Jeff Lin, Telos’ boss made a surprise visit to my place during his recent visit to Malaysia. He came with my good friend KC and the Telos Malaysia distributor, John Sin of C&O Audiophile. Although I knew they were in town, I never thought they would actually come to visit me. It’s the first time any hifi manufacturer did so.
I was already listening to music, as I always do whenever I am at home when they pop in. So the setup was actually nice and toasty by the time they drop by. Without really listening to the sound, Jeff made a few suggestions just by looking at my system.
What he asked us to do?
1. Remove the top cover of my ARC LS25MkII
KC and John, being good sports, took the cover off for me when I agree to it. Now this is a tweak that I would never have thought of doing in a million years. I could not believe it but the imaging becomes more delineated, i.e. it becomes more 3D which make the soundstage more real. There is also an added level of richness to the sound when the hood came off. The track that showcases this very well is track 8 (Let Bygones be Bygones) of Legendary James Wong CD (Perfect Music HZHCD029). In the start of the track, you can easily hear the drums but soon after that you will hear the solo violin kicks in from the left, followed by the cello on the right. Both are so well delineated, I nearly fell off my chair. Not only is the imaging extremely palpable but the tone has also improved. Before taking off the top cover, I used to just hear the strings of the 2 instruments, now I can hear the resonance of the wooden body of the violin and the cello’s heft as well. Maybe taking the top off resulted in better heat dissipation but there are only 2 tubes (6H30) in the preamp. Mind boggling!!
2. Remove the wooden cable elevators under the power cords and cables
Jeff also recommended that I remove the cable elevators on all cords and cables except those under the speaker cables. Just by doing this, the bass has increase in heft. This is most pronounced in title track of Shelby Lynne’s latest CD, Just a Little Lovin’ (Lost Highway B0009789-02). Kevin Axt’s electric bass has gain in prominence but it never once overpower the sound. The pitch definition between the bass and the kick drum has also improved. The intimacy and melancholic nature of Shelby’s singing also very well conveyed. I felt that the time came to almost a standstill when I was listening to this track. Initially I thought that all cables should be elevated to prevent vibration from reaching the signal carriers. But Jeff told me that if I elevate everything, it would make the bass lightweight. His advice is that only the speaker cables should be elevated.
3. Change the connection point of speaker cables to the speaker
My ATC SCM100 speakers can be tri-wired or tri-amp if necessary. As my Audioquest Volcano is single wire, I was connecting it via the bass terminals. I am also using some Audioquest jumpers to connect all the other binding posts. On Jeff’s advice, we reconnect the cable via the mids. What is surprising is that the highs and lows that have gain in prominence. I am using the Legendary James Wong CD again but this time I listened to track 4 (Shanghai Grand) as a comparison. It starts with a piano being played on the left. With the change, the imaging of the piano has become much more solid. The other highlight of the song is the tympani. It has grown in presence, becoming much more fuller and forceful. Before this change, the tympani sound could easily be obscured when the vocalist was singing. Now the bass has assimilated very well with the music and does not lose its prominence whenever it is played. Layering of the soundstage has also improved because one can clearly hear the tympani coming way behind the vocalist.
How’s the overall effect?
After all the changes, I took my fave torture disc, Confessions by Usher (La Face 82876-63982-2). I increased the volume on my preamp and let it rip. The power of the second track “Yeah” is simply exhilarating. You just want to boogie along with Usher. Even Jeff grin when he heard the music. I took out the Toto’s “The Essential” (Columbia/Legacy CK90623), which is a remastered compilation CD, and proceeded to play Rosanna. The rhythmic drums that start the track has such presence throws away any lingering doubt about Jeff’s advice being wrong. This is again proven in Hawaii-Five-O in TV Screen Theme Music (Kesaki JP-39-1009). Even during the most complex part of this track where the conga and tympani is being played simultaneously, one can easily discern the pitch difference and force and the speed of the percussive whack of both instruments. Never once did the system showed that it is running out of steam. Speed, imaging and stability of the soundstage is just first rate. Then to my surprise, Jeff asked me to play the Usher track again. I felt that the request was a compliment as he sat in the sweet spot to listen to this song. That was the only time he stopped from taking pictures of my setup.
After the little tweaking from Jeff’s advice, the sound that I have now has improved significantly. It has gain in richness and has become more involving. The air between musicians is much more pronounced. The imaging has presence and the palpability factor that is staggering. This inevitably makes the whole soundstage becoming even more real. All the while, I thought my Audioquest cables make the sound bold. But after following Jeff’s advice and changing some of the cabling to Telos Platinum, the sound has become downright “fearless”. I find that the noise floor drops a few notches and I keep increasing the volume in my preamp because the sound just gets louder. This makes music listening to be very enjoyable and any musical nuances is exposed for all to hear. I was listening to She’s so lovely by Livingston Taylor in Chesky Bravo! (CHE901). Not only do I easily envision Mr Taylor to be in the room, but I can also easily hear him quickly catching his breath while he was whistling. Listening to CDs after CDs churns out the emotional content of the music climaxing to multiple aural orgasms!!
What happened next?
2 days later KC came to my house again. He helped me torque the remaining hardware that has not been torqued. This includes the screws on the component stands and those on the XLR connectors of the preamp. Then he helped me to place the Telos cones (2 in front and 1 at the back) in the correct manner, under my Meridian 508.24 CD player and Jeff Rowland 8 power amp. The Telos cones are made of pure titanium and come in 2 sizes in sets of 3 pieces. I put the smaller set of Titanium Resonance cones under the cd player (2 cones on the front and 1 at the back).
The smaller Titanium resonance cones has a curve side while the bigger size Titanium Resonance cones looks more like the usual cones that we use to see. I put the bigger Titanium Resonance cones under the power amp (also 2 cones in front and 1 at the back).
With this done, we sat down to listen to KC fave disc, The Perfect Sound AV Show 2008 hybrid SACD. We played track 16 that is actually a track from The Perfect Sound AV Show 2008. The music is of big band Chinese instruments taken from Hugo recordings. This is a very testing track to play because of the huge number of instruments involved. Also not help by the fact that the track also include the typical Chinese drums. But to my surprise, my system played the track with gusto. Wow! The Chinese drums are being played at breathtaking speed and the system show this flawlessly. The soundstage was wide and deep. The sound is so enveloping and make me immerse in the music easily. I always knew tweaking is a very important aspect in hifi but the biggest challenge is to tweak correctly.
KC, Thanks for your help, bro. My system improved without spending much money. In audiophilia, this is next to experiencing a miracle.
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