KLAVS 2010 - Reports from attendees

Aswald wrote:I can vouch that the crystals do work. I tried it after Jo explained to me and never looked back. It took the edginess off the sound and gave classical music fantastic width and height with good air. It was able to help me get the out of box sound and removed room boundary.

Only problem is looking for the exact crystal shape and size. I am still looking for the Cleopatra shaped one.

Did you tried the Harmonix 909 MKII footers? i also give the similar effect.
Do Mr. Jo Ki agree with me?


But those footers cost RM4000 for 8 pcs.

Jo,

Indeed ,with a lot of so called tweak and power conditioners,the overall 'tone ' or sound characteristics of the system will change.That is where the Copulare racks comes in.In combinations with Finite Elemente(which you have in abundance)it will free the music to floats 3 Dimensionally.I myself Mix the 2 brands(FE footers with Copulare racks and boards)extensively.

The Isolation transformer approach is superb one to give life and dynamics to the system ,but with it,a little bit of added noise.I believe strongly ,that by adding the Tripoint,your midrange will improve further.They are not cheap,but they are made for a system like yours...the very finest.

I got my Stuff from the UK,but I believe the nearest dealer for Copulare is in Singapore(x audio) and the Tripoint is hitting Hong Kong Shore like a tsunami,and rightly so...(audio exotics)

Of course you are mosr welcome to drop in my humble house.I travel abroad a lot and might be leaving again soon...

wataru wrote:

Aswald wrote:I can vouch that the crystals do work. I tried it after Jo explained to me and never looked back. It took the edginess off the sound and gave classical music fantastic width and height with good air. It was able to help me get the out of box sound and removed room boundary.

Only problem is looking for the exact crystal shape and size. I am still looking for the Cleopatra shaped one.

Did you tried the Harmonix 909 MKII footers? i also give the similar effect.
Do Mr. Jo Ki agree with me?


But those footers cost RM4000 for 8 pcs.

Wow...for RM4k for 8, they'd better worked. I think psychoacoustically they work wonders after paying for them.

No, I haven't tried the ones you mentioned. I got my Swarovski at RM50.00 a piece. I only needed 4 and they worked in my system.

Do you use the Harmonix in yr system?

ryder wrote:Hi Jo,

Thanks a lot for the explanation. It was much appreciated. There isn't any need to further demonstrate the effectiveness of the crystals in substantiating your claim. If you have perceived a difference then the difference is there, as you have further demonstrated to the group of curious folks on the first day of the show.

May I know what are these crystals, where do we buy them and how much they cost? Not too sure if my system is revealing enough for the crystals to show their effects though.

Thanks in advance.

It is very kind of you to believe what I say without hearing it; there is a lot of tust you have, thank you very much Ryder.

I found my crystal from crystal shop in shopping centre. The shape and size is important for speakers similar size to LS3/5A. I am not sure the same would work in bigger speakers or not. However, as I have proved to the visitors on 23rd, replacing the crystal with plastic menthol casing works just as well. So it is not the resonance the cause. Of course I tried more than just this in my listening room.

I think Cleopetra needle lookalike costs RM60+ a pair & the geodesic dome crystal cost RM82 after discount. This is the cost in 1997.

Jo Ki

tin wrote:Jo,

Indeed ,with a lot of so called tweak and power conditioners,the overall 'tone ' or sound characteristics of the system will change.That is where the Copulare racks comes in.In combinations with Finite Elemente(which you have in abundance)it will free the music to floats 3 Dimensionally.I myself Mix the 2 brands(FE footers with Copulare racks and boards)extensively.

The Isolation transformer approach is superb one to give life and dynamics to the system ,but with it,a little bit of added noise.I believe strongly ,that by adding the Tripoint,your midrange will improve further.They are not cheap,but they are made for a system like yours...the very finest.

I got my Stuff from the UK,but I believe the nearest dealer for Copulare is in Singapore(x audio) and the Tripoint is hitting Hong Kong Shore like a tsunami,and rightly so...(audio exotics)

Of course you are mosr welcome to drop in my humble house.I travel abroad a lot and might be leaving again soon...

Thank you for the pointer Tin. I will definitely pay more attention to the aforesaid products you recommended, especially when I travel to Singapore next.

For my decades of tweaking experience, I know that there are a lot of unknown Science embedded yet explored. Personally I have been working on understanding the metallurgy of things where resonance of equipment, density and sub-bearing mass has everything to do with resonance paths. In LS3/5A club, I spoke of "sympathetic mass" is all about this.

My profession allow me profound understanding of load paths and hence helped in understanding performance of tweaking gadgets available in consumer market.

