Keeping it simple - Hifi

I was down with serious flu for the past few days which has affected my mood and my ability to be active. Luckily, there was music to accompany me during these passive period.

With the acquistion of the Western Electric 124b, I have been testing them with the Fisher 400CX, Fisher 50C and the WE 120a. The Fisher 400CX sounded very modern and "hifi". The Fisher 50c sounded more mallow and warm. The WE 120a sounded more balance.

In the end, owing to circumstances beyond my control, I am left with only the WE 120a to accompany my WE 124.

After much running in, the sound from the combination began to sound much more open. I have added a simple Isophone tweeter to give the whole soundstage more body. Pereviously my Electro Voice 35 tweeter sounded too loud thereby not being able to harmonise well with my WE speakers.

I have decided to use the We120a preampliers as it is newly assembled (using NOS stocks parts), and the background is very quiet. One of my hifi audiophiles friend who used to collect lots of vintage amplifiers and pre-amplifiers are beganiing to sell off his collection. He has commented that vintage pre-amplifier, owing to ageing, will tend to be noisy in background. As such, his personal view is to use a modern pre amplifier + vintage power amplifier in oder to bring the best of both world. As such, I have have decided to keep the WE120a for my WE124 ( I have called them the WE combo)

I have packed my Leak TL12.1 to be ready to hand carry back to Singapore to use with my Marantz 7 in Mid May 2007. The Leak TL12.1 has a strong gain. When used with the Fisher 400CX, I will have to tone down the volume to the minimum in order to listen. Othewise, the sound will be too loud. As such, the Leak TL12.1 is a perfect match for the more neutral Marantz 7 pre amplifier.

In summary, I will only have the following gears:

• HKG: WE124 + WE120a + WE/RCA full range speakers
• SIN : Pye Mozart HF 10 + Tannoy Cantebury (Living room)
• SIN : Leak TL12.1 + Marantz 7 + WE 755a (Study room)

I am currently going against the thrend in HKG as many audiophiles were busy buying and collecting. With the objective of keeping it simple, I have strived to improve on the "quality" of my gears and keeping the munber down to a manageable level, since one can pnly listen to one set of hifi at any given time.