Ascendo MS-Sew ASR Emitter II Exclusive Metrum Pavane

Click pics to enlarge. System View + accompanying popcorn (Note the ASI resonators in the center above the amplifier and the small barely visible Stein dot above the mid woofer).

The Sistine Chapel by audiopro

(no, this isn’t a John Wick movie)

I recently reviewed a system that I have seen grow over the last 4-5 years in India. It started when Mr. Michael acquired the big Ascendo speakers and has grown ever since. It was built using the one component that most of us lack i.e. patience. Slowly but surely the owner acquired each component and has now achieved what I call synergy.

It is always difficult to review a system as a whole because one doesn’t know what each component can do. When I review a system, I have always felt that a system (not a component as much) may be categorised into two broad categories:

– A photograph or a painting....mostly a system lies somewhere in between but then it is neither here or there...

A system that I classify as a photograph is neutral, transparent, clean, well centered tonally; attack and decay are well balanced, PRAT, dynamic; may lack hues and shades but it connects with your primal side and heads bob and feet tap. Think of a photograph taken using a really nice lens in perfect lighting.

A system that I classify as a painting is about the brushstrokes and the colour choices. How they blend in with each other, the emotion portrayed on the painting, etc. You can get lost in this bath, flavours swirling around your senses. It can draw you in, caress you and so on...

Both are easy to enter but very difficult to get right. Setup one (photograph) can easily become bright and analytical, robbing the music of its soul, like the Topping D50 DAC. It is well reviewed based on its measurements, yet when I bought it, it sounded sterile - it was like a punishment that I received in primary school: having to kneel down on the cold floor for talking; I vehemently defended my innocence. (Yes we were punished like this in those days – talk about a whack to the head or a remark in your diary that your folks had to sign. I’d pick the kneel and/or whack combo any day than the  puppy eyed guilt trip the remark set you on).

System two can easily become dull, warm, uninvolving, slow or too harmonically dense, killing attack and PRAT.

Michael’s system consists of some flagship components like the Ascendo MS-Sew speaker, the Metrum Pavane DAC, Audience cabling or the ASR Emitter II Exclusive amplifier. It also consists of some room treatment tweaks like the Steinmusic Harmonizers, ASI resonators and Stein Blue Suns.

ASR EMITTER II - EXCLUSIVE
(not shown are the dual power supplies and individual battery pack, this is a 4 box amplifier)

Metrum Pavane NOS R2R DAC

There is something to learn from this system setup. I very so often get asked, “I have a bright speaker so if I use a smooth cable or dac will it balance it out?” The answer is yes, it will tame the brightness but I can almost guarantee you that the system will not sound fun. This is because there are components pulling opposite ways.

Michael’s system has components that are similar in tonality, yet are so well flavoured or balanced that they do not tip over into the boring territory. All of his components are warm, harmonically rich, dark sounding but they come together as a whole and the end result is something as beautiful as the Sistine Chapel.

We played music using Roon and Tidal. Michael has an Intel NUC with a SOTM PSU hosting the Roon software. Music is streamed to a Metrum Roon endpoint which ends at the Pavane DAC. All component to component network cabling was SOTM’s CAT 7.

I usually listen for the following:

• Timing
• Micro dynamics
• Tonality
• Image size
• Bass
• Harmonics
• Listen for the singer to see if you can catch how he’s moving his voice i.e. head voice, throat, mouth etc.

First lets get what this system doesn’t do. It isn’t neutral tonally, it's coloured. Harmonics don’t jump out at you like a tube amp or some accuphase amps. It isn't a high sensitivity low powered setup which sometimes has that JUMP factor. It isn't a Ferrari or Tesla. This is a Bentley flying wing or a Rolls Royce. More than enough power when called for and you travel first class.

Being coloured it may not suit every genre, say rock, but I don’t think the owner listens to rock or heavy metal. Primal raw gritty it is not. Warm, textured, fleshed out, musical, golden, sexy, a work of art it is.

Well this system struck 5/7 of these parameters. Four to me were near perfect, whereas one parameter (tonality) was superb but in an artistic type of way. Harmonics, though extremely well done, were a little dark on the top and I will write about the bass below. Image size was executed perfectly, probably the best I’ve heard in a long time.

