monitor Dolby Digital/Dolby Pro Logic II - Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Digital Plus - Dolby Digital EX/Dolby Pro Logic IIx/IIz DTS/DTS 96/24 - DTS-HD Master Audio - DTS-HD High Resolution Audio - DTS Neo:X - DTS-Express/DTSES - Neural-THX Surround/DTS Neural Surround - 15 advanced surround modes and wide surround - virtual height, virtual surround back, virtual depth - video converter to HDMI with upscaling to 1080p - iControlAV2 ready - DLNA certified - Airplay - Air Jam - LAN/USB/Phono input - Bluetooth ready - Internet Radio.
MOD AV 67
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Additional features include detailed graphic representations of before and after MCACC room calibration and sound adjustments that let users create their own equalizer settings by simply drawing their desired equalizer curve on the screen. The app is free and available in the App Store for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad or at www.iTunes.com/appstore/.
locations or simply search for specific stations and receive the broadcasts with great reception every time. Easy Installation All models feature the new AVNavigator setup PC software application available in the included CD (consisting of two key applications, Wiring Navi and Interactive Manual) to simplify the physical and software setup of the AV Receiver. Also available for iPad, the free app is available in the App Store for iPad or at www.iTunes.com/appstore/ .
· AirPlay® - Enthusiasts have complete access, control and playback of their entire iTunes® music library through the AV Receivers when connected to a home network either wirelessly (via optional AS-WL300 Wireless Network Adapter) or using Ethernet. Users can quickly and easily enjoy all their music with song information and album art simultaneously displayed on a connected monitor/TV. Note: AirPlay requires iTunes 10.1 or later, or iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (2nd, 3rd or 4th generation) with iOS 4.2 or later.
· Wiring Navi - Simply answer a series of questions about the hardware connected to the system and the application will automatically update the AV Receiver with all the correct settings, after guiding the user through the actual connections. · Interactive Manual - After the AV Receiver is connected using the Wiring Navi setup, the Interactive Manual application provides an interactive manual for you to learn about the new features of the AV Receiver. Alternatively, you can click on a section of the manual and the feature will automatically be explained.
· Air Jam - Revolutionizing social entertainment with Pioneer’s free Air Jam App, available from the App Store for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. Used in conjunction with the optional AS-BT200 Bluetooth Adapter, up to four devices can be paired via Bluetooth. Once connected, each user can cue songs from their music libraries to create a collective playlist to play back on the AV Receiver. Each connected device will display the list of songs added by all users and the device each song will play from. The Air Jam App conveniently stores the lists of songs created for each session for future purchases from the iTunes Store® or looking up related content on YouTube.
Price and Availability The VSX-LX55, SC-LX75 and SC-LX85 are available now at a suggested retail price of S$1,699, S$3,299 and S$3,999 respectively.
· DLNA CertifiedTM v1.5 - Further expanding on its wireless and networked capabilities, DLNA v1.5 support is standard, allowing a connection to devices with the same feature. Via Ethernet or the optional AS-WL300 Wireless Network Adapter, the AV Receiver can access and play high-resolution music (up to 192kHz/24-Bit) from a compatible networked device. Audio can also be streamed and controlled through our AV Receiver with e.g. smartphone that supports UPnP / DLNA media servers and renderers, giving users an entirely new way to share and play their music collection. · Bluetooth Audio Streaming - With the optional AS-BT200 Bluetooth Adapter, the whole range of AV Receivers feature wireless Bluetooth transfer of audio content from any A2DP Bluetooth-enabled mobile device or personal computer together with Pioneer’s exclusive Sound Retriever AIR technology, specifically designed to enhance Bluetooth audio transmissions, music delivered through Bluetooth sounds impeccable. · vTuner - vTuner Internet radio for endless music entertainment. With vTuner, you can access to thousands of Internet radio stations around the world. From the on-screen display, you can choose from different music formats, station
VSX-LX55 7.2 ch 3D AV Receiver - 7 x 150 watts (1 kHz, 1% THD, 6 ohms) - Direct Energy Amplifier THX Select2 Plus certified - HDMI 7 in 2 out - TI Aereus Digital Core Engine - 192 kHz/24-bit DAC/ADC - AIR STUDIOS Monitor - Dolby Digital/Dolby Pro Logic II - Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Digital Plus - Dolby Digital EX/Dolby Pro Logic IIx/IIz - DTS/DTS 96/24 DTS-HD Master Audio - DTS-HD High Resolution Audio - DTS Neo:X - DTS-Express/DTSES - Neural-THX Surround/DTS Neural Surround - 15 advanced surround modes and wide surround - virtual height, virtual surround back, virtual depth - video converter to HDMI with upscaling to 1080p - iControlAV2 ready - DLNA certified - Airplay - Air Jam - LAN/USB input - Bluetooth ready - Internet Radio.
