CanJam Singapore 2016

Here are some pictures and brief reports on CanJam Singapore 2016. 

I went in on early Saturday morning, while the crowd was still quite thin. By the time I left, the crowd had began to build up.

My very first stop of the day was Audiosound. I was greeted with a warm welcome by William Whey, who introduced me to David Teng of oBravo Audio of Taiwan. I had a listen to the HAMT-1 headphone and EAMT-4A IEMs. Nice products. The HAMT-1 in particular had really powerful bass. David spoke to me passionately about the design choices by oBravo, and his belief in the superiority of hybrid, multi-driver designs. 

A tray of goodies from oBravo Audio of Taiwan.

The very delicious HAMT-1. 

EAMT-4A IEMS - 10 mm dynamic and 8 mm square AMT drivers.

oBravo's incredibly small 10 mm dynamic driver and 8 mm square AMT driver used in their IEMs.

Next stop was Sennheiser's booth. You could see that everyone was headed straight for the HD-800 and the all new HD-800 S. I really liked the HD-800 S. I found the original HD-800 bright, but you could really warm-up (pun unintended) to the HD-800 S.

The HD 630VB was no slouch either, and really easy to drive - no issues driven by my iPhone 5.

Sennheiser's HD 630VB. Easy to drive and variable bass boost to tune things just the way you like it.

The HD 800 S was hot stuff. This is a great improvement over the HD 800, gaining more meat to balance out the very extended highs on the original model.

DITA The Answer IEM

MrSpeakers' Ether Headphones

The Ether C Headphones. 

My favourite pair of cans for the day had to be MrSpeakers' Ether and Ether C (Can I vote both for joint favourite ?). Whether paired with the Astell & Kern DAP and Cavalli Audio headamp, or the Schitt Ragnarok and Yggdrasil, both cans were absolutely sublime. Beautiful bass, a refined midrange, nicely extended and natural highs - what more could you ask for ? 

A portable headamp from Cavalli Audio and Astell & Kern DAP.

Ye Gods ! Its ...... good Schiit in the form of the Ragnarok Universal Amplifier and Yggdrasil DAC. The custom balanced cable is from WyWires.

Over to Sound Affairs. James Soh showed me his new range of DC power supplies and balanced AC conditioners. The nice compact footprint makes it perfect for desktop and head-fi setups. 

Melco N1A High Resolution Digital Music Library, Linnenberg Maestra DAC and Benchmark DAC2 DX DAC.

Sound Affair's new line of DC power supplies and balanced AC conditioners.

Ivan Cheng of Norman Audio happened to be in the booth next to Sound Affairs and it was nice to catch-up. Norman Audio were demonstrating the Ayre Codex DAC / headamp. According to market talk, it has really good DAC performance, DSD compatibility and balanced drive capability. Thrown in a compact package and very competitive pricing while Ayre was at it. 

The Ayre Codex was on show at a very special price. Sounded really impressive with the Sennheiser HD600 headphones.

These babies from Kimber Cable must rate as the most beautiful and nicely made headphone cables I've ever seen. There is no splitter box, and the braiding holds everything nicely in place.

Headphone cables from MIT.

I love the look of the Woo Audio Headamps.

The biggest surprise of the day had to be the Meze Headphones booth. Antonio Meze was there personally and I had a very nice conversation with him. In the value-for-money stakes, both the Meze 99 Classics and the soon to be launched IEMs were really winners. 

The Meze 99 Classics were very comfortable to wear, had a beautifully open soundstage, and performance that defy their modest price tag. 

The Meze 99 Classics really hit it out of the park with these. Excellent value for money, beautifully finished and supremely comfortable. The changing lights directly overhead ruined this photo and gave Antonio Meze a bit of headaches too with his photo taking attempts.

Mezze's soon to be launched IEMs. They will come with a shockingly (pleasant) price tag.

I also spent all too brief times at the Audio Technica and Beyerdynamic booths. The Audio Technica ATH-A2000X caught my eye with their metal ear cups. Really easy to listen too and love. In fact, I think they are a lot easier to love than my ATH-W5000 headphones. Over at the Beyerdynamic booth, I had a listen to the T5p. Good sound, with more impact and a better balanced low and mid end compared to my trusty DT880 (250 ohm version). BTW, the Gummies they handed out were a nice touch !

A big thanks goes to the organisers of CanJam and all exhibitors. Lastly, a special "thank you" goes to James Soh of Sound Affairs for inviting me as his guest.

Sony HAP-Z1ES

Introduction

It's finally here ! After what seemed like an eternity, the HAP-Z1ES finally made it to Singapore, with a product debut at ISSE 2015. It seemed like an incredible tease - a fantastic product launched in major markets, but not here. In a twist of irony, the product was being happily made just across the border in Malaysia - so close yet so far. Well, better late than never.

