Recently, the team from AV Designs (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd; James, JoKi and Aaron came to my humble abode to ferry me to their showroom for a ‘listening session‘. Before reaching the destination, they diverted me for an early lunch and then coffee.
The whole initiative by them caused me to wonder,…(since) I have just visited their showroom with friends (about a week ago) to enjoy their home theater demostration with the inclusion of the 24″ infrasonic/ subsonic woofer (to handle the extreme low bass to a single-digit Hz),…what could have happened/ be done by them within that short period of time(?),…something to propose to me?
They started that session with the statement that it be mostly a ‘music presentation‘ (instead of the usual Home Theatre/ Video presentation),…I should have known since they said ‘listening session‘ at the initiation.
The components used were their usuals for Home Theatre with but one [1] exception, the source was upgraded to the Innuos Zen Next-Gen Streamer (which AV Designs currently represent in Malaysia), as a media transport only,…the music decoding was still done in the JBL Synthesis SDR-35 Home Theatre Processor.
They played the following Big-Bang Orchestra works;
- Also spracv Zarathustra Strauss by Erich Kunzel
- Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, Op.24, Tchaikovsky:1812 Overture – Peter Ilyich, Erich Kunzel – Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
- Nel pizza del giardino, Va, Polestar- Eccellenza, quali nouva – vittorial, Tosca, Giacomk Puccini
- Johannesburg Strauss/Explosions Polka,Op.43 – Strauss Family
- Liszt Prelude & Fugue on Bach – Felix Hell
- Stravinsky The Firebird Suite – Eiji Oue/ Minnesota Orchestra (Reference Recording)
- Pictures at an Exhibition: The Hut On Fowls Legs And The Great Gate of Kiev – Telarc
What impressed me was the sheer ‘Ease of Delivery‘ in dynamic, power, energy and extreme low and clean bass (not the over-hugging bass),…detail and resolution of distinct instrumentations and their respective group in the orchestra (as expected from the High End Audio),…and the sheer openess and airiness of the recording venue (as expexted from tallish High End loudspeakers),…and which reminded me of ‘being‘ at a philharmonic orchestra.
Then they proceeded to demo the Telarc‘s ‘Very Demanding‘ Sound Effects tracks (even for a High End Audio System!), especially at presenting the extreme low and high frequencies, the Jurassic Lunch and Terminator Cybergenesis to prove the ‘obvious‘,…that there were so much more RESOLUTION/ DETAIL UNHEARD OF through the ‘normal‘ stereo system (due to the ‘normal’ stereo system’s limited bandwidth).
Finally, they played Ryuichi Sakamoto ‘Opus‘ blu ray disc through their Pannde X Ultimate Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu ray player, that managed to present even minute detail/ resolution,…tempo, dimensions, spaciousness, weight, palpability and, anchorage for the piano notes accordingly.
What really nailed it for me was the audible ‘vivid anchorage‘ of the piano pedal notes at the low frequency,…which completed the piano’s entire range of bandwidth. Whereas, most stereo system only at best, ‘managed to inform the listener of the pedal keys‘.
The AV Designs’ team was pleasantly surprised with my opinion at that day (as above) especially since it was not dissimilar from their partner, JoKi.
I left that listening session Impressed(!),…with that few hundred thousand ringgit (RM XXX,000) Home Theatre System that managed to playback/ present the Full Recorded Bandwidth with Ease, Resolution and Power Delivery that ‘reminiscent‘ the million(s) ringgit (RM X,XXX,000) Ultra End Audio/ Stereo System.