MOD AV 19 by Terence Wong

Bob Carverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Black Beauty VTA305

The Legendary Bob Carver is Back! Black Beauty 305 VTA305M Mono power amplifier - Complementary Push-pull with 6 x KT120 power tubes - 305 watts rms into 8 ohms - Hard wired point to point - Wire wound and metal film resistors, metal polyester capacitors in the audio signal path - User selectable feedback level - 20 or 11 dB - Superwide bandwidth low leakage inductance design output transformers Right: Cherry 180 VTA180 monobloc power amplifier using 3 pairs of KT-88 delivering 200 watts rms into 8 ohms

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

THIEL’s new CS 2.7 three-way floorstanding Coherent Source® loudspeaker represents a stunning new benchmark in acoustical performance. Gorgeous new industrial design complements THIEL’s legendary time and phase coherence technologies including revolutionary driver design that deliver the most detailed, natural, and musically lifelike reproduction of the original performance possible. Close your eyes and enjoy an unprecedented musical experience. Introducing the new THIEL CS2.7

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

Soar into the Heavens... Ribbon Super Tweeter Universal add-on True Ribbon Tweeter! Easily adaptable to any loudspeaker! Need not modify your existing speakers. Hear to believe - improves definition and clarity, at the same time reduce harshness and dynamic compression caused by your existing tweeters. Soundstage and layering is improved, instruments and voices sounds more realistic. Continuous adjustable output level to match your existing loudspeakers. No additional amplifier needed. Includes a pair of high performance loudspeaker jumper cables to connect to your speakers binding posts.

Authorised distributor for Singapore and Malaysia

Blk 925 Yishun Central 1 #02-229 Singapore 760925 Tel: +65 6756 5585 www.audioline-hifi.com

Picture shows RST-5 docked on the VR-44

When emotions run deep...

Dartzeel CTH-8550 Integrated Amplifier

Blk 925 Yishun Central 1 #02-229 Singapore 760925 Tel: +65 6756 5585 www.audioline-hifi.com

Vivid Audio Model K1

Stereophile Magazine ‘Product of the Year 2012’

Accustic Arts - AET - Acoustic Revive - Acrolink - Arte - Audio Replas - Aurelia - Aurender - B.M.C. - Brodmann - Copulare - Cryo Audio Technology - CSE Japan - Fiio - HFX (RipNAS) - KingRex - Kojo Seiko - Kryna - Lansche Audio - Lumen White - 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

Stereophile Magazine ‘Product of the Year 2012’

All MSB DACs are DSD ready!

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

his issue we want to try to have a little fun.

Creative Editor Terence Wong

terence@mod-avi.com

Sales n Marketing Singapore

Wong Ng Lai Leng laileng@mod-avi.com

Malaysia

Heard about Augmented Reality? OK, instead of trying to explain, I would like you to try it out, right here on this very magazine you are holding in your hands or on your tablet/computer screen if you are reading from the eZine (Huh? You haven’t heard about our eZine? Turn to page 48 now!). First you need the app – go to Google Play or Apple App store and look for the app called ‘Layar’. Download this app to your smart phone or tablette. Now if you are reading from the eZine, you are already interactively connected, just click the layar logo in the respective page and access the content directly. Next you turn on the app in your device and look for the pages with this logo: Page 1, 17, 49 & 71

Simon Chang

simon@mod-avi.com MOD AudioVideo is published by 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.

Scan the page with the camera in your smart phone or tablette. You should see a video coming up on your smart phone or tablette. Cool huh? AR is perhaps the next best thing to a virtual living magazine, bringing you a host of multimedia contents from the internet. I will explore this avenue further to see what sort of interesting stuff I can do for you and have a more interactive and engaging experience online and offline (print). If you got any ideas, do share with me. Hey, who says print is dead?

New Series

Cronus Integrated Amplifier - High End product at entry level prices - 100% hand made n the USA

Apollo Monobloc Power Amplifier Full tube High Power 250 watts rms

Ninety Nine Tube Preamplifier

Medusa - Triode Class D hybrid power amplifier

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

Precision

Tannoy’s Precision series, the new luxury loudspeaker offering audiophile delicacy and breath-taking dynamics. Featuring the latest Tannoy 150 mm (6”) Dual Concentric™ driver and a raft of performance enhancing features, the range delivers outstanding realism with music and movies. Contemporary style, luxury finish options and outstanding attention to detail ensure Precision loudspeakers look as good as they sound.

KEC Sound System Pte Ltd 1 Coleman Street The Adelphi #04-36 Singapore 179803 Hotline: 6564-3188 www.hifibargain.com

Venture Audio showcasing its towering Ultimate Reference loudspeakers driven by the new V200 A+ monobloc amplifiers.

Home Cinemas abound! Five years after hosting the first IHEAC show, the follow up is back at Sultan Hotel in central Jakarta, Indonesia. The event is organised by members of the Indonesian High End Audio Club or IHEAC in short and is a non-profit event. IHEAC President, Mr Teddy Hailamsah together with leading members of the industry and sponsors officiate the opening of the show.

Left: mish mash of Vienna Acoustics and Boulder Below: Procella

The show is impressive, it spans four floors and nine function rooms, the entire gamut of entry to high end were well represented in the show. Manufacturer representatives were present in droves â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Martin Reynolds from dCS (UK), Njoo Hoo Kong (Belgium) from Venture Loudspeakers, Yataka Nakano from Denon (Japan), Dr Weerayuth Athipattaraphong from Magnet (Thailand), Vian Li from AER (Hong Kong), Kazuo Kiuchi-san from Reimyo (Japan) plus others I may have missed. Enjoy the images of the show in the next three pages.

Left: Some Pro gear that I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even recognise Below: JBL Synthesis with Sony 4K projector

IHEAC President Teddy Hailamsah

Yataka Nakano from Denon (Japan) 12 MOD AV

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Kazuo Kiuchi of Reimyo (Japan) Martin Reynolds of dCS Vian Li of AER (Hong Kong)

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The Greatest Home Cinema on Earth!

Jeremy Kipnis awesome ‘one-of-a-kind’ setup to drool over! www.Kipnis-Studios.com

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comes as a pair of stacked Snell THX Sub-1800 (18inch woofers!), hence the .8 config. The speakers are placed in a circular fashion around the audience sitting position. No one can accused the system as underpowered or not dynamic enough or god forbid, lacking bass, not with so many speakers staring at your face! The video part comes from Sony’s professional SRX-T540 CineAlta 4K projector (3D capable of course) and to enhance resolution further, Jeremy enlisted the power of multiple MacBook Pros with the necessary computing power to crunch the numbers to scale the 1080p image to 4K – 4096 x 2160px. I guess with a screen that edges to over 200-inches, 4K clearly has the advantage over FullHD’s 1080p. At the moment, Jeremy is testing an even more ambitious projector - an 8K from JVC! What you do not see from the pictures here, is Jeremy has invested in power – outside of the KSS theater lies four massive power transformers – two to provide power and the other two to provide mains isolation. This is literally a substation with enough juice to power the next couple of houses as well! The Kipnis Studio Standard put to shame many ‘high-end’ audio only systems not through its sheer presence but Jeremy’s deep understanding of acoustics and what exactly it is to move air and consequently to move an audience. Jeremy’s objectives are simple – to create an experience equivalent to a ‘First Person’s Perspective’ of the audio video experience. KSS Ciné Beta home theater design, which he has dubbed TRINITY, because of the trifecta between picture, sound, and tactility – entered the 2009/2010 Guinness Book of World Records – “Most Technically Complex Home Theater / Gaming Set-Up in the

The Greatest Home Cinema on Earth!

Kipnis Studio-Standard, perhaps the most exquisite home cinema system ever built. If you cannot get to the cinema, then bring the cinema to you! That has been the premise of home cinema, to bring home the experience, even if all you can do is to bring home a 100-inch screen. However if you have a cost-no-object fantasy, what would you choose? I know what I’ll choose – I’ll get Jeremy Kipnis to do my ‘imaginary’ million dollar home cinema. Sorry, make that the 6-million dollar one that he has in his home in Redding, Connecticut, USA. Jeremy’s company - Kipnis Studio Standard - dubbed by many as ‘The Greatest Show on Earth!’ is by far one of the most featured home cinema systems on planet earth. If you can find another, do let me know. So, how could I NOT feature this fabulous setup in our humble little magazine? Jeremy is a music and movie connoisseur who believes in living up to the n’th degree of realism and experience man can ever replicate outside of the movie cinema and concert hall. Coming from a musical family, his father is a well-known musician and in his passing bequeath a beautiful mid century home to son, Jeremy. Oh, need I add Jeremy, is a man of many talents, is also in the business of custom high-end home cinemas (under his company Kipnis Studio Standard KSS). His other credentials include writing for high-end audio journals, music and movie soundtrack production (Epiphany Recordings Ltd), photography and possible many other stuff as well. Oh apparently he knows Ansel Adams, the noted landscape photographer and family friend of the Kipnis, when he was much younger. One of the key elements of this home is a large two storey ‘music room’ where all the music manuscripts are stored. The room is also used for entertaining small groups of guests for an evening of fine dining and music. It is here that the seed of the Kipnis Studio Standard is germinated into a one-of-a-kind home cinema and stereo sound system extraordinare that for once, quashed critics’ assertions that the two can never be one and be all.