MOD 69 AV
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Speakers should be heard, not seen... In-wall speakers are now the in-thing for custom home cinema installation instead of using ‘normal’ loudspeakers. Flush mounted into feature walls, the wiring all hidden, and in this instance, the custom installer KEC Sound System even went as far as painting the grilles of the speaker to match the wall! If not for the projection screen, you would not even realize this is a home cinema setup. This 7.1 setup comprises of a Denon receiver and Blu-ray player driving Definitive Technology in-wall loudspeakers – the UIW75 for left, center and right, while the smaller UIW55 are for the surrounds and rear surrounds. The subwoofer comes from SVS, their well regarded cylindrical subwoofer PC-12Plus. Oh, you didn’t see the center channel?
That’s because the center channel is mounted behind the screen. The screen is not your typical screen, it has micro perforations on the screen surface to allow sound to pass through, hence we usually call them perforated screens. The screen is a large 123-inch 16:9 format Remarco fixed screen. Fixed screens are great when the home theater is a permanent fixture in the room. The walls and ceiling of the room is painted a midtone gray – as suggested by the custom installer to have a toned down neutral background colour to avoid a colour cast onto the picture. Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI hooks up to the inexpensive LCD based Epson TW4500 projector gaving a vivid and colourful image quality. A nice place to hang out after a hard day’s work!
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This page - The in-wall Definitive Technology UIW75 for the left, center and right Next Page 1 - A close up of the perforations on the screen 2 - A single SVS cylindrical subwoofer comfortably fills up the whole room here you can see the latest version powered with the Sledge amplifiers 3 - the equipment rack with the Denon components and an XBox360. The in-wall above is the right channel speaker 4 - Here you can see the inwall surround and rear surround speakers. The Epson TW4500 is ceiling mounted and the sloped ceiling hides the bracket and wiring.
Epson TW4500 projector Remaco 123-inch perforated screen Denon DBP-2012 Blu-ray player Denon AVR2310 AV Receiver Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI Definitive Technology UIW75 in-wall Definitive Technology UIW55 in-wall SVS PC12Plus subwoofer
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Back in Japan, Bewith has bespoke the Mercedes SLR and Maybach for
their exclusive clients, with their top end sound system â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Bewith R-107S monoblocs R722S edition (a special model for the Merc SLR with better parts), the new BewithState processor and Confidence Sunrise component speakers. Taking a leaf from the simple but effective install, JM Audio bespoke this gorgeous Maserati in a similar fashion. The owner of this Maserati is a true blue audiophile, not only his cars come with high-end audio system, he has a nice system at home too. In fact we featured his home system in the last issue with Von Schweikert VR9 speakers and KR monobloc amplifiers! Anyway back to this Maserati, JM installed a quartet of the new R-107S R722S edition monoblocs for the Bewith Reference component loudspeakers with a more powerful Accurate A-110S for the AVI SL200 subwoofer. The setup is neat, a pair of amps flanks the left and right side of the processor and does not encroach upon the available boot space. The OEM headunit was retained and the audio output is routed to the BewithState processor to split the signal into the respective frequency range for the sub, midbass and tweeters. The new BewithState processor seems like it is making significant inroads in the competitive processor market for its exceptional sound quality. Perhaps the only thing missing in this system is the Bewith MM-1 for playing media files.
Distributor for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines
155 Kaki Bukit Ave 1 #01-00 Singapore 416012 Tel: 6444-7277
The BewithState processor is flanked with two units of the ultra compact R-107S mono amplifiers on each side!
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Boot space and car audio
are always in constant conflict, each fighting to claim whatever cubic inches from each other. So it was to be for this Daihatsu Materia. Despite the generous dimensions for a small car, the boot space allocated was abysmal. When Alex took delivery of the car, his regular installer Jimmy from JM Audio told him Bewith had just released a couple of miniature monobloc amplifiers, it seems the way to get around the problem.
It ended with a full Bewith system â&#x20AC;&#x201C; five of the new Bewith R107S monobloc driving the 2-way Bewith Reference component speakers and Bewith R-180 subwoofer. The small size of the R-180 subwoofer means JM is able to shoehorn a small enclosure below the center console for the up front bass effect. That leaves even more space in the boot as
the subwoofer enclosure is in the cabin. The Alpine IVA-W502E LCD/DVD player serves as the source with an Alpine PXA-H701 processor for the electronic crossover function. In the boot, JM worked around the spare tyre well, leaving the spare tyre exactly where it was supposed to be. On the right is four of the R-107S amplifiers while the fifth R-107S is on the left side together with the Bewith R60A regulator. With the MDF panels in place, only the R60A regulator can be seen through a piece of thick acrylic window. All the amplifiers are hidden. Oh in case you are wondering where the 701 went to, its bolted in front of the spare tyre. Mission accomplished â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the system barely encroached into the available boot space!