The HAP-Z1ES is Sony's top-range high-res audio player. It is a self-contained solution with on-board storage and DAC. Contrast this with dedicated streamers like the Auralic Aries (no DAC and no on-board storage), Aurender (no DAC, and a choice of models with both board storage and without), and Lumin (with DAC, but no on-board storage). 

Description

The HAP-Z1ES is a really beautiful unit in the flesh. My review unit came finished in silver and felt substantial and well put together. A series of front panel buttons and a solitary knob control most playback functions and navigation. 

A 1 TB internal hard drive should be adequate for the average user, although this seems a bit miserly compared to the competition. If you have a large collection of DSD files or high-res, the 1 TB seems barely enough. Thankfully, you can hook up an additional hard drive via the rear USB port.

File compatibility is excellent, with support for all major file formats, including WAV, FLAC, AIFF, WMA, ALAC, and DSD (both 2.8224 MHz and 5.6844 MHz sampling rate). PCM sampling rates up to 192 kHz are possible, with support for 16 bit, 24 bit and 32 bit resolution (32 bit resolution is available only for WAV files). Lossy formats such as MP3, ATRAC and AAC are also supported.

Some of the more interesting features of the Sony include a DSD re-mastering engine (on-the-fly PCM to DSD conversion), and two choices of oversampling filters (precision and normal). 

Network connection can be made via wired LAN (Gigabit Ethernet) or wireless (802.11b/g/n)

Analog outputs take the form of one pair of RCA and XLR sockets. The XLR sockets follow the industry standard of having pin 2 as "hot".

The HAP-Z1ES does not offer any digital inputs or outputs. You can safely abandon any thoughts of using the Sony as a DAC, or using the Sony as a computer transport with an existing DAC !

Operation

I hooked up the Sony to my home network using a wired connection to my router. Boot-up was fast, and within five minutes (including the time taken to hook up my interconnects and power cord to the unit), I was ready to transfer a sample music library. 

Music can be loaded onto the Sony in a few ways. The simplest would be to connect an external CD drive to the rear USB port. The Sony can rip your CD and perform tagging using Gracenote. If you hook up the Sony to your home network, you can install and use the HAP Music Transfer application available from Sony (both a Windows and Mac version are available) on your desktop. Alternatively, you could just access the Sony's internal drive by pointing your computer to the Sony's IP address. The last method is probably the easiest - just drag and drop. 

Some time is taken after any file transfer to scan the drive and build up the database. If your music library is already meticulously tagged, you can speed up this process substantially by disabling Gracenote access.

One thing worth noting is that the Sony cannot play files directly from a NAS (unlike the Aurender N10 I reviewed earlier) - you need to copy the files over first.

Although the HAP-Z1ES can be operated from it's front panel, like most media players, it really should be used with Sony's control app, HDD Audio Remote. The control app was really very easy to use and proved to be perfectly stable over the course of time I used it.

The Sony also supports internet radio via tunein, and has a rather strange feature to categorise your music to suit various moods (Senseme). Music can be categorised automatically, or manually tagged (just in case your favourite thrash metal album is categorised under "Relax").

Sound Quality

The Sony would be best described as a confident sounding machine, with a highly detailed and precise placement of instruments and voices in the soundstage. It had a degree of confidence that seemed unflappable regardless of the genre of music thrown at it, or the complexity of the mix.

Resolving power was outstanding, with very subtle spatial clues, the complex timbre of instruments and vocals reproduced with ease. If you love details, you certainly are going to enjoy the Sony.

From a tonal perspective, the Sony had a slightly cool and analytical presentation. Playing PCM files and with the oversampling filter set to "normal", the high-frequencies of the Sony were a little bit soft  - with some lack of extension and a smoothing-over of details. Thankfully, this was easily addressed by either activating the DSD remastering engine, or switching the oversampling filter to "precision". I used the Sony throughout most of the review period on the "precision" mode and without the DSD remastering engine.

Spatially, the Sony rendered very precise images, albeit with a more 2D presentation. This remark was made comparing the Sony with my usual setup of the Melco N1A NAS, Auralic Aries streamer  and Totaldac D1-Dual DAC. The Sony cost a fraction of that, so my criticism should be taken in it's proper perspective. 

The Sony also had a rather light touch on bass lines. It lacked a bit of slam and density compared to the competition. While tightness and articulation were good, the Sony's lack of bass weight would need careful matching. 

From a value perspective, I would be hard-pressed to outperform the Sony for it's asking price. In fact, I would confidently say that the Sony punches well above it's weight, and delivers great bang for your precious dollars. 

A simple 2 bay NAS, a basic streamer / DAC combo (e.g. the Lumin D1 which I reviewed here) would cost the same as the Sony. Although I no longer have my Mac Mini rig for comparison, I felt that the Sony far outperformed my Mac Mini paired with my Calyx 24/192 DAC (which cost a lot more once you added in an external hard drive, the cost of software, and a USB cable). This makes the Sony an easy to recommend device for the audiophile that is just dipping his toes in computer audio and needs an all-in-one solution. However, this is also the Sony's weak point - it is unsuitable for audiophiles that already have a large investments in an outboard DAC, or have multiple digital sources.