Let’s see what this setup entails – first the room – at 26 x 33 feet, the almost squarish room have heights ranging from 8 feet to as much as 16 feet (double storey). On the taller end is the 18 foot wide curved screen that is hung slightly tilted down towards where the audience is seated. The foundation of the room is immense – a half meter thick concrete foundation is laid, upon which solid walnut floor is laid over. I suppose you needed that much weight carrying ability for combined weight of amplifiers and speakers for this setup!

World”. In 2008, celebrity rocker & producer, Sean "P. Diddy" (Puff Daddy) Combs (Ciroc Vodka) for whom KSS™ designed and installed a 6-room Multimedia Extravaganza in his NYC high rise apartment! This system was also used for mastering music under his label: Epiphany Recordings http://www.epiphanyrecordings.com/Epiphany_Recordings_Ltd./Home.html

And you will see a lot of speakers, and I mean a lot. To generate the complete surround sound field, KSS eschews traditional 7.1 for a full 8.8 channel system. Why 8.8? Jeremy initially even planned for a twelve-channel setup, placing one speaker every 30 degrees. However the room itself placed a limit to the amount of sound pressure level and surround processing for optimal sonics, Jeremy found the 8-channel works better. That also means if the opportunity offers itself, he would gladly execute his 12.12 concept! Postscript: Apparently, Jeremy put the redundant channels to work as 'height' channels!.

Equipment & Room Specifications Cinema: 210 SQ. Meter interior area, 6 Meter height (vaulted), 10 Meter interior width, Shape: Reverse Trapezoid (no parallel surfaces), Reinforced concrete foundation: ½ Meter, Media Player Equipment - Number of HD Source Units: 16, custom Theta Digital Surround Sound processing and decoding equipment: 96 Quad-Balanced Channels, Number of McIntosh Tube Amplifiers: 72

Back to the system – now how do you get 8.8 to 12.12 channels from a 7.1 surround mix? The source is processed by a custom 24-channel digital decoder Theta Casablanca III. The decoded channels can be set to any number of channels up to the maximum of 12 channels. The signal is then processed using Theta Gen VIII processors – thirteen units of them are needed for the 8 channels (some need more than one – eg the center channel).

Loudspeakers: Snell Speaker Arrays: 12 full range channels, 12 subwoofer infrasonic channels (2 per channel). Projection Resolution: 4096 × 2160P with 3D capability and 16 Trillion Colors, computer controlled LED Lighting System, 40 Spots, 40 Floods Media Library consists of: long-playing records: 125,000, sheet music: 20,000, LaserDiscs: 16,000, Compact Discs: 14,000, DVD: 12,000, Reel-to-Reel tapes: 10,000: Cassette tapes: 9,000, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Discs: 8,000.

Thereafter the amplifiers – a total of 72 McIntosh MC-2102 power amplifiers drive the phalanx of Snell THX Music and Cinema Reference loudspeakers. To stress the importance of the center channel, Jeremy uses three sets of the Snells THX for just the center channel alone. Talking about bass, each channel 18 MOD AV

Total Cost (of interior and exterior design, all equipment, installation, furniture, accessories, and . . . The KSS Room, itself) $6 Million U.S. dollars. MOD 19 AV

ne plus ultra

Subterranean Home Theatre 20 MOD AV

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ne plus ultra

Subterranean Home Theatre The basement, if you happen to live in a house with one, is possibly the best place to have a dedicated home cinema (or sound systems). Isolated from the bedrooms upstairs, one can enjoy all the dynamics you can get from a real theatre into the early morning and not worry the least bit about waking the neighbours up. When the owner of this beautiful new home decided to rebuild his home, one of the key highlights is a home cinema and Karaoke setup. The large basement seems an ideal place to entertain the extended family. There have to have enough seating for the whole family and then some. In this instance, with the three tiered ‘cinema style’ seating, I count a comfortable 15 seats for adults, more if a mix of young children and adults. This room is easily twice as big as a typical home cinema, the speakers have to fill a larger space and the subwoofers have to work even harder to fill the entire room. To ensure the sub frequencies are evenly distributed, a quartet of highly efficient SVS cylindrical PC-13-Ultra subwoofers are employed in the four corners of the room, then a fifth subwoofer, a ported PB-13 Ultra subwoofer is placed at the front stage. My concern about bass energy distribution is dispelled when I move around the room to locate ‘hot spots’ and dips – the bass energy is indeed evenly distributed with just a tad room gain nearer the corners. In any of the listening position, the bass level is very well balanced.

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System supplied by KEC Sound System Jamo C809 Front Jamo C 80 CEN Center Jamo C 80 SUR Surround/surround back SVS PC13-Ultra x 4 SVS PB13-Ultra Front sub Onkyo TX-N5510 AVR Marantz UD5005 SACD/BD player 128-inch screen Epson TW8000 projector BIK BJ-D1000PR Karaoke pre BIK BJ-D1000 5-ch power amplifier Golden Voice GV-8118 microphone amp

Apart from the subwoofers, the sound system uses Jamo Concert series loudspeakers – the front pair are the floorstanding C809 with a C80 CEN center channel. The surround and rears are Jamo C80 bipolar speakers. The system is tuned with Audyssey from the Onkyo TX-N5510 AVR with the Marantz UD5005 SACD/Blu-ray as the 3D optical disc player. I am pretty impressed at how the Jamos are able to deliver the overall impact of the movie in such a large space. The other sources include cable TV and the Karaoke setup with BIK speakers run off as a separate system. Room treatment is a mandatory aspect of a good home cinema setup. In this instance the four walls are acoustically treated with absorption panels. A nice touch is the ambient lighting - when the projector is in used, it allows some degree of illumination for the room without image degradation since the lighting is specially designed not to fall onto the screen but directed upwards and downwards instead. Oh, did I forget to mention the ceiling mounted optic fiber ‘stars’ effect? Cool! Sitting in the comfort of the plush orange grain leather couch, I was treated to the blockbuster of 2012 – The Avengers in 3D no less. The 128-inch screen and Epson’s TW8000 projector displayed superb colours and image quality. I am envious, what a nice way to spend our leisure time!

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$2299

+ 2 pairs 3D glasses

The High Performance wireless 3D LCD Projector!

EH-TW8100w

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 320,000:1 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 #04-36 Singapore 179803 Hotline: 6564-3188 www.hifibargain.com

SM45

SM55

SM65

Definitive Technologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Studio Monitor series reproduces a silky smooth, incredibly detailed sonic image at lifelike volume levels with a sense of ease which is truly remarkable. Movies and music are reproduced with unequaled purity, transparency and lifelike realism.

KEC Sound System Pte Ltd 1 Coleman Street The Adelphi #04-36 Singapore 179803 Hotline: 6564-3188 www.hifibargain.com

Movie Buffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home Cinema A Home Cinema that goes the extra mile

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What makes a stand-out home cinema install? I would suggest, the most critical element is a believable impression of being at a cinema. The first impression I had when I stepped into this home cinema done up by one of our readers, is truly a movie enthusiast home cinema: the acrylic lightbox movie posters are a dead giveaway! It serves not only to give the room the cinema like feeling but also provide some illumination, if that may be necessary, when the movie is running. Elsewhere, more pictures from various movies as well as scaled figurines (like the Star Wars item) adorn the walls and shelving of the room. The room may not be cavernous; it would sit about 6 persons comfortably on the couches and recliner combined. Perhaps after adding a couple of beanbags, it could accommodate another three or four more persons. If I did not mention, you would not have known the room has been acoustically treated - the side and back walls have acoustic treatment before the acoustic wall paper goes over

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them, so is the ceiling before it is painted black. The cavity behind the feature wall is filled with sound absorbent rock wool and even the floor has acoustic tiles before the carpet goes over. And the door. Who would have thought about acoustic treating the door? In this case, we have a double layer door, yes, a really solid and weighty door enough to keep the sound in. To further seal the room, the a rubber rib around the door keeps the air pressure within the room. That takes dedication! Concealing the speakers, the feature wall is built with the requisite depth to accommodate not just the in-wall speakers, in this case from Definitive Technology but also enough depth to conceal the two compact SVS subwoofers! An Onkyo TX-NR818 powers the whole system with blu-ray player from an old LG. An Epson TW8000 projector and 130-inch screen completes the setup!

Have a nice audio or Home Cinema Setup you like to share with our readers? Contact terence@mod-avi.com and you may see your system featured in our next issue!