1. Timing was Spot On. It's a big speaker but it could start and stop on a dime. It was nimble.

2. Micro dynamics was beautiful too. It was faaaaasst without sounding thin or bright. The sound remained fleshed out but was yet fast. Think of it as a brush stroke where the initial stroke looks darker and the later ones lighten up. Think of seeing paint that appears textured not overtly smooth. Think of a movie in which the Samurai sword swishes fast and you are left seeing the blades trail.

It was beautiful. It was as if the system was painting the song rather than mechanically producing it. It sacrificed the jump factor you get from a low powered amp high sensitivity speaker combo but I really didn't care this time around. The siren was enthralling me with her song.

3. Tonality - Warm, richly fleshed out golden mid range. This "fleshing out" of the midrange is what adds texture and prevents a warm sound from becoming too smooth or dull and boring. I kept coming back to this textured mid range and mid bass every time a song is played. The texture was the transient. I have experienced something similar with Audio Note products where the sound depends heavily on the texture to deliver the transient bite, like moving your palm over a textured surface instead of on a needle tip.

It's almost like taking the best of a really nice Amperex (harmonics and golden glow) + RCA 12AU7 (darkness and chocolate) tubes, sprinkling in a little of Telefunken magic (sparkle) and adding some of the good solid state properties like speed and fast decay. If I had to fault it I would say that the highs were dark sounding (something almost every ASR review has talked about) but dark it maybe, lacking in information it was not (now I sound like Yoda).

4. Image Size – This was perfect. Perfect, perfecto, perfect. The image size was like a small musk melon, yet it could expand and contract instantly as and when the singer raised his voice. Think of it like a light bulb with a dimmer. The size of the bulb stays the same, yet when you increase the brightness the glow grows and can contract immediately if you reduce the same.

I was listening to Seal's both sides now and the young James Morrison and the way they energized that space was perfect. Never did the voice grow too loud and overshoot or smear. It just expanded and contracted like the glow of a bulb in milliseconds, offering probably the best contrast of vocal micro dynamics that I have heard.

This micro dynamic aspect of the vocals and the warm golden texture made the voice so involving, it just kept drawing me in to the music. The micro dynamics and texture served as the attack or brush stroke whereas the warm golden hue served as the paint. Even when instruments came in they were sized perfectly and expanded and contracted without smearing each other in any way. I would attribute these characteristics to the ASR amplifier and the room treatments. I have heard this speaker in the same room with other components but it was only when the ASR came in did it develop this personality.

5. Bass – The Ascendo uses a bandpass design. I am not too fond of bandpass designs as I feel they are one notish and always leave a hole where they integrate with the mids. In the past I always felt this systems Achilles' heel was the bass but this time around it was fast, textured and didn’t drag as much (drier than before). I did feel it to be slightly lacking at the crossover to the mid region but then I guess a bandbass will always do that. The Ascendo uses a large 8ish inch mid driver so I guess it is better suited to handling this transition that other bandpass coupled speakers. The kick drum was superb. You could hear the texture of the drum skin decay vis a vis a simple dry thuck. But there was some darkness between the mid bass and lower mid region. It was well concealed but something appeared dark or amiss there.

6. Harmonics – I have already spoken about the tonality. I would just add that harmonically it was not suited for rock. I tried some rock music but I don’t think rockstars would like a dark, warm, golden hue, cuddly, chocolate, complex whiskey malt system. They are better suited to a raw gritty, Russian vodka mixed with absinthe kind (if you mix vodka and absinthe, you never read this here – editor please make note, actually please never try this ever, leave it to the short lived rockstars). [Ed: I think the stigma surrounding absinthe is a myth. I am actually a big fan of anisette flavored drinks, from pernod to ouzo to raki. Drank plenty on my trips to Greece and Syria. I am sure India has its own]

As mentioned before this was - Amperex + RCA 12AU7 tubes, sprinkling in a little of Telefunken magic which I again strongly feel is the ASR voicing followed by the Pavane and Audience cabling.

7. Listen for the singer – again superb, more so on male vocals. You could hear the singer moving the voice around, the voice changing weight and tone depending on if it was a head or chest voice (for those who don't get this look up vocal coach Beth Roars videos on Youtube in my last post), then changing micro dynamics as the singer increased or decreased air pressure. The system did not pressurize the room as I have seen some systems do. Instead the singer was left by himself on the soundstage just singing his heart out. I did not get the same feeling using female tracks. It was there but not as well done as the male ones.

All in all I thank Michael for hosting me over and kudos to him for pulling off a superb sounding system. It isn't meant to have that jump and presence factor that you get with high sensitivity speakers and small simple amplification circuits. It may not suit aggressive genres that sound good on raw systems but, what it did well, was beautiful, just beautiful, which made me think of the Sistine Chapel. Well done, Michael, you pulled off a Michaelangelo!

