2015 Sound and Sight

Unicorn Sound & Vision were doing a live demonstration on the beneficial effects of the Audioquest Jitterbug. A notebook PC was being used to play a music video (the PC was hooked up to a larger TV screen) with two Jitterbugs. The first bug was used in series with the Dragonfly 1.2 DAC, and the other was plugged into a spare port. There were obvious improvements in the lowering of the noise floor, as well as the addition of a sweetness to the sound and smoothness of the video (I kid you not). I bought a pair on the spot.

Eighteen 77 Pte Ltd had Roksan electronics on show, with the B&W 685 S2 and all-new 805 D3.

AV Intelligence (“AVI”) had a number of rooms. The more interesting room was the Raidho Acoustics room. Michael Borresen was doing a demonstration of the XT-2 loudspeaker, paired with the Aavik U-300 amplifier. Ansuz’s new Diamond DTC cables were also being used in the system.

Raidho XT-2 speakers.

The cobra like cables are the new Ansuz DTC cables.

AVI’s second room had the Linn Magik 140 system which comprises of the all-in-one Magik DSM and Magik 140 speakers. A small pair of Penaudio speakers were also available for comparison.

AV One had PMC speakers paired with the Arcam Solo Movie. The latter is an all singing and dancing wonder – Bluray, CD, SACD playback, network play support via UPnP, Bluetooth play and 6×50 watts via Class G technology. I sat through both a movie (with full surround sound) and music demonstration. The Solo Movie proves that you can have your cake and eat it too. My dashed home theater ambitions could have turned out a lot differently if the Solo Movie had been around then. 

CDA Professional Audio Asia Pte Ltd had a simple yet very effective set-up. A pair of ATC SCM40A speakers were paired with a Prism Lyra DAC. A notebook PC was feeding the Prism with volume control in the digital domain.

Power, control, resolution and precision – this setup had it all. Think of how good this setup could be given more ambitious equipment.

Raindrop Audio carries a lot of interesting products and is quite effective at showcasing the strengths of their systems. This year was no different – with the SPEC Corp ampliifer driving the Boenicke Audio W5, and the Son of Ampzilla II amplifier powering the Soltanus ESL speakers. The source was an Ayon streamer, while power conditioning was handled by Gigawatt. Also on display were SOtM products.

You could hear the gasp from the audience when the W5 was in play – could you really get such big sound from such a small speaker ? Unfortunately the gentleman next to me looked shocked and dismayed when he found out the price of the W5.

Boenicke Audio W5.

H&R Home & Professional Audio deserve special mention for strangest room. From what little I could understand, the tweaks were addressed at resonance control, acoustic and ground treatment.

The wood blocks and cones were decently finished, while the other products looked “interesting”. The gathering crowd gave out loud exclamations of astonishment in Cantonese as the designer demonstrated and explained the tweaks. My Cantonese fluency unfortunately is non-existent (I probably know less than five swear words), so the explanations were lost on me.

Visitors with itchy fingers kept on knocking over these tweaks.

Audio 88 had plenty of eye candy on display. The Lumin streamers and Gato electronics were really beautiful in the flesh. The very glossy Enigma Acoustics speakers were eye-catching too. 

Gato Amp 150 – Love those meters !

Leo Research AV Pte Ltd is an old player in the industry. They exhibited a number of tube amps and speakers. The products were affordably priced and the sound of the setup was quite decent.

Sky Audio had a number of new things this year, including a new turntable from Taiwan, turntable cartridges from Japan and speakers from Germany.