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When entering a space, the architecture generates the first impression â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the dimension, materials and surfaces... ... then we become aware of the acoustics Premium Swiss made architectural and interior acoustic solutions

8 Ubi Road 2 #08-03 Zervex Industrial Building Singapore 408538 T: 65093529 www.soundzipper.com

Design + Implementation - HiFi Systems, Home Theatre, Recording Studios, Music Rooms, Soundproofing, Acoustic Treatment

7 Myths of Room Acoustics You’ve invested a pretty penny in a great hi-fidelity system, but something still doesn’t sound right to you. Unfortunately, even the most expensive system on its own won’t automatically produce great sound. That’s where room acoustics come in. Room acoustics is an often-misunderstood field – and one where you can easily be duped into spending money on solutions that don’t deliver what they promise. Here’s a look at seven common myths of room acoustics. #1: Just add carpets and curtains for great sound. Carpets and curtains don’t translate to a complete acoustic solution. They only address the high frequencies – and they simply can’t provide the defined performance of lab-tested acoustic panels. Worse, neither tackles the critical problems of speaker boundary interference and boomy bass. #2: Soundproofing means good acoustics. Soundproofing isn’t the same as acoustic treatment. Soundproofing simply stops sound from entering or leaving a space – it doesn’t address the internal sound reflections of the space. In fact, the more you soundproof, the more serious the bass problems will be, as low frequencies are trapped inside. #3: We can “tweak” that boomy bass. The wavelength of bass frequencies means that “tweaks” can’t solve the uneven decay time of bass in a room. Instead, tweaks usually change the balance of mid to high frequencies relative to the bass, causing you to perceive less bass boom – but the problem is still there. #4: Room treatment makes your room dead and lifeless. Professional acoustical design creates living spaces. It’s rampant misuses of thin acoustic material – like egg crate foam – that over-absorbs high frequencies and deadens the sound in a room. Smart solutions aim for flat absorption/diffusion across the audible spectrum.

Adrian Lo - Founder - Soundzipper #5: Room treatment is ugly. Today’s acoustic panels blend seamlessly with your interior design and add beauty to your space. The trick is to integrate room treatment when you design and build your listening room, instead of adding it later. #6: Room treatment is expensive. You’ll find a range of prices for options in room acoustics. An experienced consultant can help you be a savvy shopper and create an affordable room where you can truly enjoy the media equipment you’ve already purchased. #7: I can find the answers on the Internet. Every space is unique, and the Internet can’t address the complexities of your individual acoustic challenges. An experienced consultant with first-hand experience can save you time and money, particularly when brought onto the project early. Let Soundzipper guide you on your acoustical journey. Call us for a consultation today.

8 Ubi Road 2 #08-03 Zervex Industrial Building Singapore 408538 T: 65093529 www.soundzipper.com

Acoustic Anomalies Applicable for Home Cinema or 2-channel Audio Home Cinema enthusiasts are as finicky as Audiophiles. In fact I may even suggest they are one and the same, cut from the same piece of cloth. Most audiophiles grow beyond two channel audio not because they are bored with music but because multichannel playback imposes the sort of challenges they would relish! Two channel or 7.1 channels, the same rules apply – acoustics, acoustics, acoustics! Attend to that and most of the problems will be solved. The rest is just the equipment preference. The first room we featured in the last issue and this setup face the same problem – smallish living room, a common feature in all newer private housing developments. I bet the bedrooms are even smaller! A smaller space may not necessarily be any easier to rectify acoustic anomalies than a big room – it is just a different set of issues to contend with. In this setup, the main concern is the long and narrow living/dining room where the system resides. The owner does not want any form of sound treatment to be visible. The profusion of shelving and furniture do wonders at breaking up any standing waves though there was the usual bugbear – SBIR or Speaker Boundary Interface Response, a fancy term for peaks, dips and cancellation! Using large subwoofers in a smallish room will encourage some major standing wave. The entire wall behind the 64-inch Samsung Plasma has been treated with an acoustic paneling material from Topakustik. It is used as an absorptive/reflective material – one that does not render the sound too ‘live’ or too ‘dead’. The drop ceiling was another area of concern, rock wool stuffing did the trick to damp any resonance especially within the cavity. In addition, the drop ceiling was reinforced to prevent rattling especially when copious amount of low bass is pumped into the room. The most bass cancellation is smack in the middle of the room where the listening chair sits. To compensate, a second subwoofer is employed to provide the fill. The owner of this system tells the tale about the greatest difficulty he had with the positioning of the subwoofers. Originally the main subwoofer, a big JL f113 was sitting on the floor. It didn’t work too well there. Being at the corner of the room is possibly the WORSE place for a subwoofer. Not having the space to move everything around, he simply raised the subwoofer onto the concrete ‘bay window ledge’ which is a popular sitting spot. By lifting the subwoofer off one boundary – the floor, that took away the bass boom and add an element of extension with control.

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That didn’t help the room cancellation at the listening position. That’s where the second ‘fill’ subwoofer came into the picture. Placed on the floor just behind the Eames lounge chair, the Hsu Research MBM helps to fill the void while contributing significantly less than the main subwoofer to the overall sound. The Hsu subwoofer is also EQed to operate at a higher frequency – from 50 Hz up than the main sub, the JL f113. The idea is to allow the JL to provide the bass extension while the Hsu is relieved of having to push out the extreme low bass, will just need to contend with delivering the midbass slam – that thump on your chest feeling. Needless to say, the sub placement was a lot of trial and error even with Audyssey tuning from the Denon AVR, there were lots of room to ‘tweak’ the two subs to one’s preference. The funny thing at the end of the entire subwoofer saga was – it worked well not just for home theatre but the dual subs work well with the B&W 804s on strereo playback as well. There you go – good bass quality is nothing to do with 2-channel vs multi-channel. It is all about

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setup and system tuning. The rest of the system comprise the B&W 804’s for the front left and right with a B&W HTM4 center channel which replaces his earlier ‘all’ Monitor Audio system. He left the Monitor Audio RXRF dipole surrounds alone and he had a pair of Usher 520 bookshelf perched on the Ikea Billy bookshelves to serve as rear channels. The electronics includes the new Oppo BD105, Denon 4520 AV receiver, a Musical fidelity A 5.5 stereo amplifier just for the B&W 804s, a cheap LG Blu-ray player for multi-region. Cables were a hotch poch mix of QED, Audioquest (HDMI) and Wireworld. In conclusion, the three key elements in the setup of this system have been fulfilled – understanding how components behave and work together, proper set up of the system and room acoustic correction all go towards an impressive and enjoyable experience.

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In this bedroom set-up the Artisan towers at 1.2m and weighs in at 65 Kg a piece. Finished in attractive Macassar Ebony, this dark grained native chick bares its quintet of drive units (there is no grill) – a version of the acclaimed Scanspeak’s Revelator tweeter, a 5.5-inch Accuton ceramic midrange and three 7-inch Accuton ceramic woofers. The midrange driver is said to have its own tuned enclosure. The crossover is a simple design with minimal components and consequently the speaker represents an easy load – a recommended minimum 25 watts is all it takes. The speaker only offers single set of binding posts – there is no biwiring or biamp option. The speaker is said to use a special directional internal wiring with a ‘harmonic optimised’ length.

Lumen White represents one of the new generations of loudspeaker companies to embrace new driver technologies such as ceramic drivers and speaker enclosures using curvatures to avoid having parallel-sided walls. Ever since the company was launched into public prominence, Lumen White has garnered raved reviews and favourable critic comments that made me wonder, shouldn’t this loudspeaker be as successful as the likes of Revel or Wilson Audio (likely competitors given the product range price points)? No matter, Lumen White is now available through X Audio and this pair installed is the Lumen White Artisan. Lumen White doesn’t make a lot of different models – the other two models are the top-of-theline SilverFlame and the entry level Aquila. There seems to be a standard formula for the Lumen White speakers – all are three-way loudspeaker with a different tweeter/midrange combination to differentiate the three models together with a trio of 7-inch woofers. The three models differ somewhat in the enclosure design that you can almost say they are almost identical but each will have its own sonic signature from the contribution of their respective undamped enclosure. Lumen White design philosophy is time coherence, and phase coherence in an undamped speaker enclosure The wood used to build the enclosure is said to be base on ‘tone wood’, that I suppose it means it uses the type of wood commonly used for musical instruments – eg birch. As such, Lumen White embraces the notion of ‘resonance optimised’ behaviour to imbue their speaker with a more musical sound reproduction. This is quite a departure from the likes of Magico and B&W where the aural contribution of the enclosure is minimised as far as possible. Well, there are no hard and fast rules and we should let the aural performance determines its worth rather than attention to the technicalities. 42 MOD AV

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Driving the Artisan is the new Octave monoblocs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the MRE220 with the new KT-120 power tube. The quartet of tubes deliver a whopping 220 watts into the Artisanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 6-ohm load. The preamp is the Acoustic Arts Tube preamp II. For the source, the system uses both CD (Acoustic Arts Reference Drive II) and computer audio music files using an extensively modified Mac Mini. A slew of peripherals accompany the Mac Mini using Snow Leopard OS into a Calyx DAC. The Mac Mini is upgraded to a solid-state drive (SSD) to store the OS and media players (Pure Music and Audirvana) while all the music files are stored in an external 3.5-inch HDD. The Mac Mini is powered using an audio grade power supply made by a company call Core Audio Technology and the external HDD has its own external power supply as well.

