Leak and Tannoy - Perfect Match

Chojiro thought he was going to stay with his pair of B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speakers for a long, long time. Well, three months were really a long, long time. Recently, he had acquired a pair of vintage Tannoy 15" Monitor Gold speakers in Lancaster cabinet. These speakers have now been permanently connected to his Leak Stereo 60 system. The Tannoy speakers are a few classes above the B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speakers. With 94dB sensitivity, they handle music with ease, delivering clear, pleasant sound. Leak and Tannoy are the perfect match.

Leak Stereo 60 with Tannoy 15" Monitor Gold

So what happened to the B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speakers? Chojiro has given them to his brother-in-law who is using them with his Accuphase system. The speakers are good and Chojiro's brother-in-law is happy with them.

Tannoy 15" Monitor Gold in Lancaster cabinet

Finally ... B&W

In search of a pair of speakers to match his Leak system, Chojiro has been trying no less than eight different makes in the last few months. In order of succession, these speakers included Philips, Ampex, EMI, KEF, Rogers LS3/5a, ITT, Morel and Ram. The speakers Chojiro had tried the longest were a pair of Rogers LS3/5a (one month). Rogers was OK; but the bass below 70Hz was notably absent. For some reason, the mid-range where LS3/5a was supposed to be best at was weak. Chojiro suspected that there was something wrong with the particular pair of LS3/5a he was using. Eventually he returned the Rogers LS3/5a speakers to his friend.

During the month when the LS3/5a was hooked up to the Leak, Chojiro had replaced the original four Russian 5881 tubes with four British Mullard EL34 tubes. The improvement in sound quality was so dramatic that Chojiro could not believe his ears. Yet he was told if the EL34 tubes were further replaced by KT66 tubes the sound would be even better. Chojiro had already spent a fortune for the EL34 tubes. He decided that enough was enough. He was content with the state of the Leak Stereo 60 power amplifier; but the sound from the speakers left something to be desired.

Chojiro ventured with a pair of ITT bookshelf speakers, a pair of Morel speakers housed in homemade cabinet and a pair of Ram speakers. The Morel speakers were the best among the three. Compared to Rogers, the treble from Morel was not as good but the bass faired better (though still not deep enough). The mid-range was fine. Chojiro had borrowed these speakers from another friend who would let him keep the Morel speakers indefinitely. The Morel speakers were now connected to a tube power amplifier handmade by this friend and the combination is used for causal listening pleasure.

Then one day this other friend suddenly recalled he had a pair of B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speakers stacked up somewhere. After some effort this friend located the B&W speakers and lent them to Chojiro.

B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speaker (front)

After connecting the B&W speakers to the Leak, Chojiro was pleasantly surprised that they delivered arguably the sound he had been waiting for - deep bass, full mid-range and clear treble. Apart from the mid-range being a tiny bit thinner than it should be, the overall sound was well balanced. The speakers were able to unleash almost the full potential of the Leak system, delivering gentle, detailed and sophisticated "British" high end stereo sound.

B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 (label at back)

Chojiro had happily purchased the B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speakers from this friend. He expected that the B&W speakers would stay connected to the Leak Stereo 60 power amplifier for a long, long time.

B&W Matrix 2 Series 2 speakers (back)

Technical highlight -
Nominal Impedance: 6.5 ohms
Frequency Response: 70Hz - 25k Hz +/- 2dB free field
Sensitivity: 88dB spl(2.83V 1m)
Power Handling: 40W - 150W at 8 ohms

Massive Stereo System

This dim picture taken by a Nokia E75 mobile phone probably does not reveal much, but it shows the massive high end system built by Chojiro's friend Mr H.

Hong Kong is not a good place for listening to high end stereo equipment. Except the multi-billionaires, few in Hong Kong can afford to live in independent houses and blast their stereo as loud as they like without disturbing the neighbours. Most people live in high rises and the exorbitant prices of real estate mean that the average apartment for a middle-class family of four has a floor area of 50 sq. m. (500 sq. ft.) or less.

Mr H is a lot richer than the average folks but he is no multi-billionaire. Yet Mr H is determined to build a massive high end stereo system for his own enjoyment and for his friends'. Wisely, he chose to do so by renting a 300 sq. m. (3,000 sq. ft.) unit in a multi-storey factory building. With most of the light industries having moved to the mainland, the traditional factory buildings have many vacant units and the rent is cheap.

Mr H partitioned the unit into several rooms and made it like a home. The listening area is about 100 sq. m. (1,000 sq. ft.). Half of the listening area is occupied by his massive system. He added a pair of ultra-high tweeters and a pair of sub-woofers to his pair of 7-foot tall 5-way tower speakers. So there are 7 speakers on each side.

Mr H removed the original crossover units in the tower speakers. In their place, he fed the sound sources (from a Thorens LP turntable and a Shanling CD Player through a tube pre-amplifier) into an Accuphase electronic crossover unit which splits them into seven frequency ranges: ultra low, low, low-mid, mid, high-mid, high and ultra-high. These split sound sources would then go to the 14 tube mono-blocks, each of which drives a speaker unit. A US$40,000 power supply unit was custom built for the system.

All the vacuum tube amplifiers used were made in China. Mr H is trying to prove the point that you don't need famous American or European brand names to produce good sound. Therefore, he left his two McIntosh mono-blocks at the front unused.

Mr H has spent the better part of 2009 tweaking his massive system. Last night Chojiro, along with other friends, were invited to audition the system. They spent about five hours listening to all sorts of music: from pop to Jazz, from Cantonese opera to Italian opera, from piano sonatas to symphonies; and they left at 2:00 AM absolutely impressed. The sound stage was magnificent with good detail and accurate positioning. Each sound range was well balanced. The powerful yet clear sound coming out of this massive system was beyond Chojiro's descriptive ability. As he wrote this post, Chojiro could still feel the canons from Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture blasting and pumping his heart.