Victor Pheh of Hifi Creations Reference Systems had posted many times about his work-in-progress — his first showroom. On Saturday, he invited me to listen to the demo system in his showroom at Gamuda Biz Suites in Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam.
So yesterday, I made my way to Bukit Rimau and had a bak kut teh lunch with Victor before we proceeded to the showroom in nearby Kota Kemuning, which actually is an office lot.
The demo system comprised a Pink Faun 2.16 Ultra streamer, an Accuphase DC-1000 DAC, an Accuphase C-2900 preamp and an Accuphase P7500 stereo power amp (Class AB) driving a pair of B&W 802 D3 speakers. The power amp was connected to the mains while the other components were plugged to the Accuphase PS-550 Clean Power Supply. These are all current model and top-of-the-line components.
I have reviewed an Accuphase integrated amp before and I felt that while it had a very nice valve-like mid and highs, the bass could have delivered more control and authority.
From the outset I must state that the new Accuphase amps have a new sound — the bass is now very tight, controlled and fast while the mids and highs retain the valve-like warmth and silkiness that Accuphase is well known for. The new iterations of Accuphase offer the complete deal.
I have heard many high-end pre and power amps recently which cost several hundred thousand ringgit and I must say that the Accuphase C-2900 preamp (priced at RM97,000) and the Accuphase P7500 stereo power amp (priced at RM95,000) can compete with components that cost two to three times more.
The Accuphase P7500 is an interesting beast — it pumps out 300 watts into 8 Ohms, 600 watts into 4 Ohms and 900 watts into 2 Ohms, plus its damping factor is a very high 1,000. These figures could account for what I heard — a deep and tight authoritative bass and the handling of complex passages with ease.
The Pink Faun 2.16 Ultra streamer is another interesting product. It has one feature that I have never encountered before in other streamers — a ‘Play and Relax’ function. Essentially what happens is that when it is enabled via the smartphone Euphony music player app, it disables the streamer’s network port so that network noise does not enter via the ethernet connection. Two songs from your playlist are then stored and played from the streamer’s RAM.
The Pink Faun streamer has the ability to make the music sound analogue and there is no annoying digital artifact at all. It also has the ability to play streamed music files with great dynamics, clarity and transparency.
Teamed with the Accuphase components, the result was a huge and deep soundstage, a layered sound, good imaging and great dynamics, clarity and transparency. On top of that, the music had an organic quality which sounded relaxed, natural and alluring.
This is indeed a high-end sound from a high-end system which, in today’s high-end terms, is relatively affordable.
Call Victor Pheh at 012-2962799 to arrange for a demo session.