Acoustic Arts Tube Preamp II

Acoustic Arts Reference Drive II

Octave Audio MRE220 Power amplifier using the new KT-120 vacuum tubes 44

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download MOD AudioVideo eZine formatted for iPAD*

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Pioneer N-50 Music Streamer

One of the first music streamers – Slim Devices super affordable Squeezebox network player was a big hit almost a decade ago and it certainly contributed to the rise of computer audio. Being able to play music files from a PC to a proper hifi system was a revolutionary step. However when music streaming features start to appear in AV Receivers, the demand for the Squeezebox gradually demise till Logitech who bought over Slim Devices in 2006, decided to end the product line. That is no great loss. Serious performance audio quality music streamers are just about starting to make its appearance – Aurender, Linn, Naim, EMM Labs, dCS, Wadia, and possibly every known electronics and digital company will have some form of music streamer in their line up. Well, who wants to miss the boat? With all the industry heavy weights, there can only be better products, even if it won’t be cheaper products like the Squeezebox. Now Pioneer decides to join the fray. The N-50 music streamer is one affordable device compared to the other mentioned here. However what is to differentiate between the N-50 to say, a Pioneer network capable AVR? Pioneer claims they have applied many premium sound enhancing components to the N-50 and it is likely the N-50 owner will like to slot the device into a stereo system than a home cinema system. The N-50 comes in a standard width chassis and should sit comfortably with your other components. Connectivity includes toslink, coax and USB digital in as well as toslink and coax digital out. The latter is to stream to another DAC? A LAN 10/100 (no need for gigabit even for hires music files) input allows the unit to connect to a network to extract the files from a NAS for instance or to access the internet for streaming radio service. If the N-50 is nowhere near enough to run a LAN cable, there is an option to use a proprietary wireless dongle. Apart from that we have the mandatory analogue RCA only out and a

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detachable IEC power socket. On the front face, there is a USB input (capable of charging an iPad or other tablette PCs). Five small buttons next to the display enable the user to select source (labeled as ‘function’) and the customary play/pause, stop, next and previous. The display though small, you have to go up close to see the words on display. Pioneer has incorporated the ability for the N-50 to locate and where possible, display album art even if you don't have it on your PC. The N-50 does not come with built-in hard disk storage, which can be a bit of a problem – it cannot read music files directly from a portable USB hard drive – curiously it can read from a USB thumb drive. It transpires that the N-50 can only read from a FAT32 format and not NTFS formatted hard disk drive. This is a major disadvantage I think Pioneer should address in their next generation of product. Not everyone has a NAS. The N-50 plays all audio codecs – MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA,WAV and Apple lossless (transcoding software provided). To decode all this, Pioneer employs its own proprietary DAC with an ‘ultra accurate’ clock (meaning asynchronous), HiBit32 to upsample to a maximum of 24-bit. 3-stage DSP is provided to give a bit of ‘oomph’ to the sonic presentation, useful especially for MP3 and internet radio. Or if you are a purist, there is the ‘Pure Audio’ mode which shuts off all form of processing save D to A conversion. I am not one so I was very pleased to hear the subtle effects of the DSP enhancement. I am pretty impressed with the N-50 thus far. For just $1199, I’d say the N-50 is very much an upgraded Squeezebox with far superior sonics though it doesn’t outclass the Squeezebox in features and connectivity. My wish is the next generation of the N-50 to have wifi and Bluetooth built-in plus the convenience of being able to read off a USB HDD. With that, the N-50 will be a killer product.

the Zeppelin to demonstrate Audioquest power cables! Cable business may be getting smaller but Audioquest can still get bigger. We thought the digital world will do less damage to audio and so presents less opportunities. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) it doesn’t. However if I was a Pagan, I will worship two gods – the first one is that the HDMI cable does not come in the box (of the Blu-ray player, TV, set top box, etc) and two – the audio signal is easily damaged. You must remember the people who designed the HDMI cable are not audio people and for most people, when it comes to AV, the video gets the attention. For instance you can enjoy a movie in an old black and white TV but to experience the feeling – feeling scared for instance, that rely on the audio soundtrack. Picture is not important but is easy to show to others. Audio makes more difference (to the overall experience). Another way of looking at this issue – let’s say you plan to watch TV tonight with the expectation of the movie or game, ie the software, is worth your time. But if you want to listen to music, then the quality of the sound must be good enough to be worth spending time on. A music collection is like a medicine cabinet – there is music for meditation, to cleanse the mind. Music to make us happy or whatever music do for us. Music is a binary reaction – if it sounds fantastic then it is worth spending your time on, if not then you should be doing something else! That said, we should be able to enjoy music no matter how good the system is – for instance a bad radio in a rental car you can still enjoy the song. Selling hifi vs selling video are different relationships. From left: Steve Shade (VP AP Sales), Bill Low (CEO) and Jake Tai (Regional Sales Manager, Asia)

Audioquest’s chief Bill Low is no stranger to the hifi scene in Singapore. Having met him on numerous occasions, the first time when I was still in the retail and thereafter, each time with a different distributor. It seems like a game of musical chairs when it comes to the Audioquest distributorship.

BL: I admit, we never have a market with that much changes in distributorship as Singapore. It is disruptive. Your business model here is that a distributor is also a retailer. Audioquest diversity is best served with a proper distributor with multiple channels to handle the various product lines we have to offer, I think with Unicorn, we have achieved that. MOD AV: How has the cable industry changed over the years? BL: The hifi market is getting smaller and with that so does (the demand for) cables. Since 2007, cable sales are dominated by video. A big part of Audioquest business is HDMI but with slowing sales of TVs, we would expect sales of HDMI cables to slow in tandem. Almost every market sees through the eyes of Audioquest – USB, Ethernet, fiber optic, etc. We make a lot more cables but the concepts haven’t change. People who do a good job will still have opportunities. The Audiophile business is not what it used to be and for many who cater solely for the audiophiles will see the cable business getting smaller. MOD AV: Going wireless is going to make things worse…. BL: Wireless have been discounted for a long time, I believe the main motivation of wireless is to reduce labour costs. But don’t dismiss wireless entirely. Still, it does not replace wires completely. One of our ads – declares the ‘wireless frontier’. About 3 years ago ‘wireless’ TVs were introduced – except that you still need to hook up a wired adapter to receive the wireless signal! I have an interesting anecdote – Joe Atkins of B & W loudspeakers told me once the world is ‘going wireless’ with the likes of the Zeppelin. I told him that Audioquest is one of the largest user of the Zeppelin – all Audioquest dealers uses

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Recall your first music system, it is enjoyable, and as you upgrade the system it sounds better but to enjoy the experience, it isn’t necessarily any better. Hence the feedback loop – to buy new equipment to keep enjoying, to keep the fun, rediscover old recordings. The more expensive the system, the more difficult it is to relax - the situation of the burnt out customer who expects too much. It is important to understand hifi is a journey and audio should be an enjoyable journey. That’s the price of conciousness – death and loneliness. MOD AV: You say the digital audio signal is easily damaged… BL: The video part is fine – the signal either gets through or it doesn’t. However, the wires that carries the audio signal in the HDMI cable is still subject to the same problems that plagues any cable – digital or analogue. The concepts of cable design for analogue and digital is no different – solid stranding, purity of the conductors, etc. However, for digital, gold has no electrical value – a gold plated HDMI cable does nothing – it helps to sell that’s all. Silver on the other hand is beneficial to digital data transmission – a thick silver plating over copper conducts the entire signal effectively. The use of stranded versus solid cable – both cost as much to make - we used solid cable even for the cheapest $30 Audioquest cable. It is more important to use it in the right

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direction. For instance the iPhone cable – the standard cable you buy as a replacement cost the same as Audioquest cheapest version and ours sound so much more convincing. I believe none of the ‘audiophile’ USB cable sounds as good as a standard printer cable. Engineering is based on facts – science is theory not proven wrong. Engineering is by itself a prison. In hifi all designers live on the edge to go beyond what is known or understood. Digital is the best friend of analogue – for better or worse – is a good compromise. And Audioquest have very little competition in digital. The frontier is digital cables, the skeptism that exist is good for Audioquest – once you hear it, you just cannot ignore it! MOD AV: More people are listening to music as a secondary activity – through desktop systems… BL: Ah… desktop systems – there are two kinds – the first is the computer substitutes for the CD player or turntable and the other is ‘headphones–off-the-head’. Nearfield is important for the future. The audiophile’s missing word is ‘immersion’. People used to think only multi-channel can give immersion. Two-channel stereo is able to convey much of that immersion – if done correctly. What’s the most important – the most important thing is to know there is no most important thing! Everything counts! Hifi people want to have fun (not just girls? – Ed) – system to connect you to the music, an emotional transportation, when you are in a good mood, you don’t need good hifi. The difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad hifi’ is how long u can listen to it. With a better hifi – have an easier time to connect with the music. I have an Audi A8 and a Porsche Cayenne – both comes with built-in systems – I do not get a better sound but it is easy to have a better experience. In my opinion, the real problem of hifi systems today is not missing info but ‘added’ missing info – energy move in time when it is not suppose to. A form of timing error so the brain have to work harder to interprete the sound. You know sound is basically changes in air pressure as perceived by our ear drums, and that links to the brain. A speaker produces sound so our brain, a powerful computer, is working constantly to recognize the changes in air pressure. When the audio signal is not transmitted in time – changes in time relationship - the brain have to work harder to try to figure out what that sound was. Reviewers use the word ‘noise’ a lot, a scratch on a record is not a noise – noise is a random energy with no meaning. When noise is taken away eg the effect of radio noise interference – the listener is more emotionally enabled. As a manufacturer, we need to have a better understanding of something that stirs the listener – we are concerned with information – the human response. Bose does a good job to make people happy. That’s not happening with many hifi companies.

