My hobby.....

Of hifi and audiophiles….

According to Wilkipedia :-

High fidelity or hi-fi reproduction is a term used by listeners and home audio enthusiasts (audiophiles) to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound or images that are very faithful to the original performance.

Audiophilles hope or try to tweak their audio equipment so that it has the least distortion, the minimum of noise (not sound) and the most accurate frequency response.

Without getting into too much detail on the technical aspects, basically, the sky is the limit when it comes to cost of high ends hi fi equipment.

For this posting, I am only sticking to audio hifi and not the home theatre arena.

Before CDs come into the scene, vinyl is the popular medium to listen to good hifidelity sounds. In fact to some, vinyl is still the choice as they claimed that it is warmer and more human (?) when compared to CDs. I will just stick to the CD for this posting.

Basically a good hifi depends on good quality components from the source to the speakers. These are :
1) The CD player
2) The Interconnects
3) The amplifiers
4) The speaker cable
5) The speakers.

1)The CD Player.
A good high-end CD player may consist of two separate equipment, namely, the CD transport and the DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter). A high-end CD player may costs as much as RM20,000. Of course there just as good ones for 10-20% of that cost.

2)The Interconnects.
These are the signal cable that carries signals from the transport to the DAC or the player to the amplifier. Again, there are various designs from companies and if we were to listen to them at Hi-Fi shows, we can be at a lost for choice.

3)The amplifier
Amplifiers can be the integrated type ( just one equipment) or the two-equipment types that consists of the pre-amplifier and the power amplifier. The latter is the favourite choice among the audiophiles.
The valve amplifiers are the favourite choice (although it depends on taste) over the solid state amplifiers. In term of warmer sound, clarity and transparencies.
However there are also combination where the pre-amp is valve-driven and the power-amp is of solid state.
A misconception is that people tend to be impressed by the 3-figure power wattage of the amp. However the true power is better represented whn it is in RMS. Then again , consider the 'thd' factors (the harmonic distortion) and many other factors which are too technical for me.

4) Speaker cable.
Again, various types of cables have been produced with various material used. There are also silver wires being used other than the usual types and each one has irs own characteristic depending on your taste. Bi-wiring was at one time a favourite where separate wire are used for the high-range and mid/lower range.

5.Speakers
These come in various sizes from a tissue box size (eg. Bose –small speakers with big sound) to the size of a small cupboard !

Types of sound very much depend on the design of the box, whether its bass-reflex, air-suspension or transmission-line type.

Even material---from paper to kavlar (not sure of the spelling), the material used in bullet-proofing.

So there .! These are just superficial information of what little I know on this hobby of mine.


As my hobby

I have been into this hobby since my college days. At that time, I remember buying and reading magazines from UK which were very expensive and I had to giveup a few film show treats and dates per month just to buy them .

Once I found a design for a transmission line speakers included in a magazine and with a friend, it became a three-month project before completing it. We were so pleased with the results that I used it for almost ten years , while my friend sold his for quite a handsome profit.

This hobby is quite seasonal for me. I may slow down and wouldn’t touch my set for weeks---and then all of a sudden become so engrossed in it again.

What do I look for, and what do I get ?

Look for? Its almost like a challenge to produce and tweak (tune-like you tune your car) to get the best sound in terms of clarity, placement and reality.

What do I get ? Satisfaction. Sit in my arm chair, 2 meters away, facing my set, play some good music, close my eyes, and able to identify all the various instruments in front of me – to the left, the right, the centre, front left, back right, the first sound of the note from the piano coming out clear with no resonance ( do you know the piano sound is one of the most difficult to reproduce? ), the impact of the drum stick on the drum with such clarity and definition , the singer right in front of me. I am the conductor of the orchestra ! In the night, playing a blues or jazz number, closing my eyes, I could just ‘see’ the singer’s voice right up close in front of me.

The joy of listening to a jazz/blues female singer ia when the equipment is able to reproduce that husky voice and the the gasp of breath as easch time she breathes in, Listen to a huitar solo, and you could hear the 'squeak' as the fingers caress the sting on the frets, listen to the first distinctive note as the drum-stick hits the cymbals, te deep subtle feel of the bass (not the thump thump frm a woofer as you get in most sets)The thrill is always exciting to me !!

That’s what I get from my hobby!


My Set

Meridian 507 Compact Disc Player
Unison Research (Unico) Valve Pre-amp / Power-amp
Cardass Crosslink Interconnects
Quadlink 5-C Speaker cables
B&W DM602 Speakers

Lead-loaded Atacama Speaker stands.

The Unico The Meridian

The DM602 My Nerve Centre