More audio stuff.

New CD player yessssss..... A new toy I have.

Here she is, the Cambridge Audio 840C CD player with 24 bit/384 kHz upsampling from Anagram Technologies.

How does it sound? Well, it's been only 4 days and it's been breaking in (left on repeat with a CD) for 96 hours. It sounds fabulous. Well balanced, good bottom end extension, smooth mids and highs without brittleness at the top end. Voluptuous sounding it is not, detailed, accurate and clean it is. Can I live with it long term? We'll have to see about that as time passes.

Something else I have also bought recently is a pair of Taralabs RSC Reference Generation 2 interconnects. Inserting this into the system allows the soundstage to open up with more air between the instruments.

Okay, going out of audio geek mode now...

The sound of nothing.

Okay, not actually nothing. I'm talking about the sound of an audio interconnect cable. Why pay $$$ for some funky interconnect when you can DIY one using Mogami, Klotz or Belden cables?

Here is my experience.

When I first studied electrical engineering, I was taught that a wire connecting two points (A & B) in a circuit and neither contributes nor takes away anything from a signal traveling between those two points.

After studying a little more, it turns out that wire has resistance. It also has capacitance and inductance. These parameters do not only exist at one point in the wire, but are distributed throughout the length of the wire.

More studying and I now have to contend with the fact that these distributed parameters contribute group delay to a signal. Hmmm... this is starting to get complicated.

Group delay determines which frequency arrives at point B first. Ideally, they should arrive at the same time they started out from point A. But they don't due to group delay, and hence, we have something called frequency smearing.

One may argue that since the signals travel at the speed of light, having them travel a scant meter or two will not be detectable to the human ear.

Ahhh... but in addition to group delay, these distributed parameters can also interact with the signal and cause an effect known as filtering to occur. This usually results in some frequencies being reduced in amplitude, i.e., that cymbal that might sound real nice with one cable may sound indistinct with another.

We haven't even touched on the phenomenon known as skin effect yet.

Everything mentioned above is subtractive. What about additive effects?

As any student of science knows, passing an AC current through a wire results in it generating a magnetic field that is emitted. Another wire brought close to it will cause a corresponding current to flow within. Therefore, unshielded wires are subject to having nearby electronics influencing the purity of the signal flowing within.

So now a cable connecting points A to B in an audio chain is no longer just a simple cable.

When I started out with home audio, I spent lots of time and effort buying all sorts of cables from Sim Lim Tower and fashioning them into various interconnects used to hook up my hifi system. After all, a DIY cable made from Klotz wire and Neutrik interconnects (total $80) should sound as good as those costing hundreds of dollars right? WRONG!

After a year with DIY interconnects, I borrowed a friend's Tara Labs Reference Generation 2 cable and stuck it into my system. The impact of this switch reverberated in my eardrums. The sound had more air, better separation, better focus, and larger soundstaging. Only problem is that this cable retails new in Singapore for $480.

Putting that old DIY cable back just didn't cut it anymore once I've heard something close to audio nirvana.

Next week, I'm ordering a set of these from the US, which will end up being cheaper at $350. No more messing about with DIY cables.

Will I be satisfied with the sound now? For sure... that is until I try out those $1500 Audience AU24 cables.

Least updated Blog in the world...

Okay, okay, I am no good at keeping up with this Blog thing. Here's an update since my last one.

Did some travelling and mountain biking with 10 others in Himachal Pradesh. The whole thing was one heck of an experience. Check out Ling's account here.

Did the Penang Jamboree and I swear that it must have been the hardest Jamboree ride ever. Luckily, the weather was terrific and here are the pics.

And that was my last MTB ride for a while. My hobby has caused much gnashing of teeth with my significant other so I have decided to reduce this activity in the short term to see if we can strike a balance.

Took Catherine and my dad to Cambodia for the last holiday of 2006. That was a very enjoyable trip with much eating, drinking and sightseeing.

Since I have not been MTBing with my kakis, I've been riding on the road and brushing up on my urban skills. Found out that my rear XT hub of 3+ years might have finally given up the ghost. There's a little bit of sideways play now... Not good.

So it was down to TEF for a brand new set of wheels - XTR hubs and rotors, DT Swiss XR4.1d rims, and Sapim spokes. Yee hah! Can't wait to ride them tonight.

By the way, BT is getting really eroded during this monsoon season. More so than previous seasons. Must be due to the tremendous amount of rainfall we've been having and the increasing MTBing population. I would advise people to stay away from it until the dry season. Perhaps another trail maintenance is in order.

Since writing up the few paragraphs above, I have put about 200+ kms on the new rims. Really stiff, and engagement is great. Bringing them back to TEF to get them checked for trueness.

Until the next update...

Kayaking, Gettin sum action (asia), and Himachal training.

It's been a while since my last entry. So a quickie right now before it's off to bed.

So here's a very short list of what's been happening in my life in between business trips to Shanghai and Perth:

1. Took the kayak 2 star course a few weeks ago with a bunch of friends. Also did the eskimo roll (which in my case might as well have been a bread roll since my technique was all screwed up).
   
2. Helped out in the Action Asia 2006 race and had a major altercation with some old folk who interfered with our traffic control at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve car park. Retards!
3. Started training for Himachal MTB Challenge. Started tonight actually. Did 45.56kms with some hill repeats around Mt Faber and all the hilly areas along Telok Blangah Rd. Think I will train 3 times a week - Tues (hill repeats), Thurs (distance), and Sun (off road mini epic including Ulu Sembawang hills).

That's all for now folks. Goodnight.

Blow job.

Heh heh.... I mean the typhoon Sao Mai in China. Reads almost like "Siew Mai". Mmmmm... I'm hungry already. We could do with some rain here in Shanghai. It's very hot and muggy here at the moment.

At least the room air conditioner works well. I watched the movie Kinky Boots on the way over. A British film about a shoe factory changing direction to make shoes for the transvestite market. A bit of a corker!

Absolute bollocks! Just saw that China beat Singapore 1-0 in injury time during the Asian Cup qualifiers.

Better get back to work.

Zhai zien!

Everything went and came in a Blur!

She's finally back. All assembled and good looking. I'm talking about my bike. The replacement front triangle came in anodized black. Either they figured that I would like the funkyness of having an ano front with a powdercoated rear, or they had run out of powdercoated fronts. I also took the opportunity to resize the bike downwards to a medium frame as the previous large frame was a little too big for me.

Due to the difference in geometry, I had to get a new fork to suit - a Rock Shox Revelation 130mm dual air. Doesn't she look nice leaning against the palm? My precioussssssss.....

The new front triangle comes with titanium links for the shock and a dkg seat clamp. Took me about an hour to tune the fork to my preferences but I reckon that once it breaks in, I would have to tune it again.

I can't wait until I go for a proper ride with my buddies. That'll be tomorrow!

My other passion.

I like Jazz music and I play it out of a little hi-fi set that I built up last year. It consists of a Creek 5350SE integrated amplifier, a pair of Vandersteens 1C speakers, and a Cambridge Audio 640C CD player. Interconnects and speaker cables are DIYed Klotz and Canare 4S11 respectively. Total cost was around $4k for the lot.

Just like in biking, I am getting the upgraditis itch again. I feel like changing my CD player to the new Rega Apollo, my speaker to the Zu Druids, and my amp to the Pathos Classic One.

I don't know how long I can hold out....