Another Visit to my Hifi heaven

This week again, i get to visit my HIFI heaven in Campbell complex KL, As compared to my last visit Harry had informed me in advance that there is some nice goody amp that is waiting for me to listen to.

So i head on to Campbell Complex to see whats up with the new amps in the shop. When i went in the setup was the JBL L3 speaker, but today it is powered by the Vincent audio power amp. with the a Conrad Johnson SC26 Preamp, which came in a few days ago, sounded sweet when i first listened, played some regular CD and had a go with the JBL, some music were a little harsh, and less in vocal focal, kind of smeared a little in the center. So me and Harry Wong hooked up the Pink Triangle Ventrical Speaker, on the Vincent Power amp. hmmm,, dont seem to sound right, nothing coming out, remember my last review on the Pink Triangle, it requires 100W minimum at 11Ohm, so, so far no other Amp available in the shop can make the Pink Triangle Sing, only the Naton Power amp.


Intitial Setup , JBL L3 with vincent audio, below is Pink Triangle with conrad SC 26The pink Triangle is now known as triangle speakers, from France, never measured the woofer size but the speaker is a thin and slim looking speakers, some dont like because they will say, "this speaker no bass lah" mind the words, because you are half right, its a damn difficult to drive speakers and it dont seem bass able kind of speakers, but deep down in my heart, i knew if you can make this baby sing it will sing like you have never listened before.

Nice little setup, as you can see, the alchemist audio came as a replacement later to see if it can fit into the matching of the current one, It sounded good, but lets talk about some audio review with the conrad johnson, We had some variety test cd but the one most impressed me is Global Beatz, it is percussion and perfect for testing bass and speed of the setup, Kari Bremnes will be another favourite, and with whole lot of other good Cds, that i will mention later. First up, Global Beatz, this CD can get in Rock corner, i'm going to get one copy of my own later Ori, for sure,


Now if you can see, by comparing the JBL L3 speakers, and the Pink Triangle, the Pink Triangle Ventrical speaker seems to be a little too small in the woofer size, dont you think, i think also too, but the specification states that it does from 20Khz all the way down to 40Hz, which i think i should give it a try on bass, Mid bass, no argument, this speaker does perform very well, how about low bass? Browsing through the Global Cd i came accross track 9 which has the certain dynamicness in testing the speaker. Track 9 is fast, has the sudden slam, and perfect high pitch with plenty of instruments flying here and there, also it does some nice bass,
The sound was fantastic, the speed and dynamic of the timbre sound was fantastic, it does very tight bass. at one moment of the track 9 the music stopped and the pink triangle was like pulling the handbrakes like making a sharp turn, imagine driving a car, that was fantastic, the speed the stop and the high frequency.

Then i went for some vocal, Kari Bremnes, this is my favourite album, superb vocal, and some nice bass. The ventrical went very well performing Kari's first song, now most speakers that i have listen in the shop would have a quick little break of the vocal, when she pulls her voice high,
the Ventrical never showed any of these signs, thats because it has a round ribbon tweeter, Ribbon tweeter never suffer from high frequency, they excel in it and performs human voice perfectly,

Conrad Johnson SC 26, with Naton power amp at the back.


California Audio Labs CD transport and Tube DAC, the source that we have been using, I hope to see the Almarro that will be arriving soon,

the Setup as i calculated was very close to 8.8K which was infact a nice number but with fantastic sound, Although it is used but the system sounds fantastic, It is all about matching the system.
We tried also on Snow Rose, mainly vocal and guitar, it is fine and perfect but i had listened this on a Ongaku before, so that was much different from this one, This has a bit hollow in terms of vocal and space, making it somehow the Valves are much better in performing vocal, especially 300B tubes. Single ended with high dB speakers.

Alchemist audio, preamp, was somehow a bit different from the SC26, although not much sigfinicant difference but it was kind of different in its staging and vocal, Bass wise, its pretty much the same. I later pop in some pop music from Arron Nevile and Tracy Chapman, it was not as satisfying in the Ventrical compare to JBL and Infinity. Thats because the bass doesnt come in like it suppose to be. Its funny that somehow other music the Ventrical shine so well and impresses those who listen to it, but somehow the modern pop songs it dont serve it well.

I then pop in Hotel California, it was ok, but as i was saying, you dont get that bass that you know how the music sound like, remember i was telling you the bass for some music was fantastic, but in hotel california it failed, i probably think these kind of music a small speaker like that would not be able to perform. Harry said that the room was a little too big for the speaker but it were to be in a smaller room it would do very musch better.
Some how, if you want great bass, you still need a nice large woofer.

I didnt quit there, moved the Ventrical back against the wall, bass improved, but i realise one thing the imaging had blured and no more, sad sad, i had the bass improved but i removed the imaging,
So i had it moved back to its original position and the bass was gone, I have to learn speaker positioning, it is really important because this is how sound is reflected, how you can improve bass impact, and staging.

Time was not on my side but today i had had a very wonderful time with Harry exchanging knowledge about hifi and how we can improve better, hopefully the next shipment will have plenty more to play with.



Then and then is the Ventrical a worth buy? my answer, if you have the power like 350 Watter you can, take it to Symphony Classic audio and see if it matches the speakers. You will be impressed if you have so much power it can only drive a small speaker like this, but if your amp makes the Ventrical sing, you may fall in love with the Ventrical.

Im one of them, but only if the Naton had much better vocal performance it would be a total package, Classical Music, Music, Percussion and Jazz, this setup is great to listen to. Only it lack to shine in Vocal, this reminds me of this years audio show setup the German Physiks Carbon speaker. it excels in Timbre and dynamicness of the music but vocal wise it dont do well. never like a horn or a ribbon.

Anyhow, each and every product has pros and cons, that is where the tuning comes in, Next round probably i will go to Harry's place to get some tuning gimmics to tune the setup to perform in vocal,
If you want to have a go with this speakers always feel free to drop by Harry's place in Campbell Complex KL nearby Sogo, and ask him to hook it up for you to have a go,

Harry also has plenty of other speaker brands that might interest you,

Till then enjoy reading see ya.