Letter from Hong Kong (25-1): ELO on Douk U4/PJ Miaolai A4, again
Review: Douk U4 (aka PJ Miaolai A4), Part III
Douk U4 Part I from Doctorjohn has all the basic info. Part II comprises experiences from ELO and Shawn P, chronicled in detail. It's actually fascinating, as always, to read about people struggling to make their gear work for them. It also shows how fastidious we are here in leaving no stone unturned for items we deem worthwhile (even if flawed). Compare that with reviews on the net (not to mention youtubers).
U4/A4 Again?? Not tired of promoting it?? Time for my WEA to step down?
Douk U4/ PJ Miaolai A4
It's hard to conceive that I was a skeptical bystander about Douk U4! Now, I have introduced this to many friends and they are all seasoned audiophiles with many years of experience and all were happy with the U4! But why should I keep promoting this unit, I dunno, I am not getting paid nor related to Douk and in fact I have never contacted them once! Ultimately, I just want to prove some principles in HiFi wrong and make HiFi lovers focus on music rather than gear. Many audiophiles use music to serve their uber expensive and flashy systems while music lover simply uses stereo to play music!
I keep hearing improvement over the U4 at difference places and I am expecting it will keep on improving at my place. Will the previously unshakable status of my trustworthy Wattson Emerson Analog WEA be shaken? We will talk about it more below.
This little Douk U4/ PJ Miolai A4 is like David in a HiFi World of Goliath's, where most buy stuff based on eye candy factor, size (over matter) and price tag (high enough to stroke one's ego) more than sound and Douk U4 is always fighting fearlessly in front of these Big Bosses !
Andy A newly met (online) friend Andy, who is also a long time NYC friend of Doctorjohn, has an illuminating comment on his experience on U4: he said despite many gear that can better the U4 in certain music genre, none can give him the "Thereness" experience of U4, the realness , the feeling of presence and "as if you are there " feeling, and that is what he treasures most from U4. He reckons tubes from WE sounds most real, perhaps I may look for one. (P.S., Tung Sol 5670, said to be OEM for WE , is on ordered for testing!)
Dr. Lo I brought the U4 to his place and at first his eyes betray his belittlement of this cheap unit, which is normal. But in the end he was surprised by the sound coming out from it! I played Tidal and Youtube through it using my Huawei P30 Pro phone (which I think sounds best compared to my tablet and laptop and other cellphones) as well as playing some tracks from Audio Technica's Sound Burger. Time from Pink Floyd left him in awe of the sound coming out from the formidable U4/SB combo! I left the unit with him to play around for a few days. In the interim, he was using the iFi Zen Blue Bluetooth and briefly thought it was better or comparable to my U4; this drew my doubts as I had previously sold my brand new iFi Zen Blue in less than a week. So I went to his place again to listen to both. Ended up we both agreed that the U4 was more engaging and musical; in comparison the iFi sounded a bit bland, nonchalant and uninvolving. The result further reinforced my belief~ Power Supply With a Ray modified PS that I had bought before the sound has beefed up with more flesh and blood and texture. Before I left, he told me another friend will come over to listen to the setup and I asked him to blind test U4 with his friend. Needless to say, his friend was pleasantly surprised by the sound coming out from this little unit! He said with a better Space and Time cable, the performance elevated to another level but I am confident my Sommer/Studer cable will not be inferior to it. I then asked if blind tested, will this unit beats or compare favorably with a $20k+ CDP, he paused for a minute and think deeply then nodded slowly and agreed.
Kwong Same happened to my long time HiFi buddy. I had asked him to try the U4 for months and to implement into his new home in China. He ended up buying a Pioneer Streamer and a Chinese DAC, which cost him over $10K HKD. He was happy with it until I almost put a knife on his neck to buy the U4 LOL. He then bought it and once plugged it in, he was very surprised by the SQ of U4, which was neck to neck with his current combo. One day, I gave him the Jan GE 5670 tube to replace the stock and as soon as he plugged it in, he never looked back and told me he immediately sold his Pioneer/DAC combo and used only the U4 as the sound sourfce and the SQ has surpassed his streamer/DAC combo by a significant margin!
