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.