 Vintage Marantz RC programmed and controlling the system

"we can send a man to Mars and maybe even grow a tree on it but we cannot remake a classic remote like this. Why? Oh why!!!! Just look at the print and buttons..."

- audiopro

System components in the above setup:

Lector Digidrive cd Transport

Metrum Pavane
Linn LP12/ IttokLVii/ Lyra Delos
Jeff Rowland Cadence Phono stage with BPS1 supply
Intel NUC / SOtM SPS500, Metrum
Ambre , Melco N1A
ASR Emitter II Exclusive
Ascendo MS- SEW
Audience Au24SX Speaker Cables , Front Row Digital, Line Level XLR , Audience and Furutech Power Cables, SOtM Purist Audio Cat7 cables.
Audience power conditioning, Steinmusic Harmonizers, Blue Suns, Supernatural feet, ASI Resonators.
Kemp Electroniks QA and Schumann Resonator plugs
Vintage Marantz RC

Editor: My friend Sang in HK used to have an ASR Emitter I (2 box) which I have heard a lot (here). Indeed all these battery driven equipment would not be the last word in macrodynamics, but that's not what they are for. Part of the polite character may be due to the Metrum too. Eric L's lower level Metrum was deemed too polite by him. Just a guess. As for this flagship Ascendo, I have heard it twice: the first time was terrible (driven by Audionet); the second time pretty good at a show (here). A great write-up. Indeed it's not easy to hear a thoroughly musical system on home visits.

Show Report: 2011 Hong Kong High End Audio Visual Show 香港高級視聽展

Sometimes it's better to remain silent.

Show Report: 2011 Hong Kong High End Audio Visual Show 香港高級視聽展 (August 5, 2011)
 
Attention: -click all pics to enlarge 點擊照片就會放大 -Revision 1 (Aug 6): This is mostly it. I shall make a few additions in the next revision.

General Observations As usual, I could almost reprint last year's show report (click here for 2010 my show report) for this year's. Year after year, the show is much as usual, with the exhibitors occupying their usual rooms on the upper floors. More interesting were the smaller rooms in the foyer, where there were more new stuff than usual. Overall, sound was less good than last year (I wonder if widespread use of CAS was to blame). The cue for tickets was longer than last year. However, as before, inside the venue it was not particularly crowded (by show standard), leading one to suspect some people just bought the ticket for the CD and never attended the show.
 
As usual, for me and my friends, we hit the software counters first. As usual, this year there were no bargains. For the regular stuff, discount was small, the most generous being perhaps Ming Da.

CAS was widely used by exhibitors. However, with few exceptions, the sound was pallid. As usual, the best sounds came from LP sources, followed by CD replay. Despite use of Weiss etc, CAS had the poorest sound. BTW, do you believe all the hype about CAS? Weiss? I say, no.

The coverage below is in no particular order, divided into categories and by merit only:
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Good Try (Large Room)
In terms of large speaker demo, three setups stood out for their room-filling sound, no easy task in these big convention rooms. It should be noted that I visited early on the first of three days, when many setups likely have not achieved status quo. Your mileage may vary.

(Distributor Jadis Electronics) usually did reasonably by show standard. But, in their big room, more than the big MBL and Westlake they showed in the last 2 years, and more than the other Wilson's they had in the past, the Wilson Alexandria X2, this round provided a satisfying room-filling sound with the help of Wadia and Boulder electronics and of course Thor's Hammer (wise to use a sub-woofer in this setting). Could the improved sound be attributable to old-hand 余師傅 who had joined the staff recently? Although not perfect, this is much better Wilson sound than the many pairs of Alexandria and Maxx and whatever Wilson's that I have heard in many HK home visits. Once again, this proves that the speaker must match the room. Unfortunately, in HK, more often than not we see Wilson's housed in rooms that are too small; as a result, sometimes these are played at very low volume in order not to lose control. The resulting sound is anemic, even somnambulating - that illustrates the sad state of HK hifi. Yawn.


Miraculously, despite partnership with over-priced and usually under-performing Burmester (which year after year delivered artificial and colored sound at the show), the flagship Ascendo gave a very good room-filling piano sound (Distributor Richcoln, not to be confused with Richcom). Many years ago I heard a much earlier iteration of this Ascendo; then driven by Audionet the sound was awful.
Our friend trazom thought it best of show. In this room I ran into gentlemanly Leo Fung; it's nice to see him in great shape. I wish him well.




