Posted on Sunday, 24th February 2013 by Auw Jimmy

There is a big surprise by MJ Audio Magazine this month. They provide a Technical Disc for their readers. There are total 16 amazing tracks, recorded superbly. I’m quite surprised to hear how the Teresa Teng (Track #10) and Track #8 (I forgot the singer), which should be quite vintage recording, could be recorded superbly on this CD.

Most of the tracks are popular one and must have to test your audio system. I play several times again and again and still amazing with the music selection and the recording quality.

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Tags: Magazine, MJ Audio, Reference CD
Posted in CD/DVD Review, Collectible Stuff | Comments (7)

Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Long time I haven’t written any review about my CD collection. This time, I will write about one of the most collectible album, Amanda McBroom: Dreaming. This is one from two collectible album from Amanda. The other one is “Growing Up in Hollywood Town” which also ever reviewed somewhere around last year.

Amanda is an American singer and also a songwriter. I think most of her song was written by herself.

Around 1985, Amanda with her manager (also her husband) set up a label named Gecko Records. And this “Dreaming” was their first album under Gecko Record (on 1986). Previously, the “Growing Up in Hollywood Town” was done under Sheffield Labs label.

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Tags: Amanda McBroom, CD Audio Review, Dreaming, Gecko Records, Sheffield Labs
Posted in CD/DVD Review, Collectible Stuff | Comments (0)

Posted on Sunday, 17th July 2011 by Auw Jimmy

After a long journey listening hundreds of tracks, finally I come up with JimmyAuw.com Reference CD #1. This CD, off course due to law regulation, are made by me and only for my own private collection. I use it to simplify myself when testing some audio system. So I can save my space on the bag to bring other things, instead of bringing several CDs.

Actually, it was very hard to pick only few tracks from hundreds of my collections. I think I will come up with Reference CD #2, #3, and so-on. For this Reference CD #1, I think mostly I put vocal tracks there. Probably female is more than male one. Well, that’s probably my own personal taste. Most single ended tube will love the tracks on it.

The JimmyAuw.com Reference CD #1 was recorded on Apogee Reference Gold CD-R. Carefully burned on “protected” machine in order to achieve best result. Probably not the best on the planet, but surely the best than I can get after experimenting with a lot of configurations.

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Tags: Audio System Testing, Reference CD
Posted in CD/DVD Review, Collectible Stuff | Comments (11)

Posted on Wednesday, 2nd February 2011 by Auw Jimmy

This album is one of the my precious collectible album. Not just because this CD is quite rare (the original one, not remastered with XRCD bla-bla-bla), but this CD also has an outstanding quality. The Vinyl version is even better (but the price is getting not reasonable to purchase one at mint condition). I also have the Vinyl version, but rated at VG or VG+ only.

What makes this CD so special? This CD was made directly from two-track “live” analog master tape, recorded simultaneously, and no additional editing or polishing possible. According to Sheffield Lab, this kind of technique combined with their custom electronics and microphone will increase the transparency and phase linearity. Also the production of this CD is limited to specific quantity. No more additional copy will be made, unless we are talking the new version (like XRCD).

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Tags: amanda, CD Audio, sheffield lab
Posted in CD/DVD Review, Collectible Stuff | Comments (1)

Posted on Thursday, 22nd July 2010 by Auw Jimmy

Actually, this is an old recording. I listened the first few years ago in XRCD format. I lost the CD, and suddenly I saw a SACD one on an audio shop in Singapore. Surely I wouldn’t miss it. This record also available in JVC K2 HD format, at almost double the cost. I picked the SACD one then, since I didn’t really know the K2 HD style. This SACD has Proprius label, which also well know with the “Jazz at the Pawnshop”.

The SACD format used on this album is Hybrid Multichannel. It means that you can play in on your ordinary 20-years old CD Player or your new sophisticated US$ 5000 SACD multichannel player. All can do. The surround effect on this – I believe – was created on purpose for the SACD label. The original master shouldn’t have surround track. I don’t really care about it since my main focus is stereo only.

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Tags: Choirs, SACD
Posted in CD/DVD Review | Comments (3)

Posted on Saturday, 17th July 2010 by Auw Jimmy

Due to my busy time, I haven’t written much on this blog. But in next few weeks, some hot entries will come -  as I have purchased some new toys. Wait and see…

Let’s fill the entry with some “light-weight” topic. I bought some CD during my business trip last week. Let’s enjoy some.

Standard CD, although considered as an obsolete formats for many years, but still become a most used audio format until now. We have seen DVD-Audio and SACD were the strongest candidates to terminte Red Book CD Audio. But still, CD Audio maintains its superiority as widely used audio format, until present time. Perhaps we can see the digital storage format like WAV or loseless stored in your giant HDD, someday will terminate the life of the CD Player. But before that time comes, we still enjoy the CD as the main audio source.

