I had a day off last week because a typhoon attacked Hong Kong. It ended up with an audition in AE of nearly 5 hours on what PT stated as his latest summit in his hifi path. I also went to AE the following day because of another fine tuning in the system which brought PT to another summit.
The first day was a "omakase" (meaning the chef made food for his customers) by PT. All I did was to sit down and enjoy the music. He showed me different pieces of music from different sources including vinyl, CAS and CD. The first part was vinyl on violin, piano, Cello and vocal. The phono used was Wadax which I listened to it before when it was used as pre-amp as well. Now, Wadax just simply performed the job of phono with the pre-amp job done by the superb Dalby pre-amp. The sound of violin was very detailed and beautiful, not aggressive, not any sign of sharp angle. The adjective that came to my mind at once was "elegant". Sound of piano made me speechless again. PT said he is tuner of piano and as such he must reproduce the best piano sound from his system. Every single note of the piano was reproduced in AE in a crystal clear manner and the force of pianist's hands could be clearly felt. The Cello sound was played with a LP of near point recording and thus how the bow interact with the string was brought out in details. The real feeling of the sound from resonant in the chassis of the cello was something that I did not experience in other system. The bass was deep down and layered.
PT continued to show me some beyond songs from CAS. Unfortunately the original recordings was not very good and I noticed all the sound were packed in the middle and I just can't listened for long in a relaxed manner. However, when I listened to 海闊天空, it was completely another story. As many others said, it just like 家驅 resurrected and was singing vividly in front of me. The most stunning cut to me was 鐵塔凌雲 of Sam Hui. It was a live concert and the audience was singing together with Sam. AE immediately became Hong Kong Coliseum and I was just one of the fans singing the song. I really appreciate the power of Wadax Pre1 as it performed the jobs of both phono and DAC in a single box in such a superior level.
I felt a bit sharp when CAS was reproduced. PT thought for a while and then he connected a Linebacker to the CAS server. The noise level was lowered immediately with more details on bass resulting a more natural vocal. I consider the Linebacker as the best buy this year in terms of its price performance. The improvement that it could bring was witnessed another time.
CD was played with Neo Dio and it unique reproduction vocal and music make it very attractive to everyone's ears. Though it may not be the true reproduction, who cares?
Mr Dalby was also there in the first day and he made a comment there should be some room of improvement when the system played vinyl orchestra. PT was so serious that he really thought of ways to resolve the issue. I received a SMS from PT the next day saying that system was tuned and he must invite Mr Dalby and me to visit AE again to confirm and endorse the improvement. That's why I visited AE the following day.
The sound improved significantly after the tuning and it became so bright and lively. PT told me he only adjusted the input gain to the phono. I can't imagine that a single parameter could affect a system in such a big manner. Of course, the most amazing thing is that this tuning was advised by Master Chik WITHOUT EVEN LISTENING to the sound. How could he know this?
PT told me that he still continue to fine tune the system. The phase angle during my audition was not ideal at 75 degree. It should be between 150 to 180 degrees. I don't have the chance yet to listen to the system but I believe it would be another big improvement.
It is always the seriousness and passion of AE that account for their success.
This project is reinstated given the advancement of audio reproduction technology under the AE umbrella. Efforts have continued to be put in reconstructing the soul of Wong Ka Kiu. I have reached uncharted territory. Please call me for an appointment - at my home. Be prepared.
Visited Chris’s home this afternoon…..The feel is just like I was sitting in front of the stage of the hong kong coliseum listening to the Beyond Live 91 …. With the enhancement of all the component of AE in the past year, the result is staggering……..Another song I have listened was the 海闊天空 ,a normal studio recoding from the album海闊天空 , not exaggerating but the facial expression of 家駒 is clearly presented…..The whole set up is the ultimate for a home environment, worth for a visit…..
I have also listened to a few songs from the Eason Chan “Get a Live” and Tsai Chin “Hong Kong Live 2010” , the whole structure of the music is well and fully presented, especially the cheering from audience , you can feel exactly where the sound coming from .The system consists of Trinity PC and Trinity DAC, with Lars Monica Preamp and Lars Type 2 power amp.
I concurred everything you felt. I was lucky to audition the whole set of Lars before the Monica was shipped back to Sweden.