Distributor Dah Cheong year after year mostly played their lackluster Chario in their big room. Last year they bravely had the flagship Cabasse, which was not a complete success. But they really ought to be playing their Tannoy a lot more. This time, the Kingdom Royal sounded great as driven by Esoteric, a lot better than the same speakers we heard at a previous home visit.
I missed our friend Richard Cheong, who has left the company.

Good Try (Small Room)
On a less epic scale, for once (Distributor Hit Audio) had a hit (as you shall see later, they failed spectacularly too in another room). Zu speakers did great justice to the electronics of Chinese Line Magnetic, the field-coil specialist. I heard the beautifully finished LM219IA integrated amp, a SET 845 amp driven by 12AX7 followed by re-issue "WE310A" (website; does not work too well in English). The sound was excellent, proving simple is best. And the meter is definitely a plus!

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Could have been Better Two brand new speakers, Kondo and Rockport flagship, should sound better than they did.
L: Darth Vader; R: Feminine Field-Coil
(Distributor Tara Labs) traditionally had consistently excellent sound on offer in a big room. But this year the Darth Vader Rockport Arrakis (which Robert Harley raved about) had just arrived, and was definitely not even close to run-in. These are the largest speakers the company has ever handled, and they are much bigger than pictures make them. These were driven bi-amp'ed (a must, said manager 阿明) by VTL TL7.5 pre/MB450 monoblocks. My friend whlee, who visited a few hours later, praised the sound of the room. I had perhaps visited too early. Note the beautiful Spiral Groove turntable with the latest arm.
(Distributor Avantgarde) usually did pretty well in shows. But this year, without their flagship Avantgarde Trio the sound did not measure up. When I visited, the sound delivered by the just arrived and intriguingly styled Kondo BiYura field-coil loudspeakers definitely showed they were not run-in. This may still be a prototype; the only reference I found was a negative comment for its appearance in CES 2011 (here), but note that the writer sells Audio Note, rival to Kondo, so... An unverified source told me the tweeter is similar to the one in Kiso HB-1. The Ongaku used was probably also too little power for the room. Later, friends reported the Avantgarde Uno G2 did not cohere either, as one would expect of hybrid design in such a big room. Perhaps their YG would have done better? The excellent AMR 777 was used as source.
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Not Too Bad EAR this year finally got better speakers (at least they look so, even if they look like clones). They did not crank it up, but sound was good.

Over-priced MBL, unlike Burmester, at least put on a reasonable showing every time. This time, a smaller room and decent sound.


Naim sounded good with hi-res file, a notable exception from the majority of poor CAS sound at the show (partnered most often with Weiss to no effect). This is the only brand I heard from the large stable of (Distributor Radar).
Audio Physic, as driven by Simaudio, delivered not the most neutral sound, but it at least had good rhythm and pace, no easy task in shows!

Neither Eggleston nor Krell are personal favorites, but they delivered at least acceptable sound at (Distributor Excel). It is just too bad that I did not get to hear again the wonderful Vivid Giya or Dartzeel, surely superior products. And, why never Magnepan?
Dali matched with Lyngdorf was passable. Surely, room correction was used?
(Distributor Wellwick) always did better than usual (considering what they have). This year it was Elac as driven by over-priced and over-rated Accustic Arts. I'd prefer the same company's more humble Densen.

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Not too Good

The Tannoy-like flagship 5-way Wharfedale Airedale was only so-so with Luxman. Although missing over-hyped Eventus is nothing to me, I wished I had gotten to hear Soulution (Distributor Wise Sound).
German Physiks this year used a smaller pair and sound was not as good as last year's bigger brother, as driven by Brinkmann.



Similarly, TAD and Marten did not achieve their best.
The TADs were driven by Esoteric monoblocks but without preamp, using computer and the Weiss DAC's volume knob. No wonder the pale sound. I asked the sale person why no preamp. He said, "Esoteric preamp not out yet." Hey, man, why not use your company's Quad preamp?
Zellaton driven by Ayre was lackluster.
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Bad
I was excited by the appearance of the Devialet, but sound through CAS/Weiss was pallid.

Adam driven by Modright had one-note bass. What happened to YBA? So ugly! Together with Atohm they failed to make music.


Melody (big 845 monoblocks) tried to show off its strength with ATC, but failed miserably. So, one hit, one miss for (Distributor Hit Audio).