When Thiel released the CS3.7 some five years ago, it heralds a new direction for Thiel loudspeakers – the distinctive Thiel proprietary designed coaxial tweeter and midrange drive unit as well as the dual metal coned woofers. It has several first for Thiel – a cabinet built using birch ply and a solid milled aluminium front baffle. Gone are the thick MDF used in previous Thiel speaker cabinets. For what it was worth, the CS3.7 was a revolutionary design. After which Thiel continued with the conventional speaker built- the SCS4T, the limited edition CS2.4SE a reprise of the original CS2.4 with a little extra touch but not very much different in the way of a ‘new’ loudspeaker. Forward 2013, Thiel announces the CS2.7, clearly associating the new ‘7’ series with the CS3.7 than any sort of progression from the CS2.4. Already the CS1.7 has been announced but will NOT feature the expensive coaxial driver of the CS2.7 or CS3.7. Instead it will remain a discrete driver loudspeaker design. That makes the CS2.7 a pretty exceptional loudspeaker given its roots is more of a smaller and less expensive CS3.7 for smaller rooms. The CS2.7 and CS3.7 are effectively a new generation of Thiel loudspeakers. The CS2.7 sells for around USD9900 a mid-priced offering by high-end standards, a very affordable proposition indeed. The CS2.7 stands at just over a meter tall and the ‘round’ head of the CS3.7 is somewhat toned down a little in the smaller brother. Like the CS3.7, the CS2.7 uses birch ply to form the curve cabinet sitting on massive spikes. The coincident mounted 1-inch aluminium dome tweeter complements the 4.5-inch aluminium star diaphragm midrange driver is identical to the unit used in the CS3.7. Both drivers use neodymium magnets in a strong diecast chassis. The low end is complemented with an 8-inch aluminium cone woofer and a ‘racetrack’ passive radiator. With the CS2.7, Thiel dropped the aluminium baffle of the CS3.7 in favour of a thick slab of mdf on the CS2.7. With the CS2.7 (and the CS3.7) you can actually ‘see’ where your money goes into! Crossover is first order (6 dB/octave) with a 4-ohm load. Key to Thiel loudspeaker designs is their phase coherent crossover

design. Like all Thiels, there is no bi-wire/bi-amp offered. The CS2.7 needs power (which Thiel doesn’t?), the minimum recommended power at 100 watts means you better be properly geared to make the CS2.7 sing. Given the few pairs of CS3.7 I have heard thus far, it seems they are pretty flexible in placement. I have heard them placed closed to the rear wall without problems. I would expect the same of the CS2.7. They perform best in a slightly damped room. Sonically, the CS2.7 shares a similar level of resolu tion as the more expensive CS3.7 in the midrange and high frequencies – an impressive soundfield that makes certain recordings very life like. Here Thiel’s claim for their phase coherent design is put to the test, while some might suggest the dual concentric tweeter/midrange drive unit plus first order crossovers are already ‘phase coherent’, I must add, this not necessar ily holds true for all dual concentric drivers. The CS2.7 scores exceptionally well in this respect. Extending lower into the midband, the CS2.7 made a clear and vivid transition to the lower ranges via a powerful combo – the 8-inch woofer and passive radiator. As I recall, the CS3.7 is even more extended with greater effortlessness, the CS2.7 with its full-bodied mid and upper bass exuberance is not too far behind and may actually be preferable to that of the more extended CS3.7 in a smaller room. This brings the next most obvious question – for someone who is budgeting for a mid priced loudspeaker, both the CS2.7 and CS3.7 qualifies – so which is a better choice? I would still pick the CS3.7 for its superior sense of scale and bass authority. This is not to say the CS2.7 is lacking, if you have not heard the CS3.7, you would be very happy with the CS2.7. It has a large measure of the performance of the CS3.7 without any significant drawbacks and you have enough money left over for a really nice pair of speaker cables. The choice, as ever, is yours to make.

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In the ever-changing world of audio,

one component in the audio chain faces a constant challenge to innovate to keep up with the changes in demand of the music lover. That component is not your loudspeaker, neither is the power amplifier driving them or your source component – turntables, CD players, tape machines, digital media servers. That component is the preamplifier. Truly, if the power amplification is the legs of your system, the preamplifier is likely to be its brain. Why is it so, let me elaborate a little. In the seventies, there was the need for a high performance phono stage in preamplifiers to accompany the everchanging demands of phono cartridges. When CD came along, things got a little simpler when a line only (sans phono stages) preamplifier is all that one would need. In the nineties, when home cinema came into the picture, makers of preamplifiers started to include a home theatre pass through. This enables the utilization of a better sounding amplifier to drive the front left and right loudspeakers while the AV receiver still controls the output level. Now with digital media gradually replacing all forms of optical media – be it CD, DVD or Blu-ray, once again, the preamplifier has to rise to the challenge – to provide the connectivity to all digital media. However unlike CD, a defined red-book standard, digital audio files come in a myriad of formats, or otherwise known as codecs. Finally, these files are delivered to the preamplifier from a computer or music server, using the ubiquitous USB cable, not quite a standard used in typical audio equipment, till now.

McIntosh C48 Digital Preamplifier Unlocking all music media formats

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The new C48 preamplifier from McIntosh Labs is one of the three new preamplifiers offered with a wealth of connectivity – 6 analogue stereo inputs, dual MM and MC phono inputs with adjustable trims. On the digital front, it has a USB, dual Coax and dual Toslink. There are two sets of balanced and another two unbalanced output. This solid-state preamplifier Home Theatre ‘Pass Through’ as well. The C48 comes equipped with advance digital decoding using 32-bit/192 kHz digital to analogue converters. On USB, the digital clock controlling the data stream is controlled from the C48 using a high performance low jitter clock, otherwise known as asynchronous with up-sampling to 32 bit making the data stream independent to the incoming data stream. This way, the USB driver maintains a 32-bit package irrespective if the source is 16 bit or 24 bit. In comparison, many USB converters are not even capable of handling more than 24 bit/ 96 kHz! The innovative construction of the C48 as a dual chassis in one enable the physical separation of digital circuitry and power supplies placed on the lower chassis, away from the analogue circuitry placed above. This ensures that noise from the digital switching does not intrude into the analogue circuits. The steel electrical shielding enhances the performance of the C48 as if the two parts are in separate chassis. The McIntosh C48 preamplifier is now available at Ong Radio.

exposed, you can take S$200 off the price.

trace of blurring. In fact the sheer transparency of the Cronus Magnum is class leading – you probably need to spend much bigger bucks elsewhere to equal let alone surpass. Think of it as a baby Octave and you will be not too far off. That said, if you are going for a modern tube amplifier with a tube-like musicality, the Cronus Magnum should be high on your shortlist.

So how does the Cronus Magnum perform? With tube amplifiers, you need to choose your partnering speakers carefully. Tube amplifiers are by nature, voltage devices while transistors are current driven. There are reports of good match with the Magneplanars (MG1.7) delivering a sense of scale and dynamics only much more expensive amplifiers are able to deliver. For many, ‘cheap’ and ‘tube’ would probably mean ‘Chinese’ – many audiophiles’ first foray into the world of tubes is invariably some cheap Chinese offering which probably go up in smoke the moment they are turned on. OK, may be they are much better in this respect today compared to some years back, the allure of tubes have never diminished. The last ‘cheap’ tube amplifier ‘Made-in-the US’ I can remember is Audio Research VT-60 integrated amplifier – one that sold in pretty respectable numbers back then – no doubt, the strong Audio Research branding helps.

strongly to me – a MM phono stage, a variable pre out and most important – a headphone amplifier stage. Now you can brag you have a tube headphone amplifier to drive your cans! The variable preout means you can at a later stage of your upgrade plan to bi-amp your speaker with adding the Atlas Magnum power amplifier, which sports an identical power amplifier stage as the Cronus Magnum. There is a remote control for volume up/down and mute for convenience though you have to get off your butt for source selection. The amplifier comes with 3 line level inputs plus the aforementioned solid state phono input.

Of course that does not mean there aren’t any affordable integrated tube amplifiers from the US or Europe, it just so happen that to build and sell for less than, say USD2000 or so, cannot possibly be manufactured in the US. So I am pleasantly surprise to find an affordable ‘100% made in US’ tube amplifier in the form of Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum for a reasonable $3500. This is SIN$ not USD or Euro.