I am using Takumi K15, which is the highest level of solid state preamp I have ever experienced. It was the main conductor in this year's super ae hi end show.
What is your system? When is your linebacker XE due?
Marcus is in fact Marvel Jr....he is my son who recently was 'addicted' by Lars and Cessaro on his favourite pop music. He has no burden on brand names, prices, etc
The soul reconstruction of 家駒 is completed by the arrival of the Trinity amp. This is a yardstick set by myself only. It measured up to what it should be in my mind. I am willingly to showcase the result.
Comments
What is the meaning of O-mouth?
The first day was a "omakase" (meaning the chef made food for his customers) by PT. All I did was to sit down and enjoy the music. He showed me different pieces of music from different sources including vinyl, CAS and CD. The first part was vinyl on violin, piano, Cello and vocal. The phono used was Wadax which I listened to it before when it was used as pre-amp as well. Now, Wadax just simply performed the job of phono with the pre-amp job done by the superb Dalby pre-amp. The sound of violin was very detailed and beautiful, not aggressive, not any sign of sharp angle. The adjective that came to my mind at once was "elegant". Sound of piano made me speechless again. PT said he is tuner of piano and as such he must reproduce the best piano sound from his system. Every single note of the piano was reproduced in AE in a crystal clear manner and the force of pianist's hands could be clearly felt. The Cello sound was played with a LP of near point recording and thus how the bow interact with the string was brought out in details. The real feeling of the sound from resonant in the chassis of the cello was something that I did not experience in other system. The bass was deep down and layered.
PT continued to show me some beyond songs from CAS. Unfortunately the original recordings was not very good and I noticed all the sound were packed in the middle and I just can't listened for long in a relaxed manner. However, when I listened to 海闊天空, it was completely another story. As many others said, it just like 家驅 resurrected and was singing vividly in front of me. The most stunning cut to me was 鐵塔凌雲 of Sam Hui. It was a live concert and the audience was singing together with Sam. AE immediately became Hong Kong Coliseum and I was just one of the fans singing the song. I really appreciate the power of Wadax Pre1 as it performed the jobs of both phono and DAC in a single box in such a superior level.
I felt a bit sharp when CAS was reproduced. PT thought for a while and then he connected a Linebacker to the CAS server. The noise level was lowered immediately with more details on bass resulting a more natural vocal. I consider the Linebacker as the best buy this year in terms of its price performance. The improvement that it could bring was witnessed another time.
CD was played with Neo Dio and it unique reproduction vocal and music make it very attractive to everyone's ears. Though it may not be the true reproduction, who cares?
Mr Dalby was also there in the first day and he made a comment there should be some room of improvement when the system played vinyl orchestra. PT was so serious that he really thought of ways to resolve the issue. I received a SMS from PT the next day saying that system was tuned and he must invite Mr Dalby and me to visit AE again to confirm and endorse the improvement. That's why I visited AE the following day.
The sound improved significantly after the tuning and it became so bright and lively. PT told me he only adjusted the input gain to the phono. I can't imagine that a single parameter could affect a system in such a big manner. Of course, the most amazing thing is that this tuning was advised by Master Chik WITHOUT EVEN LISTENING to the sound. How could he know this?
PT told me that he still continue to fine tune the system. The phase angle during my audition was not ideal at 75 degree. It should be between 150 to 180 degrees. I don't have the chance yet to listen to the system but I believe it would be another big improvement.
It is always the seriousness and passion of AE that account for their success.
PT, 其實你不須要所有人認同。有好多人玩一世也未必做到AE現在的現場感. 致於phase angle這等東西，我不懂，但你還原致75度，我也一樣覺得好靚，你話180度好些, I don't care, 你話好些就好些, 總之Sam Hui真實是技驚四座! Piano黑膠的重播也是絕絕絕!
What other songs did you listen to, other than Beyond? What are your feelings? What system is there consist of?
I concurred everything you felt. I was lucky to audition the whole set of Lars before the Monica was shipped back to Sweden.
I am using Takumi K15, which is the highest level of solid state preamp I have ever experienced. It was the main conductor in this year's super ae hi end show.
What is your system? When is your linebacker XE due?
Marcus is in fact Marvel Jr....he is my son who recently was 'addicted' by Lars and Cessaro on his favourite pop music. He has no burden on brand names, prices, etc
Marvel