I knew JVC recording long time ago. It was XRCD (eXtended Resolution Compact Disc), continued with XRCD2 and XRCD24. About one or two years ago, they release K2 HD format, which claimed to provide better sound at standard Red Book CD Audio, without additional decoder. Could it be?

This is one recommended collection from FIM, contains various artist. All remastered with K2 HD technique.

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Tags: HDCD, JVC, K2 HD, SACD, XRCD
Posted in CD/DVD Review | Comments (1)

Posted on Monday, 12th October 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Some singers have their own unique “tone”, which reflects their “style” when singing. This uniqueness will  make us remember his/her specialty.

This old vintage CD Audio, produced around 2001, shows the wonderful soprano named Cui Yan Guang. She comes from Dalian, China and getting famous on the USA, HK, and Japan for Opera and Orchestra singer. You will understand when you hear her voice on this album.

She sang “vintage” (or I should say, “oldies”) songs. Perhaps at the age of Teresa Teng (邓丽君). But it’s a little bit different sensation to hear Teresa’s songs sung in an “Orchestral” way.

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Tags: CD Audio, chinese, female, soprano
Posted in CD/DVD Review, Collectible Stuff | Comments (6)

Posted on Sunday, 30th August 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Still curious about the different between Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube and Duelund CAST PIO, I held another session to benchmark both capacitors. You can read previous articles here and here.

This time I visit another friend. His systems as shown below. Briefly speaking, we can see a Fostex full range speaker with extra Visaton Super Tweeter. The source are Cayin CDT-17A (fully modified on its analog stage and additional reclock module) and a turntable (VPI Scout with Super Platter and Van den Hul Grasshopper IV GLA cartridge). The preamp is Tube #26 with RGN Rectifier. The power amplifier is RS241-12E1-6J5 with RGN Rectifier also.

We compare the Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube and Duelund CAST PIO on the position between 12E1 and RS241.

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Tags: Duelund, jensen
Posted in CD/DVD Review, DIY Audio | Comments (22)

Posted on Tuesday, 5th August 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Artist: Waldjinah
Album: Sings Gesang
Publisher: Rice Record OSR-702
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
After this album, I think this album also worth to be considered as an audiophile-grade Kroncong. This time, Waldjinah solo album with title “Sings Gesang”. This album called “Sings Gesang” because Waldjinah sings Gesang’s songs on this album.

Waldjinah is well known as famous female Kroncong singer in Indonesia. With strong and angelic voice, Waldjinah really spread her magic on Krocong world. This album is quite unique since Waldjinah sings Gesang’s songs. She doesn’t sing her own song like the famous Walang Kekek. You can find her popular song, “Walang Kekek” on other album here.

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Tags: audiophile, bengawan solo, CD Audio, gesang, waldjinah
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Posted on Friday, 1st August 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Artist: Gesang, Nuning, Waldjinah
Album: Bengawan Solo
Publisher: JVC Record
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
According to Wikipedia, Kroncong is the name of a ukulele-type instrument and an Indonesian musical style that typically makes use of the Kroncong, a flute, and a female singer. And this album is an audiophile-grade Kroncong!

All the singers (Gesang, Nuning, and Waldjinah) are famous Kroncong singer in Indonesia. Gesang, though quite old, still has enough breathe to give emotional touch on this album. I think this is his last “best” Kroncong album recorded. Nuning (and especially) Waldjinah are well known as two famous female Kroncong singer. We could find a lot of their albums in local, but none in audiophile-grade like this album.

This album was recorded on JVC Victor Studio, Tokyo on April 1994 and remastered on April 2000, also on the same place. Again, I would like to highlight (again!) the quality of this album. This is one of the rarely superb recorded Kroncong album.

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Tags: audiophile, bengawan solo, CD Audio, gesang, kroncong, nuning, waldjinah
Posted in CD/DVD Review | Comments (14)

Posted on Sunday, 20th January 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Artist: SKRUK and Rim Banna
Album: Krybberom
Publisher: Kirkelig Kulturverksted
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
Rim Banna is a popular Palestine singer. One of her famous album is “Mirror of My Soul” used as reference by many audiophile, due to excellent quality recording and excellent Rim Banna “emotional transfer” of pain and loneliness inside. We might not understand what she is saying (Arabic lyrics), but her voice could “translate” the lyrics into enjoyable song. That’s the magic!

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Posted in CD/DVD Review | Comments (0)

Posted on Sunday, 13th January 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Artist: Tsai Chin/Cai Qin (蔡琴) and Chris Babida
Album: To Encounter
Publisher: Better Music Corp
Recording Technology: 24bit Super Analog

About this album:
Chris Babida is a famous music arranger with over 2000 music arrangement since 1970. Of course his collaboration with Cai Qin is expected to produce something spectacular, as we will find in this CD.

Maybe you will hear some songs on this album which you already familiar. But Chris arranges it a little bit differently with what you have heard before. I think, Chris tries to give some emotional touch to Cai Qin songs.

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Posted in CD/DVD Review | Comments (5)