This featured audio system belonged to an audiophile whom, I believed, have worked tirelessly to perfect the tonal balance that defied my expectations!
You may find it hard to believe but this is one audio system that can easily peak at 109.8dB without compression! WOW!
Mr. Tan, the audiophile here, must have loved Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (Boxer!), whom skill turned art;
”Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee”.
I felt Mr.Tan’s audio set up performed like The Greatest Boxer’s favorite quote!
The presented music was agile and nimble, just like a ‘Butterfly’s Float’.
When the presented music really have the transient and dynamic, then it will ‘Sting like a Bee’.
He played the usual number of musical genre from vocal, jazz, Big Bang, classical, techno, etc…
The vocal was sumptuous and seductively natural.
Musical instruments were presented with neutrality and balance.
I love the way piano was presented, each key was clearly delineated and with dimensionality. My salute to a great digital source, TAD D-600 CD Player and, of course the rest of the chain in the system which was as follows:
Source: TAD-D600 cd/sacd player
Pre-amp: Pass Labs XP-20
Monoblocks: Pass Labs XA160.5
Loudspeakers: TAD-CR1
Interconnects: Audioquest Sky, JPS Labs Superconductor 2
Speaker cables: JPS Labs Superconductor 3
Power conditioner: Shunyata Hydra 8 (for cdp and pre only)
Power cables: Shunyata Python Alpha, Shunyata Alpha HC
Equipment rack: Finite Elemente Signature.
I believed that to reach this level of low noise level and transparency, Mr. Tan has a firm grasp and appreciation of noise reduction techniques.
There was a Shunyata Hydra 8 Power distributor just for the TAD D-600 CD Player and the Pass Labs XP-20 pre amplifier…all for the purpose to reduce noise and improve resolution.
The audio components were sitted on the Finite Elemente Signature rack that may have tilted the tonal balance to a warmer side that improved naturalness.
Here, even at high volume level (109.8dB!), the tweeters of the TAD CR-1 Monitor Speakers will not shout or irritate the tonal balance…neat!
To me, most audio system have to be treated with great respect by the owners, with a firm grasp and understanding in tweaking and tuning each audio component, to reach this level of musicality…
…I am very glad that this owner, audiophile and enthusiast have ‘em all!
Literally, I have enjoyed very much the entire listening session there…
I look forward to experience more from his audio efforts in the near future.