Audiophiles all over the world tried all means and ways to attain Hi-Fi Nirvana, some of them has caused big dents in their bank accounts and some of them have been moaning in pain ever since. Of course, a few (I would say, the minority) have been able to improve their systems day by day and this keeps their hi-fi spirit high and flying. In the quest for a good system, some audiophiles tend to forget that the ultimate aim of having a good hi-fi set-up is to be able to enjoy good music. The fact is, one doesn’t need to upgrade their equipment or cables once every few months in order to enjoy music. In my opinion, once you have a reasonable system, you should spend more time on enjoying music by buying more CD or LP.

When I was in Hong Kong, I used to read hi-fi magazines regularly to gather information about new release of audiophile grade CDs and LPs. Hong Kong was full of all kinds of CD shops and there were some specialized LP shops too. As long as you have the money, you can buy any audiophile CDs or LPs easily. However, over here in Singapore, even though it was not as horrible as in the desert, one still has to go to great length to find them.

All audiophile knew that American and Japanese pressed CDs are guarantee of good sound quality. However, in Singapore, most of the CDs are pressed either locally or in the regional countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Even if I have a lot of spare cash (which I don’t), I won’t waste them on such CDs. I do not wish to torture my ears! And again, 99% or above (Joe: and above? Are you sure, Martin?) of CD shops are concentrating on popular music. Well, I am over the age of being popular. Another alternative is to patronize those big chains such as HMV and Tower, but as soon as I thought of their price tags…

Sometimes I really don’t understand why a developed and prosperous city like Singapore cannot support a “nice” CD shop. My definition of “nice” shop is very simple: full of audiophile grade CDs and selling at reasonable prices; treating the customers nicely and warmly like old pals; even if the owner is very busy, he still squeeze time out to entertain me, to chit-chat with me. Am I asking for too much? (Joe: it depends on how much you are willing to spend?)

I can’t help remembering those good old days when we have the famous “Hi-Fi Corner” by Joe Lee and “Music Box” owned by Sebastian. Sorry Joe, I have touched on your old wound, is it still bleeding? Now, I can only try my luck at Audio Industries situated at the 4th floor of the Adelphi or Roxy Music at the basement of Roxy Square. Are you their regular customers already? If not, give them a visit; you may be lucky enough to find some surprises.

During our last hi-fi gathering, Joe handed a pair of Au24 bi-wire speaker cable to Ben for testing. Unfortunately, Ben is using Avalon speakers that were designed for single wire and not bi-wire. Since my speakers are bi-wire design, I volunteered to do the testing.

This Au24 speaker cable looks like its sister interconnect cables. (Joe: they are the same thing). Maybe they are based on the same theory as OCOS whose interconnect and speaker cables were using the same materials. Looking at its fragile appearance, I doubted whether it has enough power to drive any speakers at all. However, I have learnt through my personal experience with the Au24 interconnect cables (I am using 3 pieces in my present system) that you can never judge the performance of Audience’s products by its looks alone.

After running in for about 40 hours, I used Sarah Brightman’s “Time to say Goodbye” to assess its performance. This is a very dynamic and demanding piece, if the current supplied by the equipment via the cables is not sufficient, it would sound rough and coarse. Au24 managed to create a very quiet and controlled background effortlessly, the whole tune sounded smooth and natural, male and female vocals were in harmony. I have never experienced this feeling with my original speaker cable, Blue Heaven before.

However, the price of Au24 is also four times that of Blue Heaven!

The violin of “Songs my Mother Taught Me” sounded sweet and natural, detailed and beautiful. In fact so beautiful that it almost made me cry. I used the LP “Drum Record” to test the dynamics and was amazed by the superb analytical power and control. The sound of the wind chimes sounded so real in “Photograph”, the second track of Kendra Shank’s album “Afterglow” that I turned around to look for the wind chimes in my house due to reflex action.

If you are loaded, I believed you would have surrendered. Luckily (or rather unfortunately) I was poor but with strong self-control power. Before the Au24 cables continue to get better and better with further run-in, I quickly unplugged them and returned to Joe at once. If not, probably I have to borrow some money from the loan sharks. (Joe: It is not that serious, is it?)

If you have the money, I highly recommend (without reservation) the Au24 speaker cables to you!

Please click here to read this article in Chinese.