Audiences were super charged yesterday! They did not want to leave. Many were attracted by the Emperor ground, Carmen speakers, Takumi K15 and Zanden 長空
Paying tribute to Master Chik and Master Wai - who are both 60 years old - have contributed immensely not only to AE but to the hi end audio industry as a whole all these years.
Thundering applause from well over 100 audiences per session. That really touched my heart. The show is about demonstration of knowhow, conviction and perfection. I did not mention any specifications and pricing at all. I just told everyone to enjoy the show.
PT, you have certainly set a benchmark for public show. I said this not because of I am your long time customer but "consensus" reached on the floor. Your speech is always great carrying deeper meaning. The spirit behind the whole event is simply breathtaking.
I attended the 1st session. The vinyl session was great, especially the Beatles, Peter Paul and Mary. Very live feeling where I sat in the middle session. What came after this was Trinity DAC's rendition of 情人 by beyond. I must salute to Audiotechnique who prepared this master file. It pushed the atmosphere of the audiences to the peak.
I feel the Carmen represents Cessaro's best speakers today. I really like the deep purple horn.
I totally agree a new benchmark for public audio show has been set with consensual appeal. It is professionally organized and executed well in a class of its own. As PT said in the beginning, "just enjoy the show". In some of the music reproduced on Sat, when I closed my eyes, I felt like listening in a live concert. Many attendes felt the same as I talked to the man next to me.
The Carmen speakers from Cessaro is simply a showpiece! It is by far the best Cessaro I have ever experienced.
I came to the show this year with a very high expectation to hear Carmen and Chuoku. Carmen was said to be a special project that Ralph has been working on together with PT while Chuoku is the statement product of Yamada san as a result of his 3 years endeavor. I went up to the room in Convention Center before 10am and not surprisingly, PT was already there doing the final audition and making sure everything works in harmony. Carmen and Chuoku stand solemnly in the show venue like the host of a big party welcoming their guests. Of course the majestic presence of the Emperor ground box and power distributor also shocked me by its sheer size and weight, not to mention the Hartvig turntable sitting on the SRA Craz3 rack together with my familiar suite of Trinity!!! All the silvery cables from Dalby also form a big contrast among the humble black look of the Goebel cables. According to PT, he uses all Goebel cables as interconnect, speaker and majority for power for this show.
As PT said in the opening of the show, ‘Last year, the show was not so good’ and that set some sleepless nights for him before the show this year on how to make this one better and set the benchmark for performance of a system in a show event and venue like this. Everyone would agree with me that to attain an average performance is already challenging in a room without much acoustics adjustments and with 12 rows of chairs occupants of which are all expecting to come and spend an ear-opening 2 hours. PT cannot create magic and no doubt each different row and different location would yield different listening experience but the challenge to PT is to give an ‘impressive’ enough experience to all seat locations with a few ‘king’ seats delivering a magnificent listening experience.
I sat in different locations during my morning ‘private’ session as well in the 2 sessions in the afternoon. Whilst the image focus is the best in the few locations on the 3rd and 4th row in the middle, the entire room is completely filled up with ample energy and contents with a level of clarity and quietness rivaling the setup in the AE showroom. For those who have visited the AE showroom, they have spent over HKD 1 million on the room acoustics, cabling and power filtering! This cannot happen without an extremely low noise platform and least contaminated power and signal transmission. I was talking extensively to Miguel of Tripoint on the design of the Emperor ground box and power distribution during the session in the morning and understand especially the contribution of a superior ground cable to the speed of draining away the ground noise. More importantly, the position where one puts the ground wire and the number of ground wire attached to one single piece of equipment would also affect the overall performance. This is in line with my understanding on the design of the Dalby ground wire and also my discussion with a Audiotechnique staff who uses 3 ground wires on his preamp! After having Troy in my system for so many years, I can tell why a system doesn’t sound right without and I am convinced that the comparative improvement to use a higher end ground cable is as much as to use a higher end power cable. Only that, the ‘market circulation’ of a high end ground cable is not as high as a power cable. Regardless, I still bite the bullet and bought a Dalby Pearl ground cable for my K15! I leave it to my boss to decide if my year end bonus is enough for the Emperor but money aside, it is one component in the show which is irreplaceable to help attaining this level of quality!
Of all the music selected on the 2 sessions, I enjoyed every one of them and especially the ‘Lovers’ by the HK rock band, Beyond. The recording is from a master tape but the playback in the show was so real and despite the big room with 200 audience, I feel I am very close to the singer and echoing on what he sings, ‘Who is in-between you and me’, there is none. To me, it is the highest level of performance that I have listened in a show event and this sets the benchmark for me. PT, you have really made a history in achieving this! My salute!
