By Lam Seng Fatt
SPH is all over Facebook posting comments and announcing his inventions and products for turntables in several audiophile groups.
I remember buying a thin leather mat from him some years ago and even then he was making bearings of his own design for Lenco and Garrard turntables. SPH or Sien Peng Hong is a 62-year-old pilot with AirAsia who loves to tinker and tweak with gadgets whenever he is on land.
Recently, he came up with three accessories for vinyl fans — a copper turntable mat, a 1kg copper record weight and an alignment tool.
He started off with making a steel turntable mat and then decided to use copper instead. His copper mat has a series of holes of different diameters in a swirl pattern. These are to control resonances.
His alignment tool at RM350 is really affordable (some others from companies like Acoustical Systems, Brinkmann and Clearaudio can cost from RM1,500 to more than RM2,000) and versatile and offers Stevenson, Baerwald and Lofgren alignments. It also comes with a mirror for azimuth adjustment.
He is still making bearings for Lenco, Thorens and Garrard turntables and he can also modify and refurbish old Lenco, Thorens and Garrard turntables. When I visited him today in his house in Damansara Jaya, he also had a Rega turntable sent in for the tonearm to be rewired.
SPH can be reached via his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009907260332