The Cronus Magnum does not sound very tube-like meaning rounded off HF extension, tubby bass and an overly warm sound. If you like that sort of sound, the Cronus Magnum will disappoint. Instead, the characteristic of the Cronus Magnum is very linear and extended frequency response with nary a

The Cronus Magnum is pretty well built with the protective cage. The cage should be a mandatory option should you have children. If you like your tubes

The Cronus Magnum is the premium integrated amplifier using Russian made Tung-Sol KT-120 output tube, the standard Cronus uses KT88s. The KT-120 is the current darling of the KT88, KT90 and 6550 family of tube but with the KT-120, the ability to deliver more power – 100+ watts in push-pull from just one pair of these tubes, has its advantage - using a pair of KT-120 tubes delivers similiar power output with lower distortion than a quartet of 6550 tubes. The tube is also physically taller than the 6550 and KT88 variants. Rogue Audio specify a conservative 100 watts rms. Maintenance of the tubes is painless – though you will need to check the tube biasing every now and then, Rogue Audio has incorporated a biasing meter for convenience. What is not so convenient is the impedance tapping – most tube amplifiers will have three piece binding post per channel – one each for 4 ohm and 8 ohm and return. To save those few pennies, Rogue opt to deny the convenience of an ‘instant’ swap by providing only one pair of binding post per channel. To change between 8 ohms and 4 ohms require removing the base and swap the tapping cables from the output transformer. If you do not change speakers frequently then this is not a big issue. There are a couple of features of the Cronus Magnum appeal

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Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum Output tubes 4 x KT120 Rated at 100 wpc 4 and 8 ohm Phono stage 35 dB gain 3 line inputs One variable and one fixed pre output Headphone amplifier

Looking at innards of every Magico loudspeaker,

you may forgive me for using the term ‘value for money’. First you have bespoke drive units designed and made in-house at Magico that you can never buy off the shelf - the extensive machined lattice network to brace and stifle all internal speaker resonance or perhaps the solid milled panels for the outer enclosure that befits an Abrams M1 or a Leopard tank! A Magico loudspeaker can never be a mass produced product, each piece is hand assembled by a team of skilled artisans and take many man hours. As such the price tag reflects the work involved to build every Magico loudspeaker. Given the success of the M series, there will always be a clamour for something a little more affordable. To appeal to a wider audience, Magico has been developing a series of loudspeakers, one that will satisfy the more budget oriented audiophile and home theatre enthusiasts. To appeal to the latter does not mean the sound will need to be any less musical, it just have to withstand the rigours of Home Cinema applications. The result is the new S series. So how does Alon Wolf, the chief designer for Magico able to come up with a less expensive loudspeaker yet meeting up to his exacting standards in music playback? The answer is simple – use of extrusion cast enclosure minimise costs as are the use of a conventional flat baffle for the cabinets. The enclosure employs a curvature to minimise internal standing waves. A simplified internal bracing structure further cuts the cost of the cabinet. The ‘S’ would probably stand for ‘Simplified’ but in spirit, the S series is still very much the DNA of every Magico loudspeaker. The S series debut in our show last year fronting a home theatre setup. I know then the speaker is new and not fully run in so I waited a couple of months after the show before I have a good listen to it. I do avoid the prejudice of listening to a less than stellar performance of a product not in its prime. The S5 (there is a slim 2-way floorstanding version – the S1 coming in later this year) is a full range floorstanding loudspeaker. It uses Magico’s own ‘Nano-tech’ tweeter and midrange used in the more expensive Q series. The dual 10” woofers are the new Nano-tech drivers developed exclusively for the S series. In all the S5 looks every bit a Magico without betraying its ‘Simplified’ origins. Like all Magico loudspeakers the S5 sounds best when placed away from boundaries. Having a well damp non-resonant enclosure does not mean the speaker will not excite room resonance. The speaker is a sealed enclosure with a single set of binding posts. Obviously Alon Wolf would want you to buy the best pair of loudspeaker cables you can afford instead of two pairs of average performance cables. The S5 has no preference to tube or solid state amplifiers – it should faithfully reproduce the character of your source and amplification without prejudice and it does. You want a darker, tighter sonic balance? Try solid state. If your tatse veers towards a more organic midrange with a softer and more

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mellow bass presentation, a good tube amplifier would do the trick. That said, I am utterly beguiled by the S5’s sheer transparency to its partnering equipment. My first impression of the S5 is that of a more visceral presence compared to the more musical and laid back Q series. You would probably like one or the other depending on the sonic balance you are trying to achieve. I have a sneaky feeling that Alon may have ‘tuned’ the S5 to perform well at high SPL, in fact if you have an amplifier with enough power, Magico claims the S5 is able to deliver well over 118 dB output. That level of loudness it can go is comparable to standing next to a jet engine! Typical speakers can hardly breach the 100dB output level (some boom boxes excepted). I dare say you may be hard pressed to find another speaker you can buy (at any price) able to deliver the sound pressure level required to fill a large room and with the prerequisite level of musical refinement for both 2-channel music as well as multi-channel home cinema applications. That said, the S5 offers an enormous dynamic range, should you have an amplifier with enough juice to make it possible. One of the hallmarks of a really special loudspeaker is the ability to convey a sense of space; the decay of the ambience – the S5 is effortless when it comes to this, the exceptional Nano-tech tweeters sure is able to resolve such levels of refinement and delicacy it must be heard to believe. So balanced is the soundfield, when I close my eyes, I cannot define where the two speakers are placed. I feel very much transported to the very venue the recording is taking place. Take the old favourite: ‘Jazz at the Pawnshop’, I have heard hundreds of speakers attempting to do just that – transport me to the very pub the recording is made. Only a few are able to achieve that. The S5 is one of the few. At the midrange, I cannot help but noticed the slightly more exuberance balance. Voices are projected clear from the enclosure, not boxed in with some of the more ‘resonant’ cabinet. For this Magico has proven beyond doubt the effectiveness of using the internal lattice structure to impart the ‘quiet’ characteristics. The dual 10-inch woofers provide a mature foundation for the midrange and high frequencies. The S5’s sealed enclosure is less efficient than a ported enclosure providing a slightly lower sound pressure output but the benefit of a sealed box is greater linearity. The S5 with its authoritative low end adds immense sense of scale and power as if there is a subwoofer in place but without the tendency of being slowed down by using one. In conclusion, the S5 is one loudspeaker with much to offer. It preserves much of the refinement of the premium Q series but with a very modern and engaging sound quality that is right up to mark. I can confidently recommend the S5 as one of the best all-rounder loudspeaker, one that is comfortable at home in a two-channel music system as well as the most demanding home cinema system!

Von Schweikert RST-5

Bob Carver VTA305 ‘Black Beauty’

Ribbon Super Tweeters

Ribbons are much prized for their super extended frequency response, sweet and responsive sound and superb dispersion as a line source. Good ribbon design is expensive and only premium speakers like Von Schweikert’s Unifield 3, VR9 and VR11 will sport a ribbon tweeter. For enthusiasts who would like to add a ribbon tweeter to their existing speakers, your only option is a visit to Parts Express for a DIY solution. Till now.

Monobloc Power Amplifier

305 wpc of good old tube wallop!

For the many well known names in tube amplification business I don’t actually recall Bob Carver is very much of a tube guy. From his earlier exploits at Phase Linear back in the early seventies to Sunfire and now a new company simply named after him, were mostly solid state affairs save for his one off ‘Silver Seven’ amplifier - a 900 watt dual chassis monobloc (meaning four chassis for a stereo pair)! With twenty tubes in each chassis placed relatively close together, I can just imagine the heat it produced in our warm tropical weather! It also have a very exciting price tag of USD17,000 some twenty years back which is cheap when you take into account the price of a set of replacement tubes would be quite a bit!

Von Schweikert have been using ribbon tweeters long enough to know the ins and outs of an add-on ribbon tweeter to any loudspeaker so it is logical that if there is anyone who would offer an after market add-on ribbon super tweeter, they should be one of the few. The result is the RST-5 – housed in a small bookshelf is a 5-inch ribbon tweeter complete with a passive crossover with an attenuator (to adjust the output level) and jumper speaker wire. In use, you just tap the signal off your main loudspeaker terminals (on the tweeter terminals if you biwire/biamp) and use your ears to adjust the level output. Ribbon tweeters have very low impedance but in this case, it will not affect your overall speaker impedance load as seen by the amplifier, so just go ahead and plug them in.

Thankfully, sanity prevails when Bob Carver returned with a new company and a new line of ‘Made-in-USA’ products – a small 20 watter using EL84, a six tube KT88 monobloc with 180 watts and a similar six tube KT-120 monobloc with 305 watts rms. If you are not into tube gear, the KT-120 is now the ‘golden tube’ for many tube amplifiers manufacturers from Audio Research to Conrad Johnson to Rogue Audio. The KT-120 offers over 100 watts for a pair, which is easily about 50% more power than what the equivalent KT88 and 6550 can offer. Though the tube looks identical to the KT88, it is slightly taller and electrically, have a higher plate current. There is only one source for the KT-120 – made by a Russian company called Tung Sol. I suppose that might be one of the reasons, why the KT-120 are more ‘bullet proof’ than the KT88/6550s and from reports I gather online, they are longer lasting as well.