The Crystal loudspeakers gave a terrible showing. Why not play Franco Serblin's products?

(Distributor First Impesssion) continued to disappoint. What happened to the tried-and-true combination of Avalon + Rowland? Is there nothing certain in this world anymore? It seems Italian Audia electronics is not a good match. Watch the first impression you give!

(Distributor Matisse Asia) is usually nothing but gimmicks. This year when I visited they were showing a black and white jazz video! Sound through Verity Audio in surround was simply awful, without a trace of presence that is necessary for jazz reproduction.


(Distributor Premiere HiFi) sadly failed to live up to its name. I am not familiar with newcomer Trennel and Friedel, but the sound was awful as driven by Viva. It's too bad all the JC Verdier stuff were lying idle on the side! Sacrilege!

Elephant Holdings seem to be hibernating these days. Remember the old shows at the Regal Kowloon Hotel? They used to have great sound.

JBL 4365 should not have done so poorly. I venture the Harman electronics are not up to it.
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Unusual Looks My vote for the best looking loudspeaker goes to retro-cool Danish Davone. You can easily mistake them for furniture from the likes of Kartell and Driade, or whatever. here it was seen with Japanese Leben tube products.

I was taken by the funky looks of the strangely named Everything But The Box. I hope it would not turn out to be "everything but the sound".

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Chinese Products (and those that pretend they are not)
The usual Chinese products (mostly tube) are there. Beside established (and well finished) Shanling, Raysonic, Line Magnetic etc, we have a few newcomers, though not nearly as many as in the Quangzhou show.

What is also apparent is that even old budget manufacturers are moving upmarket. One of the most striking example is Dared. These massive 300B amps look pretty good!

Here, I'd like to divert a little. It is now fashionable for Chinese designers (especially from HK) and companies to disguise themselves as non-Chinese (Canadian, US, Australian, whatever) in order to charge you more. How sad! I often see products that look suspiciously like barely dressed up (in some cases down) Chinese stuff, but commanding a much higher price.

In the world of tube products, if you see something that looks suspiciously like a Chinese product, but is said not to be, and the website has poor English, is either devoid of content or has little information on the company or designer, then it is likely a disguised Chinese product. I frown upon this practice and would avoid these companies like the plague. In contrast, I support Chinese companies that are Chinese from Day One (like the aforementioned Line Magnetic, Shanling, Raysonic etc).

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Lifestyle products
As is the world trend, there seems to be an explosion of compact devices of T-amps and USB capable DAC's that cater to earphones and the lifestyle crowd. These companies often have unusual names, like Briks, Trends etc, and why not?
Loudspeakers that target the desk-top crowd are everywhere too. One of the more interesting one is Taiwanese JohnBlue, which uses full-range drivers. I'd love to hear the company's desktop JB3 and floor-stander JB8 (pictured).
But have you noticed a phenomenon? The established lifestyle products get more expensive quickly, whereas newcomers appear everyday and fight for the lower priced territory? Personally I think this is not healthy, and the market is saturated. Lifestyle products have a large me-too component and is not the future of hifi. When you see mass-market TEAC trying to emulate Meridian (seen above, used at a counter that sold CD), you know the end cannot be far away.
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Other Show Reports

As you know, much on the internet is BS, pics with few words, and certainly no criticism. I don't know why people bother to read them.

A rare exception is the report by Francis Leung in computeraudiophile. Candid and concise.

************************************************************** The "Not For Sale" CD Every year the show produces a CD that is free with admission (HKD 60). The gimmicky part is the CD comes in 2 versions.
The SACD/CD dual layer version is always available. But the so-called "LPCD" version (favored by some local audiophiles) are limited to a much smaller quantity and available 1) only in a dual-pack of 2 admissions in tandem with 1 SACD/CD; 2) on a first-come, first-served basis. This means the majority of the people will not get the LPCD, thus enhancing its value, and a great promotion for the "format".
This CD is supposedly not for sale, but you can easily buy it on the net (click here; still 97 copies available at time of writing). Can someone tell me why??
香港高級視聽展 的 SACD 不是 [非賣品] 嗎？ 那爲什麽網上大把有得賣？ 此刻，這個網頁 還有 96 張 SACD （隨便填寫一個大數目，然後投入購物車，就可得知餘數），港元 150 一張。往年的 LPCD 也有少量。

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As for the content of the CD, let me add something in the next revision.