Conclusion

The Sony is a modestly priced all-in-one streaming solution that is an outstanding bargain at it's asking price. It is easy to setup and use, and offers very good performance for the money. 

Highly Recommended.

The review sample was kindly supplied by Sony Singapore through it's media partner, Waggener Edstrom.

Recommended Consumer Price - S$ 2,499

Speaker cables from Japan - a comparative review.

Introduction

Here are three speaker cables that DO NOT (i) come in elaborate wood boxes with certificates, (ii) have a diameter larger than garden hose, (iii) suspend your equipment in the air with their stiffness, and (iv) have price tags exceeding the average annual household income in most developing nations.

Instead, you have three flexible and easy to strip speaker cables that are affordable enough to be purchased by almost anyone. 

Description

Belden Studio 814 (JPY 1,000 / m)

This is actually the thickest cable of the lot. Internally, there are two insulated conductors, one white and one red. The conductors are stranded copper. I couldn't find any specifications on this cable, except that the wire gauge is 14 AWG OFC.

Nanotec Golden Strada #79 Special (JPY 822 / m)

This is the most exotic cable in the mix, with the copper conductors coated in a nano particle mix of silver and gold, suspended in natural oil as a colloid. The copper conductors consist of 7 strands of 0.5 mm diameter wires.

SAEC SPC-350 (JPY 820 / m)

This uses the all-new PC-Triple C copper conductors. As a result of the closure of PCOCC wire production in Japan, audio manufacturers had to turn to alternatives.

Note that the Belden and SAEC are only available in Japan. Ocassionally, you will come across online dealers that are willing to ship this overseas.

Test Rig

All new cables were run-in for approximately 10 hours before being evaluated. The cables were terminated with the same set of Cardas CAB banana plugs on the amplifier side, and Oyaide SRBN banana plugs on the speaker side. The cables were evaluated in my bedroom system, with the Antelope Zodiac Platinum as source, Gryphon Diablo integrated amplifier and Monitor Audio GX100 bookshelf speakers.

I ocassionally went back to my Acrolink 7N-S1000III speaker cables as a reference point. 

Sound

Belden Studio 814

The Belden 814 is a cut above the industrial varieties available from their usual catalogue (I've used Belden 5000 series speaker cables for other purposes).

You could best describe the Belden as a smooth sounding performer, with a noticeably creamy midrange. Bass has a good degree of thump, with a pleasing bloom. High frequencies are reasonably clear, although lacking in the very last degree of extension.

Spatially, the Belden tends to homogenise images, lacking the clear separation exhibited by the best of cables.

Not a bad cable in all, and very decent for the price.

Nanotec Golden Strada #79 Special

The Nanotec speaker cable has a distinctive sonic house sound, with a recognisable similarity to the Nanotech GS#305 power cable I have. Midrange has a liquid fluidity that would have you craving for more, especially if you like female vocals and slow jazz pieces. 

The absolutely sensuous presentation is matched with good clarity and separation (especially compared to the Belden 814). Bass lines have more power than suggested by the thin gauge of this cable, although I would describe the low-end as tight, fast and well articulated. High frequencies have good sparkle and air too. 

I did not find the Nanotec to be strictly neutral - Jennifer Warnes had added body and smoothness which was not quite true to her recordings.

Artistic licence aside, these are really very nice cables.

SAEC SPC-350

The SAEC is really thin. Each conductor leg (with insulation) is probably no thicker than an uncooked spaghetti strand ! Thankfully, the sound is anything but thin. The SAEC sits somewhere between the Nanotec and Belden, with a warmish tone that is not quite as thick as the Belden, while not as liquid as the Nanotec.

The SAEC has agile bass, lacking the fullness of the Belden but with a bit more heft than the Nanotec. Midrange is best described as effortless and noticeably absent in grain. Vocals are conveyed with the best amount of detail amongst the trio of cables on test here. High frequencies are quite detailed with very good control over transients. However, I found that there is a certain softness to the treble, giving the high frequencies a more mellow presentation. I found the SAEC to be on par with the Nanotec from a staging and imaging perspective, with good placement and dimension. I really like this cable !

Conclusion

The SAEC distinguishes itself in my view for it's even-handed performance, detail and refinement. The less prominent treble won't suit everyone, but it could be a god-send in the right system. The Nanotec was really close, and I could even see some preferring the Nanotec for it's liquid sensuality, but I was left with the feeling that it really favoured certain genres of music more.

While swapping back to the Acrolink showed clear improvements, I was pleasantly surprised at how well all three cables performed, given their modest price tags.