The vinyl playback, in a show circumstance, is the most challenging part with lots of complexities and variations. I am glad to ear witness Hartvig, Simplicity 2 and Trinity phono has delivered a great job in the ‘holy hands’ of Master Chik. Very few can achieve the level of competence of Master Chik in the vinyl domain in projecting the room size, choice and setting of the cartridge and the integration with the amplifications and speakers. All vinyl playback pass with flying colors during the show and none has been eclipsed by the superb performance of the Trinity DAC on computer audio/CD playback.
It is a very successful high end show demonstrating a strong team with collective wisdoms integrated and orchestrated to a highest level of standards. While the curtain has dropped and people are wondering about what’s next in 2015, I think both Jlam and PT have inspired me on how to find the right team with a common vision, how to set a benchmark to lead to a bigger breakthrough, how not to easily compromise upon challenges and most importantly how to admit mistakes and fix it. I see the same thru the eyes in their elite team: Yamada san, Master Chik, Master Wai, Ralph, Migual, Dietmar, Robert, Miguel, …not to mention Chung gor who spent over 1 hour on Sunday to set the leveling of the SRA rack in my place!
Comments
I feel the Carmen represents Cessaro's best speakers today. I really like the deep purple horn.
The Carmen speakers from Cessaro is simply a showpiece! It is by far the best Cessaro I have ever experienced.
As PT said in the opening of the show, ‘Last year, the show was not so good’ and that set some sleepless nights for him before the show this year on how to make this one better and set the benchmark for performance of a system in a show event and venue like this. Everyone would agree with me that to attain an average performance is already challenging in a room without much acoustics adjustments and with 12 rows of chairs occupants of which are all expecting to come and spend an ear-opening 2 hours. PT cannot create magic and no doubt each different row and different location would yield different listening experience but the challenge to PT is to give an ‘impressive’ enough experience to all seat locations with a few ‘king’ seats delivering a magnificent listening experience.
I sat in different locations during my morning ‘private’ session as well in the 2 sessions in the afternoon. Whilst the image focus is the best in the few locations on the 3rd and 4th row in the middle, the entire room is completely filled up with ample energy and contents with a level of clarity and quietness rivaling the setup in the AE showroom. For those who have visited the AE showroom, they have spent over HKD 1 million on the room acoustics, cabling and power filtering! This cannot happen without an extremely low noise platform and least contaminated power and signal transmission. I was talking extensively to Miguel of Tripoint on the design of the Emperor ground box and power distribution during the session in the morning and understand especially the contribution of a superior ground cable to the speed of draining away the ground noise. More importantly, the position where one puts the ground wire and the number of ground wire attached to one single piece of equipment would also affect the overall performance. This is in line with my understanding on the design of the Dalby ground wire and also my discussion with a Audiotechnique staff who uses 3 ground wires on his preamp! After having Troy in my system for so many years, I can tell why a system doesn’t sound right without and I am convinced that the comparative improvement to use a higher end ground cable is as much as to use a higher end power cable. Only that, the ‘market circulation’ of a high end ground cable is not as high as a power cable. Regardless, I still bite the bullet and bought a Dalby Pearl ground cable for my K15! I leave it to my boss to decide if my year end bonus is enough for the Emperor but money aside, it is one component in the show which is irreplaceable to help attaining this level of quality!
Of all the music selected on the 2 sessions, I enjoyed every one of them and especially the ‘Lovers’ by the HK rock band, Beyond. The recording is from a master tape but the playback in the show was so real and despite the big room with 200 audience, I feel I am very close to the singer and echoing on what he sings, ‘Who is in-between you and me’, there is none. To me, it is the highest level of performance that I have listened in a show event and this sets the benchmark for me. PT, you have really made a history in achieving this! My salute!
The vinyl playback, in a show circumstance, is the most challenging part with lots of complexities and variations. I am glad to ear witness Hartvig, Simplicity 2 and Trinity phono has delivered a great job in the ‘holy hands’ of Master Chik. Very few can achieve the level of competence of Master Chik in the vinyl domain in projecting the room size, choice and setting of the cartridge and the integration with the amplifications and speakers. All vinyl playback pass with flying colors during the show and none has been eclipsed by the superb performance of the Trinity DAC on computer audio/CD playback.
It is a very successful high end show demonstrating a strong team with collective wisdoms integrated and orchestrated to a highest level of standards. While the curtain has dropped and people are wondering about what’s next in 2015, I think both Jlam and PT have inspired me on how to find the right team with a common vision, how to set a benchmark to lead to a bigger breakthrough, how not to easily compromise upon challenges and most importantly how to admit mistakes and fix it. I see the same thru the eyes in their elite team: Yamada san, Master Chik, Master Wai, Ralph, Migual, Dietmar, Robert, Miguel, …not to mention Chung gor who spent over 1 hour on Sunday to set the leveling of the SRA rack in my place!