Peter Ashton is an Australian audiophile whom I met in Munich, Germany, when we attended the High End show in 2017. Peter is a diehard audiophile and has attended AV shows in the US and Hong Kong. He was at the Kuala Lumpur International AV Show last year and he turned up again this year.
So the two of us spent three days exploring the sonic pleasures offered by the numerous exhibitors at The Gardens Hotel.
We walked into Statement Systems/Swedish Statement‘s room and was quite impressed by the sound quality from the Lumin, MSB and Marten system. I think in this system, the MSB DAC really was very outstanding. It’s expensive, but if I have that kind of money to spend, the MSB DAC would be at the top of my shopping list.
The McIntosh/B&W system in the Audio Perfectionist room was a peculiar one. Peter was not too impressed by its sound, but on the last day we went in to hear it again. Once the McIntosh preamp was switched from tube output to solid-state output, the quality of the sound went up many notches. The audiophile sitting beside me remarked, “What a difference!” Another person showed a thumbs up sign.
Audio Perfectionist also had another room featuring Borresen speakers and Aavik components which also had good sound quality.
In the AV Designs room, LS3/5a sifu Jo Ki was holding court and showing what the TAD/PMC Fenestria system could do. Indeed the sound quality was very good and the TAD CD player somehow could dig out textures and colours that I had not heard before from a Deep Purple track.
In the HiFi Creations Reference Systems room, Victor Pheh was playing his Accuphase/Harbeth system which impressed perhaps all who entered his room. I must say I have changed my opinion of Accuphase amps and now regard them as among the best in the market.
In AFC Top HiFi’s room Dr Anwar Ali seemed to have taken over the proceedings and was hosting the demo sessions. The Bladelius/Piega system sounded quite nice especially the mids and highs from the ribbon driver. Dr Anwar of AA Audio makes his own range of USB cables, music streamer and other products. Seen in that room were some Quantum Clarity and HD boxes courtesy of Tang Weng Kit.
Surprisingly the system in Begins Acoustic sounded quite good and it was thanks to the Taiwanese-made Lu Kang speakers. In fact Peter and I had agreed that the Lu Kang speakers had sounded good during last year’s KLIAVS.
CMY Audio & Visual had a huge ballroom featuring three big demo systems. Peter and I agreed that the Luxman/Fyne system sounded the best.
A&L Audio Station set up a really hot Musical Fidelity A1 driving the Musical Fidelity LS3/5a system which sounded nostalgic and romantic. One middle-aged audiophile told me: “This is the best sounding system in the AV show.”
Perfect HiFi showcased Nagra/Audio Research/Sonus Faber/Nordost systems. The limited edition Sonus Faber Stradivari was in the main system which sounded quite good but the performance of the system was hampered by the poor room acoustics.
Atlas Sound & Vision could not set up the DALI EPIKORE 11 floorstanders in its demo room in The Gardens Hotel, so we had to make our way to the company’s showroom in the adjoining the Gardens Mall. Powered by a 30-watt Class A Accuphase integrated amp, the speakers sounded really clear and dynamic.
As for AV systems, it was without any doubt that AV Designs’ system presented by Actsessory Shoppe using an Ascendo/Arcam/JVC system was way ahead of the competition.
However, trying very hard was JW Speaker Lab whose head honcho and chief designer Joseph Wong held a demo of his floorstanders and a 7.2 home theatre system complete with active sub-woofers. Peter was in that room for quite a while because he said he knew someone in Australia who also made speakers using the same Scanspeak speaker drivers which did not sound as good as the ones made by JW Speaker Lab.
Finally, we spent quite some time listening to old gear at Vintage Haven and I was really impressed by the deep and tuneful bass coming from the KEF 104.2 which was launched in the 1980s. Driven by an old Parasound power amp and a Quicksilver preamp, the old system sang nicely and we felt the sound quality was better than some of the modern systems we heard.