(Updated 20th April) Kwong bought a second unit for his main setup in HK and immediately , with GE tube, it surpasses the performance of his Lumin U1/Holo Spring 1 L3!! And now he is selling his Lumin !!! Also, the preamp fro Fosi ZD3 also amazes him with the sound quality aand price
JC Needless to say, veteran JC, with the museum like collection of gear that he possesses~, along with his friends are all using U4 as their main source already and he is having tremendous fun on tube rolling and replacing LPS, cables (including USB) etc.
Ah 7 Another friend Seven had bought it based on my enthusiastic recommendation but was too busy to listen to it since he had been on graveyard shift lately, poor him... Finally he texted me that he was so excited by the sound quality of U4. Exactly like me, he put it aside when he first received it, and was skeptical of this little unit..... then eventually the GE JAN tube arrived and he started to plug it in and listen seriously and what a transformation, the sound absolutely surpassed his Eversolo A6 (replaced LPS) and Holo Spring 2 DAC! He is putting them up on sale immediately, which shows how good this little U4 is! He then decided to up his system and today he changed all his cables to Sommer/Studer/Neutrik and needless to say, the whole performance has elevated to another level!
Extract of his comment:
依家越聽越好聽
部數播同泉都可以收工了
部eversxlx真廢，重要換埋火牛
都輸比藍芽U4
幾舊水對琳左幾千銀部機，過唔到自己心理
我仲未煲好，冇聽夠時數
但已經要打算賣機
(Updated on 21st March)
Ah BUT, I went to my primary schoolmate's place for a wonderful music gathering focusing on songs rather than hifi. Four of us take turn choosing a song to play of each's own favorite choice. A lot of oldies and some jazz songs were played and we had a great time. I then introduced U4 to them, ah BUT ordered one immediately and was so shocked that the sound quality matches his streamer/DAC combo! He reckons his combo still has an edge on classical playback, but U4 is as good in jazz and vocals! I gave him the Tung Sol tube which sounds warmer and more musical! He has then ordered the PS from Ray as well too! BTW, his combo is Grimm's MU1 and Playback CDP's DAC that costs close to $200K HKD or $25K USD vs U4 which costs $200 HKD which is almost 100 times cheaper!! Well done U4 in performing another David and Goliath act!
Me From the beginning till now, U4 has served as a reliable source at my home for watching TV and Youtube videos and playing records from Sound Burger. But initially I thought WEA clearly had the upper hand when streaming Tidal and I deemed the gap to be significant. Power Supply But how would the U4 sound with the New PS from Ray and with Sommer/Studer cable, will it dethrone my WEA??
More Comparison I was ready for the face off of U4 vs WEA. I used the newly bought Luxman AS-4III line selector ($700HKD) from Yodobashi in Osaka to resolve the issue of only one input of E6.
Setup A - Tidal using WEA, iFi Power Plus PS. All resting on graphite plucks and with body connected to ground box. All cables Sommer/Studer (with Neutrik connectors that brought significant improvement over stock KLE ones); Setup B - Tidal using Huawei P30 Pro phone to Douk U4 powered by Ray's PS ( All Sommer/Studer).
And that's not the only thing. Icefox, DJ and Andy (DJ's long time friend) all told me to also try the headphone jack as output. I first heard it that way at Mila's shop - not much impression as I was not familiar with his setup and his audio preference seems slightly differs from mine - so I could not make a judgement. I went home and tried it myself and here's my finding: sound seems to be smoother with improved body , more musical too when I connected to the headphone jack; however, that is with a cost - a loss of certain degree of clarity and shrinking of soundstage as well as less quiet background. Fish and Bear Paw, I chose the latter, i.e. RCA out at the back.
As mentioned, I had finally taken the plunge and replaced the KLE connectors of my last two set of Sommer/Studer interconnects to Neutrik . The effect on U4 playing Tidal music from my laptop is really promising; the sound from RCA output has further improved with added nuance , musicality and silkiness.
Tidal Tracks I played to compare: 1) Paris, Istanbul, Shanghai by Joel Glare; 2) Bach III Gavotte and Rondeau by Nathan Milstein; 3) Love letter by Jacky Chan; plus many others.
Initially, switching A/B, sound was neck to neck, which really surprised me, as this was the first time that my WEA was seriously challenged , which is indeed a shock for me since before there was a big gap between WEA and U4 !
In terms of sheer musicality , details, smoothness, balanced sound through high, mid and low spectrum, the U4 was neck to neck with WEA! At one point I could not decide which setup is better!!! That was the FIRST time in my memory.
