HiFi Unlimited

Best Music 2011.

2012-01-26T06:48:00.004+08:00

We didn't do much tweak in 2011, so I decided to skip that section, but not without a mention about the Wave Kinetics A10-U8 Component Control System, which we found to give excellent results when used under digital front ends. With that done, we move on to the more universal purpose of this hobby, to hear musical reproduction at it's finest, which we can't do without some fine music. Here are

Best Cables 2011.

2012-01-25T10:34:00.001+08:00

Cables remain controversial within audiophile community, because many are in the opinion that moneyed monkeys spend silly money on cables, while there are many in the high end community who are convinced that cables are just as important as any other equipment in the hifi chain. We are pretty satisfied with the cables we had in hand, except for my search to obtain the best digital cable that I

Best Power Line Gear 2011.

2012-01-23T19:53:00.000+08:00

These were the few power line conditioners we managed to lay our hands on in 2011. While I had tested the Torus Power RM8A AVR sometime in 2010, I didn't felt that the improvements in sonic qualities to be tangible enough for me to up grade. However something changed in the power supply grid in my area since and the Torus made a comeback! Torus Power RM8A AVR is the best all in one power

Best Speakers 2011.

2012-01-19T17:46:00.000+08:00

Speakers are most difficult to judge of all hifi equipments. Their interaction with a given room will determine the final outcome of the sound you'll hear. They are also responding to the amplified signal from the power amp. Impedance/Sensitivity/Watt matching will also play it's role in the final sound one hears thru a pair of speakers. For review purposes, most big speakers are just too

Best Amplifiers 2011.

2012-01-18T06:38:00.002+08:00

In 2010 we dabbled in more than a few power amps, but the situation is outta control in 2011 as our pre amp lust took over and ran amok! We found the latest batch of luxury audio equipment level of pre amps to be the most neutral, transparent and offer the lowest noise floor of their kind yet. Even the best pre amps made just a few years ago, will sound some what tonally rose tinted and lacked

Best Digital Gear 2011.

2012-01-17T00:29:00.010+08:00

Frankly, I am a little surprised that after 2010, CAS based high end audio products some how, just stop coming on to the market place, instead all we got was disc based players which showcased CDs at their very best! What happened? To me it's a bit of a dejavu feeling we got during the twilight days of vinyl, when the best advancing turn table designs only started to surface when dooms day was

Best Analogue Gear 2011.

2012-01-15T22:32:00.001+08:00

Let us start with some analogue gears! Despite my conversion to CAS as my daily fuss free music source, the black vinyl curse still wears it's spell on me, especially when I am in the mood for some seriously audiophile numbing music, mostly jazz from 50's till the 60's. Though we did not review much analogue stuff this year, making this three candidates appear by default, they are by no means

Best Gear Of 2011!

2012-01-14T10:39:00.001+08:00

These are certainly my best of 2011 babes!!! As Odiosleuth put it, before we move on in to the 2012 stuff, let's recap some gears that impressed us, and we are pretty hard to please! I have to clarify that we are not only impressed when a super duper expensive gear sounds good. It's when a budget or average priced gear punches above it's class, we especially get excited. Our list of Best Of

Perfect HiFi@Amcorp Mall Now!

2012-01-12T21:38:00.001+08:00

Perfect HiFi has just opened an outlet, their fourth, in Amcorp Mall, kinda considered, Malaysia's very own hifi mecca. The new outlet is located on the first floor, right next to the very familiar Asia Sound Equipment show room. The latest Perfect HiFi showroom is located at 1st floor Amcorp Mall. In line with the product ranges represented by Perfect HiFi, loud speakers from KEF, Sonus

Gear That Impressed in 2011

2012-01-10T01:25:00.003+08:00

Before we embark on sharing more hifi equipment with you in 2012, it is appropriate for me to first highlight a few pieces of hifi equipment that had stood out in the year that just passed. Each one of them had lived in my system for a number of weeks, each one of them was extensively listened to. I found them to be able to stand the test of time and will provide long term listening enjoyment to

Le' Super Tango, Now On Demo. Only At CMY Audio & Visual, Damansara Up Town!

2012-01-08T11:47:00.000+08:00

The Super Tango demo system at CMY Audio & Visual Up Town. Franck Tchang's top flight speaker design, aptly called the "Super Tango" is now on demo, only at CMY Audio & Visual, Damansara Up Town showroom. I first spotted this speaker idle at the said showroom nearly 3 month's ago, but Chan, the showroom Manager told me that it had just arrived and they needed time to break in the pair of

Most Significant Changes In My Hifi 2011.

2012-01-06T22:13:00.000+08:00

For me 2011 was the year the CD format went obsolete, well not totally, only because I still use them in my car for routine drive time listening. I rated the Bryston BDP/BDA-1 combo so highly, I decided to get them for my own listening pleasure. Yes, they require a totally changed mindset in terms of handling, storing and music playback. However, once I got used to the new practices, it just

Experience XTZ At Living Audio!

2012-01-05T08:22:00.000+08:00

Living Audio, home to XTZ. A new hifi retailer, Living Audio has quietly opened it's doors in Lot 1-017A, 1st, Floor, Endah Parade, 1, Jalan 1/147E, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur. This new player introduces a new, high performance hifi brand from Sweden called XTZ. The Hifi-Unlimited team went to survey the new components and came to the conclusion that XTZ offers tremendous

2012, The Last Mile?