Vital Stats

Push-Pull Penthode 6 x KT120 output tube - 305 watts into 8 ohms - 330 watts into 4 ohms - 290 watts into 2 ohms 12AX7 Input tube 12AT7 Pre driver stage 6AL5 Twin diode tube 11dB and 20 dB Feedback control (user selectable) Point to point wiring Star grounding Wire wound and metal film resistors Metal polyester capacitors on signal path 43 lb per chassis Black or Cherry Red finish 14” x 12” x 7.2” DWH Made in USA

5-inch true ribbon tweeter Freq Response 10kHz - 50 kHz Power Handling - NA Impedance - NA RCP $6500

The effect of the attenuator is very gradual and there is a wide variance of setting allowed, depending on the equipment used or even the music you are playing through. That’s the beauty of a super tweeter, while its effect is very mild, the aural perception is enormous. The soundstage is larger and exhibits greater depth, height and width. There is more detail and resolution of the instruments, more lucidity and expressiveness of vocals, crisper and airier high frequency details. But what was most impressive is the improvement in low frequency definition. It is said bass is not just about low frequency, their upper range harmonics lend itself to define the texture and overtones of the instrument. For some strange reason, the presence of extended high frequencies should not be apparent with CD, SACD yes but not CD, which have a steep digital filter at 21 kHz. But it does and the effect is extremely obvious. I can only suggest that the RST-5 extends comfortably down to 10 kHz. While the apparent ‘overlap’ with your main speaker’s tweeter may not be a good thing, suggesting it will ‘sound’ bright’, the opposite is quite true. The higher efficiency (lower impedance) of a ribbon tweeter actually ‘takes over’ from the main tweeter. As such, the tweeters on your main speaker produce less output when the super tweeter plugged in.

As I am writing this, the amplifiers are still on the way here. I will have an update in the next issue on the sound for this amplifier. Or you can audit the amplifiers at Sound Decisions by the time you read this.

You can audition the RST-5 today at Audioline.

PS: It seems the Silver Seven will be back - soon!

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Wadia Intuition

Digital Processor Amplifier

M2Tech Vaughan

M2Tech has been very successful with the ‘Young’ USB DAC giving computer audiophiles a superb ‘value-for-money’ USB DAC to integrate into their audio system. However, for those who are using very high end system, the Young may be deemed a bit of a quality mismatch. For this reason, M2Tech has been working on a ‘high-end’ solution. The result is the ‘Vaughan’.

USB Digital Processor Following the success of products like the Devialet D-Premier wifi amplifier, it would inevitably spawn a new genre of products – like the Wadia Intuition. Wadia is the well known digital audio specialist who has been taken over by an European investment company, Fine Sounds, who also owns Sonus faber, Audio Research, McIntosh, Sumiko has been talking about bringing synergies to the brands they have acquired. It remains to be seen if there will be any sort of hybrid DNA coming out from Italy. Wadia’s new Intuition is perhaps one of the result of the gene splicing experiment. Employing an Italian industrial designer Livio Cuccuza, the chap staring android like in the pic above to design the casework for the all new Wadia Intuition – a digital

converter and amplifier housed in a sleek and stunning alien starship-like chassis. The Digital conversion section of course uses Wadia’s proprietary Digimaster algorithm, the Delta-SigMaster 1.536 MHz upsampling. It will accept digital sources up to 384 kHz/32 Bit and will playback native DSD.

With the Vaughan, M2Tech takes on the heavyweights in digital technology – dCS, Weiss, EMM Labs et al. One of the key design feature of the Vaughan is the use of a battery power supply. Battery power supplies are known to be quiet, stable and good for powering low level circuits – preamps, phono stages and now DACs. The Vaughan looks similar to the M2Tech Young but comes in a more commanding chassis. Oh, it has a volume control meaning the Vaughan can function as a preamplifier as well. It offers a slew of digital inputs – from USB to SPDIF to I2S to AES/EBU. Output in unbalanced , balanced as well as a quarter inch headphone socket at the front. Available now from Raindrop Audio.

Within the 380mm x 380mm polish silver or black anodised aluminium chassis is a 350 watt stereo amplifier, the unit offers 7 digital inputs including USB and I2S as well as two analogue inputs for your legacy source components. How it does that? Class D amplifiers. You can have one for USD7500.

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The TW8000 was Epson’s success story in 3D projectors so its replacement will have quite a task to better, and the TW8100W by all counts, is simply better! Specs frst, contrast levels have improved from 200,000:1 to 320,000:1. With the ‘W’ designation, the new TW8100W comes with wireless connectivity, a boon for those who loathe having to run a long HDMI cable from the AV receiver. The 120 Hz frame interpolation has been carried over from the TW8000 to great effect. At 2400 Lumens, the TW8100W promises brighter, more contrasty and colourful images on 3D with no apparent crosstalk or motion judder.

Epson EH-TW8100W Wireless Projector

Gavio Stormer Folding Headphones

For true portability of full sized headphones, it would need to be able to fit into a small bag. For Gavio’s Stormer, they employ a folding mechanism to tuck in the ear cups for the smallest package size possible. Consequently, the ear cups are also shrunk to match. The 32 ohm Stormer is a closed back headphone with optimal noise isolation and a built-in microphone for use with mobile phones. Comes in a nice tin and retails for only $69 for this cute pair.

Bundled with the TW8100W is the new RF wireless 3D glasses. The use of RF (Radio Frequencies) can only mean connectivity is superior to Infra-ed glasses. The new Epson TW8100W is now available at KEC Sound System.

Origine Digital Audio Source

Aerial Acoustic 7T

From this French company, Neodio comes a high end CD player with USB input. Called the Origine Digital Audio Source, this CD player is geared for the future audio formats. Neodio calls this a CD player and Digital Converter.

Seen at Jay Audio, the new Aerial 7T is quite an accomplished package – standing 1.13m tall, it comes in a nine layered-laminate enclosure with extensive bracing to reduce panel flexing. The three-way design uses a pair of 7-inch bi-laminate woofers with a 5-inch papyrus cone midrange and a one-inch dome tweeter with machined waveguide. Crossover uses Aerial’s favourite forth order Linkwitz-Riley and the crossover networks are separate for the woofers and the mid/tweeter. A nice sound for around ten Gs.

The Origine uses an ultra dense constrained layer chassis construction with 5 different materials – aluminium, Hi-macs, Copper, stainless steel and PMMA and result in a chassis with ‘Zero resonance, zero vibration for the reading mechanism. The 26 Kg chassis then floats on steel ball bearings housed within the three feet. The player’s power supplies come in three transformers with custom mains filter and another custom filter for the DAC power supplies. The player uses a ‘zero quartz reference master clock’ and 24bit/192kHz digital to analogue conversion. It comes with USB and SPDIF digital inputs. The high definition analogue section comes with XLR balanced and RCA unbalanced output.

Encompass Digital Media Asia

launches 100th channel from its Singapore Facility Encompass Digital Media, a digital media provider with global satellite and terrestrial connectivity announces a major broadcast milestone with the origination and transmission of 100 channels from its Singapore facility. Encompass has a client base which includes AETN All Asia Networks, AMC, BBC Worldwide, BBC, CNBC. Discovery Communications, FOX, LiTV, MTV Networks, Scripps Networks, Sony Asia, Tata Communications and Tigergate.

Neodio’s designer Stephane Even claims the Origine took him twelve years to design and produces a sound quality that challenges the best vinyl turntables. For more information check out their website: www.neodio.fr

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Western Digital My Net N900 Central Router with network storage Western Digital, one of the few surviving hard drive makers has in recent years started to diversify its business, now supplies wireless routers and in this case, wireless routers with a built-in hard drive. What this means the hard drive can be accessed by all the computers, wireless or wired – in effect what we call a Network Attached Storage or NAS in short. Putting a wifi router together with a NAS is not new, Apple has done that before with their Time Capsule. The N900 is a wireless ‘N’ router with 4 LAN ports with a USB port. The USB port can be used to connect to an additional hard disk drive. Unlike most routers, it does not have an external antenna. It offers simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless ‘N’ connectivity and WD claims superior range coverage. You can buy the option of a 1 TB or 2 TB 2.5-inch hard drive. The case is plastic with an external wall plug power supply.

Epson EH-TW550

Cheapest 3D projector in the market There is never a better time to buy a projector than now – being cheaper, better, faster – hey, we are talking about the Epson EH-TW550, the world’s brightest and cheapest 3D projector! With 3000 lumens, the TW550 is bright enough to use in a room with less than a total black out. Despite the higher than normal brightness level, the lamp life is said to expect something like 5000 hours on eco mode. To achieve this level of brightness from a 200 watt lamp, is the new Epson – Twin Optimized Reflection Lamp or E-TORL in short. This lamp makes use of additional reflectors to increase the brightness output, hence there is no sacrifice of lamp life to achieve higher brightness. To put things in perspective, if you watch one movie every night, you need about 7 years to finish up the lamp. Add Epson’s generous 3 year warranty on the whole projector (1 year warranty on the lamp), the TW550 is exceptional value!

So is there any catch? There has to be - its only 720p and even with 3D, you half that resolution. For 3D the glasses are the new RF type which promises better connectivity and line of sight is not a necessity. There is no 2D to 3D conversion, no 120 Hz frame interpolation and the lens zoom is also limited compared to the higher models. The quoted contrast ratio is just 5000:1, the sort of specifications from LCD a few years ago and not quite the current day cutting edge black levels but possibly ‘good enough’ for the starter home cinema enthusiasts using a screen no larger than 100” or a serious gamer who wants a more immersive gameplay experience. For around $1499, as expected the 3D glasses are an optional extra, that’s quite a saving from the TW6000 which is asking for $2299.

