Posted on Monday, 12th October 2009 by Jimmy Auw

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 (0)

Posted on Sunday, 30th August 2009 by Jimmy Auw

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 (11)

Posted on Tuesday, 5th August 2008 by Jimmy Auw

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 Jimmy Auw

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
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Posted on Sunday, 20th January 2008 by Jimmy Auw

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 on Sunday, 13th January 2008 by Jimmy Auw

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 on Saturday, 12th January 2008 by Jimmy Auw

Artist: Tsai Chin/Cai Qin (蔡琴)
Album: Lao Ge (老歌)
Publisher: UFO Group/Warner Music Singapore
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
As the title speaks itself, this CD contains old songs. Some words on the title say “Yesterday’s melody and today’s memory”. According to my friend who lives at Taipei, it’s a very beautiful sentence.

Cai Qin herself has a deep, low, and “magnetic” voice to captivate anyone who hear her voice. Even some people say that listening Cai Qin is just like drinking a glass of good wine. It gives you special pleasure. Not just listen the song, but also some emotional relationship with how the singer sings the song for you.

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Posted on Monday, 31st December 2007 by Jimmy Auw

Artist: Carmen Gomez Inc.
Album: Carmen Meets Kharma Live
Publisher: STS Digital
Recording Technology: SACD Hybrid Multichannel

About this album:
What will happen if you see Siltech, Marantz, dCS, Pyramix, SECC, WBT, Soundcraft, Schoeps, Philips, Kharma, and STS Digital join together? Well, the result is this Hybrid SACD Multi-Channel: Carmen Meets Kharma Live (Limited Edition).

According to what I read at the booklet inside this SACD, this album was recorded live in a small theatre in Almere. The audience were 100% audiophile and specially invited for this event (they were all the subscribers of high end magazine HVT in Holland). The audience were very quiet, according to Fritz de With (the recording engineer/producer).

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Posted on Monday, 31st December 2007 by Jimmy Auw

Artist: Various Artists/Compilation
Album: Burmester Vorfuhrungs CD III
Publisher: Burmester
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
Burmester is well know as high end and expensive audio equipment manufacturer, from Power Conditioner to Amplifier. This is their third Reference CD Audio (Burmester Vorfuhrungs CD III). A compilation from some best track to measure up your audio system performance.

As their audio equipment product, this CD also quite expensive considering this is just a CD, not a SACD, HDCD, or even a Gold CD. This is just a plain silver CD and may cost you over US$ 20 (I don’t remember precisely, feel free to check from your local Burmester dealer). Just remember, this CD is quite expensive.

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Posted on Monday, 31st December 2007 by Jimmy Auw

Artist: Anne Karin Kaasa
Album: Svalande Vind
Publisher: Kirkelig Kulturverksted
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
This is a very old album. The first release was 1991. Well at that time, I was still playing with cassette deck

Not much information about Anne Karin Kaasa (or just because I don’t know). Just like other Norway singer, she sang local language songs. Although this album name is “Svalande Vind” (Track #3), but for me, the best song in this album is the “Gje Meg Handa Di” (Track #1).

Anne’s pronunciation in this album was excellent. She sang with emotion and surprisingly, the recording quality was very impressive (consider this was recorded in 1990-1991). Surely it’s above average current most “audiophile labeled” CD. Other strong point from this CD was the instruments. The instruments played could bring and create powerful ambiance. Anne will sang right on the center with instruments filling the ambiance. On some parts, some of the instruments would play themselves without Anne.

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Posted on Thursday, 24th May 2007 by Jimmy Auw

Artist: Teresa Teng
Album: Volume I
Publisher: Universal (works together with Hugo Productions)
Recording Technology: LPCD45

About this album:
This is my first LPCD45 album. I bought it around S$ 39 (forget the exact price) at Singapore. Currently, there are 3 volume of Teresa Teng’s album in LPCD45, but this one (Volume I) contains most popular Teresa’s song. So I picked this one.

Overall, this CD contains almost all popular old Teresa Teng’s song. Track #2 is the popular “Ye Liang Tai Piaw Wo Te Sin” (月亮代表我的心) and track #8 is Thien Mi Mi (甜蜜蜜). You can read the rest on the track list at the end of this page. Finally, I can have an album that contains all good track inside. Really nice, since I used to be Teresa’s fan. I don’t have to tell you much about the album because if you love Teresa’s song, then this album will give you 100% satisfaction.

The sound quality itself can be considered good. The vocal is very sweet and liquid. The treble is soft, warm, transparant, but not harsh or bright. The low extension is tight, well rounded. I also listen other LPCD45 and they are have similiar quality and characteristics.

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Posted on Friday, 13th April 2007 by Jimmy Auw

Artist: Various (Oscars Motettkör and friends)
Album: Cantate Domino
Publisher: Proprius Records PRCD7762
Recording Technology: -

About this album:
This is a nice album for Christmas (though perhaps not all are the Christian’s song). Recorded by Bertil Aving in 1976 and very famous for its incredible sound quality. According to Proprius, the equipments used was the Revox A77 and two Pearl TC4 microphone.

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