So I did one thing, I unplugged the WEA and decided to spend days to listen to just the U4, streaming Tidal, Youtube through TV. Needless to say, I was very happy with U4 and for once I had forgotten the WEA completely since it was so convenient to use!
Until...a few days ago, I thought it was time to shift back to my WEA. I think that would be a fair comparison since I had become so used to U4's sound by now!
And the verdict is...WEA still has the upper hand! That said, U4 did most of the things right or even superbly. The WEA only beats it in the additional clarity and the emotional connection in strings (Erhu with WEA is definitely more engaging and can trigger my inner emotion far more than U4 or any other setup I have heard). That said, for most other types of songs, U4 is very comparable to WEA.
Violin from WEA is among the best that I have heard; it can grab my heart and soul ! I'm afraid U4 , while very very good, cannot match the final touch of WEA but is damn close (Before I use WE396A on U4). But consider U4 is selling at a fraction of price, there's no shame at all, it's just that WEA is such a wonderful little machine from the Swiss that in itself is a certain David in front of bigger Goliath's!!!
Updated 20th April: TUBE ROLLING
Who would have thought I'm into this! My first time but man that's addictive! I have now 5 different tubes and they are (though I have yet to try 6NS7 like my friend)
Stock : A decent tube given the price
GE5670 : Improves overall sound by 20% from stock and is a cheap upgrade
Tung Sol 5670 : Very euphonic and tends to gives a sweeter sound which is welcoming to a lot of harsh recordings but at the expense of shrunk soundstage and clarity. But I can live with the loss easily
Electro Harmonix Gold 6922 : Bought a tube adaptor to try this on. Immediately, the soundstage has widened and things get more transparent and a bit more dynamic, less euphonic though comapre to Tung Sol
WE396A: I finally received a replacement tube since the first one delivered was defective. This tube is so neutral but in a sense is pure, without adding or taking away things, Good spatial interpretation, smooth but not lush, and is pure and musical in a natural form. Achieve a lot by not interfering with the recording! I like it a lot especially when playing LPs from my Sound Burger, the soundstage is huge, dynamics is superb, violin is lean yet clear as spring water with accurate timbre, probably the best format at my current setup! Add in the Uptone Ultracap LPS1.2 further improves the macro dynamics and dynamic shadings of the music. Music seems to calm down in a good sense! This is the best tube so far! For $3xxHKD bought from PTT, it's a steal!
Conclusion (updated 19th March and further update on 20th April)
I will NOT put a conclusion since both U4 and WEA are such wonderful bargains in today's mad mad Hifi world, where a power cable can sell for 700K to 800K HKD!! I leave it up to you to make a conclusion for yourself and examine your motive towards "playing HiFi" (Chinese term in listening to HiFi). (Updated 20th April): In addition, Sound Burger through U$/WE396A and Uptone produces the best sound ever at my place and I am truly amazed!
Music First, with sufficient Hifi attributes - that's always the only way!!! Until then Adios Sis and Bros.
I surfed through "Leisure Fish", Carousell equivalent of HK and while looking for WE396 tube to replace my GE5670, I came across these old stock Tung Sol 5670, said to be OEM for WE at such cheap price $110 each, bought 5 of them to share among friends. Tonight , I plugged it in and replaced my GE 5670 on U4. Immediately, there was a significant different that can be detected ! The sound has become more coherent, more organic and I hate to use the generic term "musical" but seems appropriate here. Music from singer and instruments played with more oneness ,sense and pace. Violin has more of wooden box resonance and body, notes between notes are more connected to become more fluid. However, in terms of HiFi terms, there is a sacrifice of ultimate clarity , space and width of soundstage but if I did not hear the GE , I would not have spotted that! As of now, U4 has this added weapon and can now stand side by side with my Wattson!!! Bravo!
P.S. My WEA suddenly doesn't work for me all of sudden after a rock solid , no-glitch operation 24/7 and man , do I feel so grateful that I still got my U4/Tung-sol tube with me while debugging my WEA!!
WEA suddenly works perfectly with no reasons but is more than welcoming.
Thanks to Deep Seek's recommendation of Shungite crystal! I just bought some and placed it on top my WEA and mixed some with tourmaline in one of my gorund boxes, all to good effect.
I had replaced the original box with a beautiful inlaid wooden box~
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