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More important is the N900 is designed to be easy to set up. Setting up a NAS can be a challenge for the novice, and I am glad to say if you can set up a router, the N900 is literally ready to go. One of the useful and relevantfeature for videophiles is FasTrack. This router can monitor the type of traffic going through it, and if it detects video is being streamed, it will throttle other activity to keep the bandwidth wide enough for the HD video to be smoothly streamed through. WD offers a free mobile app for users to access the N900 – called WD 2Go is available for iOS and Android. This is an all-purpose tool to help you organise and access your files. In use the N900 is easy to setup and from the word go, I can start moving files from my wired PCs to the HDD and access some of the files from my iPad. With just a single HDD, the

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N900 is technically biased towards casual users as the single drive does not offer the security of a dual drive NAS in RAID. Also for my case, our routers are always left on 24/7, my concern is the internal drive is the common WD ‘Blue’ series which are desktop/laptop class HDD and definitely not meant to be powered 24/7. I would have thought WD would see fit to equipped the N900 with their new ‘Red’ series or even the more expensive ‘Black’ series enterprise class hard drive which are designed for continuous power 24/7 for use in things like NAS and security cameras. I suppose a dual drive RAID option will escalate cost considerably without the potential buyer asking ‘why dual drives still same capacity?’ If you are like me who really take considerable pains to back up all my files, a proper NAS is a necessity. If all you want is to back up and share your files from your computer to this network drive, the N900 would fit the bill nicely. The N900 is competitively priced at $329 for the 1 TB and $399 for the 2 TB option. Available at the usual IT outlets.

Symbol Audio

Mitsubishi HC8000D

Modern Record Console

3D Full HD DLP Projector Mitsubishi launched its latest 3D projector, the HC8000D which replaces the HC7800 and will retail for a competitive $4999. This Full HD DLP projector boasts contrasts levels of 330,000:1 with a median lumen output of some 1300 comes with manual vertical lens shift but not horizontal lens shift. For 3D enthusiasts, the HC8000D will do 2D to 3D conversion. The HC8000D will also offer frame rate conversion to 24 fps for film content and 30 fps for video. Finally the HC8000D is ISFccc certified with two additional professional calibrated image modes – ISF Day and ISF Night. The Mitsubishi HC8000D is now available at Sound Decisions.

At long last, we have furniture based company taking a stab at making a nice sounding piece of furntiture. Symbol Audio marries a little old school (the real walnut console), with a little not so new school (turntable and tube amplifier) with a little new school for the wifi and subwoofer. Ta da, here comes the Modern Record Console. No cassette, no open reel and definitely no CD. The various components are said to be collaboration with specialist manufacturers – the turntable is from Project with a Sumiko Blue Point #2 cartridge, which is kinda obvious but they are keeping mum about the speaker and tube amplifier supplier. The subwoofer is cleverly hidden on the pedestal and behind it, a solid-state amplifier is bolted on – exactly like a typical active subwoofer. The choice of dual concentric 6.5-inch is a mystery, it would be nice to have if Kef would supply their UNI-Q driver from their LS50! If you want one, you will have to contact Symbol Audio for information on prices and shipping. They are made to order and that could mean you can specify the wood finish you desire.

Datasat RS20i Digital Audio Processor

For home cinema fans who are on the lookout for the best in sound processing, the Datasat RS20i may be one for your consideration. From the DTS group who sold the business to Datasat, the RS20i derives from technology developed after Datasat took over the company and their engineers. The RS20i is a consumer derivitive of the AP20 professional processor used in studios for processing audio content in movie studios. The AP20 is said to be involved in many of the latest blockbusters such as the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, Men in Black 3 and Jurassic Park.

The casing for the RS20i is designed by an award-winning designer company, Neal Feay as an attractive component for any luxury home entertainment system. Clarity AV is the distributor for Datasat RS20i in Singapore and Malaysia.

www.symbolaudio.com

With 16 channels of digital and analogue inputs and outputs, the RS20i meets the 16-channel Digital Cinema Package mandated by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI). With 16 channels of digital audio available, the RS20i supports up to 85 digital and analogue inputs as well as 34 audio output channels, allowing the processor to accommodate all surround sound formats currently available including true 3D sound. Top ease the setup of all that many channels, the RS20i incorporates Dirac Live Room Optimisation Technology – an auto tune feature.

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influences. Written to reflect a challenging time in his life, the easy funk title track finds Langer in a slight melancholy mood in the verses, feeling hopeful in the pre-chorus and hitting his stride, breaking through to the light on the exuberant chorus. The tropical, Latin-flavored “Epifania” introduces the listener to Langer’s wistful melodic soprano, his colorful horn texturing and Wally Minko’s lively acoustic piano. The similarly vibrant and percussive “Outside In” features a playful jazzy sax melody and Minko’s Fender Rhodes coolness over Matt Bissonette’s bubbling bass groove. Following the lighthearted and melodic “Refuge” is the edgy jazz/rock fusion ballad “Remember When”—the first song Langer composed for the album. It begins as a moody sax driven ballad, then evolves in emotional intensity and a touch of gritty blues with Griffey’s blistering electric guitar intensity. Minko’s Hammond B-3 adds an old school bluesy jazz flavor to the bouncy mid tempo funk of “City Lights”, which features Langer at his alto strutting best.

Charley Langer

sometimes refers to his debut full length independent recording Never The Same as “an art project with some very hot players” – but there’s no doubt about the Northern California based saxophonist’s mainstream potential and ability to connect with thousands of contemporary jazz fans in his home region and around the U.S. and world.

Even before the album’s official release, its infectious and grooving title track received significant airplay on The Weather Channel and Smooth Jazz.com, and the video Langer made of the song gets about 400 views per day and has had over 115,000 lifetime views on YouTube. Fans can also create a “Charley Langer” station on Pandora – a rarity for a still emerging indie artist. While he played saxophone in Southern California for a few years after receiving his Master’s in Performance from USC, the classically trained Langer had been away from music for a few years when Jon Basebase, a renowned musician that he befriended while living in Honolulu, suggested he begin playing and writing again. Langer had moved to Hawaii, where he worked as an environmental specialist, but found ample opportunities to play with Basebase and others including the Bobby King Royal Combo and Willie Barton Orchestra. After relocating to Sacramento, California, Langer began focusing on composing and recording and hooked up with drummer/producer Ron Wikso, who currently performs with Gregg Rollie, founding keyboardist for Journey and Santana. Wikso brought in a heavyweight ensemble that includes rock guitarist Kurt Griffey, world-class bassist Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report), keyboardist Wally Minko (Jean Luc Ponty) and percussionist Michito Sanchez (Joe Sample).

This unique lineup helped Langer realize a vision that incorporates everything from smooth contemporary jazz to rock/fusion, old school soul/jazz, Latin and straight ahead/swing. The result is best described as intelligent smooth jazz – think Phil Woods meets Boney James. “I have varied interests and I love smooth jazz, fusion, classical, Hawaiian, reggae…and I grew up listening to swing and big band via my dad,” says Langer, who has also performed hundreds of gigs over the past eight years as part of the award winning Steely Dan tribute band, Steelin’ Dan.

Though the seductive reflection of “Gray Skies” has a gentle melancholy feeling, Langer actually wrote it on a very hot Sacramento afternoon when he was dreaming of a cooler, cloudy day. He calls the album’s spirited; straight ahead jazz/swing excursion “Upside down” because it was inspired by one of his favorite Charlie Parker tunes, “Confirmation”. To create the classic big band vibe, Langer says he flipped Parker’s song upside down, so his song is rhythmically similar to the original tune but the melody moves in a completely opposite direction. Never The Same wraps with the in-thepocket, soaring “Once In A Lifetime” (which features colorful horn textures and brass flourishes) and the dark, haunting “Expressivo”, an ambient piece which includes a tender call and response pattern between Langer’s emotional soprano and Mark Morris’ acoustic guitar

Charley Langer‘s Bio from at www.charleylanger.com Buy ‘Never The Same’ from the same website Download Charley’s FREE sampler track at www.mod-avi.com! Langer’s first love and he began taking lessons from his junior high band teacher, Vincent Gnojek, who worked with several prominent classical groups. He developed his technique under such masters of the saxophone as Gnojek, Douglas Masek and Laura Hunter.

“So naturally,” he says, “the music on Never The Same reflects a lot of these interests. Ron Wikso was great about making sure that it all hung together. The idea was to keep it very real with all live players and authentic instruments. If I wanted acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes or a Hammond B-3 organ, we used the real article. I wanted everything to sound organic and fresh, and I’m very excited that people are responding so positively to what they’re hearing.”

While Langer found numerous opportunities to work as a musician after finishing grad school, he became discouraged at one point and “took the straight route” – first working in fundraising for the radio station KUSC and later following (sort of) in his dad’s scientific footsteps as an environmental specialist, supervising the cleanups of hazardous waste sites. This career gave him the foundation to pursue his musical dreams in many unique ways, from his years of playing with Steelin’ Dan to recording and releasing his debut CD.

Langer grew up in Boulder, Colorado, the son of a geophysicist who was also a jazz and big band aficionado. His father tried to steer him towards engineering, but music was

Debut Album - Never The Same Never The Same lives up to its name in that each of its ten tracks has its own distinct vibe, personality and set of musical

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Magico

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Q7 is the single most impressive product - in any category that I've come across in more than 23 years of full-time reviewing.â&#x20AC;? Robert Harley The Absolute Sound, January 2013

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