I am a sucker for tweaks.

Jo Ki

For marble,

wataru wrote:

Aswald wrote:I can vouch that the crystals do work. I tried it after Jo explained to me and never looked back. It took the edginess off the sound and gave classical music fantastic width and height with good air. It was able to help me get the out of box sound and removed room boundary.

Only problem is looking for the exact crystal shape and size. I am still looking for the Cleopatra shaped one.

Did you tried the Harmonix 909 MKII footers? i also give the similar effect.
Do Mr. Jo Ki agree with me?


But those footers cost RM4000 for 8 pcs.

Harmonix footers are good products however, they do inpart its inherent sonic colours together with their benefits.

jo ki,

do u remember our discussion on decoupling the speaker from the heavy speaker stand? i used cork which improved the bass but reduced the transparency. u told me u used used brass footers.

i went home and replaced the cork with felt footers. now i get the transparency and the bass. hv u tried felt?

Felt as in those cut round or square that can be gotten from IKEA, handy stores (imported ones from Germany I think).. about 1 thick? something like that?.
Personally I feel safer with bluetak (of course others may choose to differ in view) primarily the speakers adhere better to the stand, and don't easily get knocked over accidently. I tend to apply a pragmatic approach over sonic performance in this case. Just me.

Fantastic thread for those of us who didnt make it to the KLAVS 2010. Thanks for the postings, visuals and comments based on first hand experience. Great balance of positive and negative opinions.

The thread has ended up as a discussion about tweeks rather than the show itself though .

dheensay wrote:
The thread has ended up as a discussion about tweeks rather than the show itself though .

Oh well, its no secret that many exhibitors apply unique tweaks, begged, borrowed, learned, lain orang bikin punya, copied... all infused and may play a good part to satisfy any audience...MOREOVE trained ears and eyes DO notice its there for you to notice. No harm talking about it all.

It is still about the show, strictly speaking, eventhough we have moved on from talking just about the various systems to the finer details of the system (set-up, tweaks, etc).

One thing I realised is I forgot to buy some american plugs (for power cords) as my extension uses mainly american sockets. Who are the dealers who sells these plugs and how much roughly ?

dheensay wrote:
The thread has ended up as a discussion about tweeks rather than the show itself though .

if u examine jo ki's system in his ls3/5a room carefully, u will be surprised by the number of tweaks he used.
my discussion with him about decoupling speakers from speaker stands took place after i noticed he had placed brass footers beneath his rogers ls3/5a to decouple the speakers from his heavy and dead-sounding stands.

WongKN wrote:

One thing I realised is I forgot to buy some american plugs (for power cords) as my extension uses mainly american sockets. Who are the dealers who sells these plugs and how much roughly ?

The american plugs are built for 15A/110v. Is it safe to use it it our household?

I saw some Furutech plugs from one Penang dealer; forgot the name, sorry. Not cheap; a twin plug unit with a matching face plate will set you off around Rm500 after discount.

And of course, perfect Hifi is carrying the ultra expensive Harmonix range.

Many people have used them without any issues. Actually the important factor is the current rating so at 15A, it is slightly better than the standard 3-pin plug (13amp) eventhough it seems to me the british type 3-pin plug has much thicker prongs. My main problem is my extension used to power my system has only 2 3-pin plug outlet and many american plug outlet. I bought it used from someone because the internal wiring is using vandenhul scs-12.

sflam wrote:jo ki,

do u remember our discussion on decoupling the speaker from the heavy speaker stand? i used cork which improved the bass but reduced the transparency. u told me u used used brass footers.

i went home and replaced the cork with felt footers. now i get the transparency and the bass. hv u tried felt?

Hi Lam, vibration resonance is such misunderstood topic that most think isolating between medium it is a good approach. IMHO, this is not the case. Felt is harder material, your findings can be explained scientifically. I have tried felt before among many others things.

Congratulations for your improved sounding system.

Jo Ki

sflam wrote:

dheensay wrote:
The thread has ended up as a discussion about tweeks rather than the show itself though .

if u examine jo ki's system in his ls3/5a room carefully, u will be surprised by the number of tweaks he used.
my discussion with him about decoupling speakers from speaker stands took place after i noticed he had placed brass footers beneath his rogers ls3/5a to decouple the speakers from his heavy and dead-sounding stands.

Hi Lam, the brass spike shoe is used to mark position of speaker stands for the KLIAV Show; in my listening room, I have learned and remove them a while ago. Having said this, brass shoe remains an excellent medium between spike and masonry slab. If your speakers comes with spikes, try this brass shoe and you would realised how much Music went missing with softer materials.

Jo Ki