2012-01-03T07:46:00.013+08:00

If the ancient Mayans are right, it's all coming to an end, come 21st December 2012! Repent and make peace with your loved ones, friends and the divined one, while you still can. Ha! Ha! At this point in time, it would seem like the ancient Mayans had it all figured out like a few thousand years ago. The impending melt down of the global economy, the political up heavals facing many nations,

2011 Going Out with A Bang!

2011-12-31T20:00:00.007+08:00

I think there isn't a more fitting way for us at Hifi Unlimited to bid farewell to 2011 than having an awesome listening session with an awesome system.On the eve of the New Year's eve, AV Designs' James gamely carted his entire TAD system over for us to have a go. I also would like to thank JoKi, Felix, and Big E who came over to help with set up and listening.The TAD Compact Reference

Riding The Wave! Wave Kinetics A10-U8 Component Control System.

2011-12-29T09:50:00.002+08:00

The Wave Kinetics A10-U8 Component Control System is a high tech combination of semi hard clear compound, imbued with an internal pyramid cone like structure of ball bearings, and machined stainless steel cup base. Wave Kinetics is a relatively new company, specialising in vibration control products. They are suppliers to the aerospace and defence industries. With a back ground like that,

10 Qs For Ivor Tiefenbrun Of Linn Products Ltd.

2011-12-27T06:03:00.000+08:00

Ivor Tiefenbrun was in KL earlier this month to promote the stable of Linn products. Perfect Hi-Fi, the local dealer hosted Ivor at their Jalan Maroff, Bangsar showroom. Ivor gave a philosophical talk about why music is so important for humanity's well being, whose origins may have well started in the form a worm with vertebrae, which only had a sense of pressure, sensitive only to vibrational

Magneplan Mini, Now On Demo In Absolute AV Gallery.

2011-12-25T23:22:00.001+08:00

The Magneplan Mini has arrived our shores and are now on demo in Absolute AV Gallery, located on the first floor of Amcorp Mall. Going by the reports of a few sifus in the high end scene, the RM$6k speaker is a steal, considering it's sound quality and price! I heard they're going fast and there's only a limited consignment, before the customary introductory price offer ends. Call Ong at

The Audio Store Grand Opening

2011-12-23T17:00:00.000+08:00

We attended the opening of The Audio Store in Petaling Jaya last Saturday. There were good food, good company and good music.True to its names, The Audio Store focuses on pure 2-channel audio only, with no AV component on show.In the big demo room, the main system consists of Kuzma, Aesthetix and YG Acoustics:Kuzma Stabi XL turntable......with Kuzma Air Line tonearm and an Air Tight

Mojo. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

2011-12-20T22:44:00.004+08:00

My very first exposure to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was way back in the eighties, with the track called, I Won't Back Down. It had a catchy enough tune and a rather laid back vocal style. Over the years, I never heard much about Tom or his band mates, you can say that it's as if I had almost forgotten about them. Until this 2010 re-issue album called Mojo, that is. I've been spinning this

Quintessentially Tube - VTL TL-5.5 Series II Signature Preamp

2011-12-17T20:25:00.002+08:00

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you’d know that we are having a roll with pre-amplifiers. It started with the Ayre KX-R in the beginning of the year, then we went through a number of others from Pass Labs, Jeff Rowland and TAD in the intervening months. This latest pre-amp that came our way has a twist in that it is the first tube unit in this long line of pre-amps. How does it

Zu Now At Asia Sound Equipment.

2011-12-15T10:31:00.000+08:00

Zu is now distributed in Malaysia by Asia Sound Equipment. The budget brand of of high value audio engineered products like cables and loudspeakers have been making waves in the last few years, by winning many audio accolades. Asia Sound Equipment will focus on Zu's unique speaker range and now have selected models on demo in their Amcorp Mall showroom. Please contact Eddie Tan at 03-

The Audio Store Invites, A Grand Opening Ceremony!

2011-12-13T00:12:00.004+08:00

There's a new player in the high end hifi retail business, unlike most The Audio Store only sells high end stereo equipment only. AV types can look else where for amusement. With a new player comes new brands to our shores. The Audio Shop carries brands like Air Tight, Aesthetix, Kuzma, NBS, Nu Force, SRA, Sound Lab, Sutherland, Walker Audio and YG Acoustics. As if all those are not enough, the

The Vinyl Shop, By CMY Audio & Visual.

2011-12-10T22:29:00.006+08:00

John Yew invited me to CMY Audio & Visual in Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. He said there's a surprise for me. When I arrived to his showroom at the Lower Ground Floor, he took me up to his new venture at Lot F014 & F015, First Floor in Sungei Wang Plaza, and there we were, standing in front of what he called "The Vinyl Shop". He asked "What do you think?". I was speechless. John is that kind

PMC Factory Tour, Part III. Hifi Trio Visits PMC!

2011-12-09T17:05:00.009+08:00

We come to the final part of our PMC factory tour. Keith Tonge still our tour guide. Now, we are brought to the main speaker assembly area. As PMC does not make the speaker boxes in house, there's no wood work section to view. Keith tells us that it's better to let specialist box manufacturer 40 kilometers down the road do the job. Most drive units used by PMC are supplied by SEAS except for the