Distributor for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei & Philippines
155 Kaki Bukit Ave 1 #01-00 Singapore 416012 Tel: 6444-7277
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The discontinued Alpine F#1
Delivering the Masterstroke
remains a favourite amongst the competition fraternity, changing hands so very often just to get that slight competitive edge. No doubt, in the hands of an experienced installer, the extensive suite of settings can set make a huge difference to the end result. It was a disappointment when Alpine announced this fabulous head unit was to be discontinued without a replacement.
Alpine F#1 and Pioneer AVH-P3530DVD Micro Precision series 7 tweeter and midrange
This Estima comes loaded with the F#1 as the front end augmented with a Pioneer AVH-P5350DVD for an up to date multi-media head unit/LCD display. The relatively dated F#1 is short in terms of modern day features – like iPhone connectivity for instance, which the Pioneer unit makes up for it. The F#1 processor and power supply sit on the floor below the front passenger chair, as they do not required to be accessed on a regular basis. The amplifier system is another heavyweight, the flagship STEG Masterstroke series from Italy – two units Masterstroke Class A stereo amplifiers drive the Micro Precision series 7 tweeter and midrange while the Z series midbass is driven by a more powerful STEG K2.02 Class AB amplifier. The tweeter and midrange is fibered onto the A pillar molding, slightly angled upwards to throw the soundstage above the dash and avoiding the windscreen which tend to reflect a very diffused sound.
Alpine F#1 processor has to go under the front passenger seaty
The third Masterstroke amplifier drives the subwoofer, an 8-inch Rainbow Vanadium. The sub enclosure is positioned on the floor between the front passenger and driver seating position, a popular arrangement for a flat floored MPV like the Estima. It does not take up any space, especially in the space strapped boot area of an MPV. The Estima kitted by Chuan Sing is neat – the space behind the seats though limited, is enough to swallow the trio of Masterstroke amplifiers lengthwise. The K2.02 is mounted below the trio of Masterstrokes, hidden from view but easily accessed when required by lifting up the tray holding the visible amplifiers. All the wiring is then hidden below the amplifier tray neatly dressed to meet the required competition standard for neatness and electrical
Chuan Sing Auto Accessories Centre
Up front subwoofer - the Rainbow Vanadium sub in a custom enclosure placed between the driver and front passenger seat
The trio of STEG MasterStroke amplifiers
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Hotline 6280-2822 www.chuansing.com - 23 Serangoon Garden Way S555935 - 129 Sin Min Drive #01-229 S575703 - 21 Toh Guan Road East #01-21/22 Toh Guan Centre S608609
A budget setup is always a challenge – there is simply only so much you can save, for instance would you buy a no-brand DVD/LCD head unit or get something reliable for twice the price? And soundproofing, do it once and for all, use quality damping mats or make do with cheaper stuff and risk having to redo again. On the other hand, you can get some decent amplification and speakers for little money. Especially when every agent is out to offer you with their 'unbeatable package price.' This is one of those pretty decent packages, with a good installer, you can get pretty good sound. So it was for educator Adrian, the owner of this SX. Foon from Foon Audio offered him this package comprising a pair of German Maestro Status Line SV6508A 2-way component speakers, a German Maestro SW10009 subwoofer, a 4-channel EFX300C drives the components speakers in active mode while
a monobloc EFX500C1 drives the subwoofer. The source is the Pioneer DEH-P80RSII CD player. Foon submitted this car for the EMMA competition and came in second in the under $3000 category! It also took second placing for the Pioneer category under $3000. The setup is simple – the spare wheel is sacrificed for the space to house the two amplifiers. This ensures that not an inch of boot space is sacrificed. And the subwoofer enclosure? Under the dash board in front of the front passenger. That makes it a tad cramp for the front passenger so Adrian went to install longer chair rails so that the seat is allowed to slide further back than usual. That offers the rear seat to legless passengers only! The German Maestro midbass goes into the doors while the tweeters sit on aluminum pods. Tchernov cables were used to wire the entire system.
The precious cargo - EFX amplifiers
There goes the spare tyre well!
Special EFX Sound
Suzuki SX Crossover gets the budget ICE treatment
The tweeter mounted in an aluminum pod, raising the soundstage to ear level
284 Macpherson Road Singapore 348608 Tel: 6841-2773 Mobile: 9029-9219 www.foonaudio.com
The subwoofer enclosure hidden under the dash, in front of the front passenger’s legs
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The two trophies for the EMMA Heat 2
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Stenheim ‘Alumine’ The fusion of the finest Swiss high-end audio designers, with the consumate skills of watch industry artisans brings forth a new epoch in the design and manufacture of a new loudspeaker The Alumine. An exquisite sound quality that truly have to be experienced in one’s lifetime...
Ocean Way Audio (Singapore) Pte Ltd
1 Coleman Street #01-09/#02-08 The Adelphi Singapore 179803 Tel: +65-63381846 E: info@oceanwayaudio-sg.com W: oceanwayaudio-sg.com