Malaysia's KLAV Show

[jeromelang]

Quite a nice show.
some of the rooms were quite spacious.
there's enough north american / european high-end to justify taking a trip from tiny country south.
TAD was there of course, with accuphase, esoteric, but no soulnote.
streaming, vinyl, optical playback were the order of the day.

curiously, many of the rooms using streaming have this strange issue....

 

[jeromelang]

This room had 3 speakers alternatively being played.
I went back a few times to catch the chance to hear all 3 speakers.
They were spaced quite wide so, me, sitting first row couldn't get all into my phone camera.

Yet, imaging were clear and delineated. The only problem is - the centre image is skewed towards the left side...

 

[jeromelang]

This is another room playing streaming. Again, imaging is skewed towards the left. And height of the main vocals were very low, it's like the singers were sitting on the floor, their heads barely hitting the middle of those transducer panels. The guy doing the demo knew the problem and admitted so.

I think I can understand why imaging is that low. The st optical cable between the USB-X4 and MPD-8 dac is very directional and the "wrong" direction was not enabling all the ambient cues to be fully fleshened out, and inevitably causes imaging to be perceived as forward and low.

Many systems I found playing streaming has this tendency to have centre imaging skewed left.

The mystery is why they all skewed left, and never skewed right...

 

[jeromelang]

This room was using dv2i the new version with the built-in streamer, which is a good thing in that there was no need to have a st optical cable between their external streaming and the dac, avoiding the possibility of the ST optical cable being connected in the wrong direction. Consequently imaging height was not an issue, but the problem of imaging being skewed left remains.

Why always left!!??!?!

 

[baocrazy78]

Was there Saturday.

Best room for me was TAD with TAD GE1 speakers, TAD electronics and Innuos music server. It had it hall. Dynamics, soundstage, nice medium and impactful low end. Really good and non fatiguing. I came twice and spend a lot of time there. The rooms's owner was using any typeof music, from classical to techno and people were listening and not talking which is always a good sign. Everything was good. Really impressive. Need a big room to accommodate them but it makes me curious about the smaller model (CE1TX) for my home.

I also enjoyed the Audio physics/Electrocompaniet room with AP tempo speakers and ECI 6DX MKII integrated amplifier. Speakers placement was a bit weird, very close to the listening position which probably had an effect on the soundstage. But overall, nice and dynamics sound for a price way more affordable than TAD.

Borresen was ok but as always using boring music. Most of other rooms too actually. I am always trying to stay for 15 minutes in a room to listen with different type of music but a lot of room keep pushing the same type music. One of room owner asked me if I like what I heard. When I answered to him that it was difficult to judge with this type of music for 15 minutes. He was shocked. When are they going to change??!!

I am not a fan of panel speakers in general but I went to listen to Clarysis and Alsyvox speakers. Both were nice to my surprise. Very dynamic and open. I found Clarysis maybe a bit too shouty for my taste but overall interesting. Alsyvox which I have heard before had a bit more meat on the bone.

Worst room by far was the ball room on 5th floor. When I came in, a full top level Nagra system with a big sonus faber speakers was playing so loud, with horrible screaming treble and boomy bass. How is it possible to do such bad demo???!! The room was not easy indeed but still a pain to hear that for a million dollars system.

Most depressing room was the Tannoy/Air Tight room. I entered the room and sit. The owner of the room was sitting on the right side along the wall, looking at his phone. During my whole stay (10 minutes), only one classical track and the guy did not even bother to welcome people or look at them. I know trade show are not easy. I am also doing it. But this is a sales show. Try to smile and bring energy man !!!!

Overall a nice show even if I did not get much WOW effect beside the TAD room.

 

[jeromelang]

The TAD was nice.
Imaging was precise.
No skewing left problem.

 

[jeromelang]

This room was nice for me
Cozy sound, not loud.
Fairly good detail resolution.
They were using ds audio master cartridge

 

[kimurastanley]

Was there Saturday.

Best room for me was TAD with TAD GE1 speakers, TAD electronics and Innuos music server. It had it hall. Dynamics, soundstage, nice medium and impactful low end. Really good and non fatiguing. I came twice and spend a lot of time there. The rooms's owner was using any typeof music, from classical to techno and people were listening and not talking which is always a good sign. Everything was good. Really impressive. Need a big room to accommodate them but it makes me curious about the smaller model (CE1TX) for my home.

I also enjoyed the Audio physics/Electrocompaniet room with AP tempo speakers and ECI 6DX MKII integrated amplifier. Speakers placement was a bit weird, very close to the listening position which probably had an effect on the soundstage. But overall, nice and dynamics sound for a price way more affordable than TAD.

Borresen was ok but as always using boring music. Most of other rooms too actually. I am always trying to stay for 15 minutes in a room to listen with different type of music but a lot of room keep pushing the same type music. One of room owner asked me if I like what I heard. When I answered to him that it was difficult to judge with this type of music for 15 minutes. He was shocked. When are they going to change??!!

I am not a fan of panel speakers in general but I went to listen to Clarysis and Alsyvox speakers. Both were nice to my surprise. Very dynamic and open. I found Clarysis maybe a bit too shouty for my taste but overall interesting. Alsyvox which I have heard before had a bit more meat on the bone.

Worst room by far was the ball room on 5th floor. When I came in, a full top level Nagra system with a big sonus faber speakers was playing so loud, with horrible screaming treble and boomy bass. How is it possible to do such bad demo???!! The room was not easy indeed but still a pain to hear that for a million dollars system.

Most depressing room was the Tannoy/Air Tight room. I entered the room and sit. The owner of the room was sitting on the right side along the wall, looking at his phone. During my whole stay (10 minutes), only one classical track and the guy did not even bother to welcome people or look at them. I know trade show are not easy. I am also doing it. But this is a sales show. Try to smile and bring energy man !!!!

Overall a nice show even if I did not get much WOW effect beside the TAD room.

+1 on the Nagra and SF setup.

TAD room is the best room for me. Refined, transparent and dynamic. The room boss is knowledgeable with explanation of interesting story and trivial of each musics he played

 

[kimurastanley]

This room was nice for me
Cozy sound, not loud.
Fairly good detail resolution.
They were using ds audio master cartridge

Spent quite bit of time listening to the setup with wadax studio as the source. Very organic and non fatiguing sound

 

[jeromelang]

Spent quite bit of time listening to the setup with wadax studio as the source. Very organic and non fatiguing sound

The Wadax is a spectral manipulation thing.
Digitally nothing special.