Singapore International Sound & Sight Exhibition 2007

Report By Wong Kok Chieat

  I have been no stranger to the Malaysian audio exhibitions, but it was the first time for me at Singapore's International Sound & Sight Exhibition 2007. In terms of size and scale in floor space, it was way smaller than those in Malaysia. However, when it came to price tags, it was indeed higher than those in Malaysia. The Singaporeans were actually very lucky to be blessed with superb buying power. Many dealers here were more courageous in bringing higher priced products in while the Malaysian dealers remained more conservative.

I could not promise a comprehensive coverage of the Singapore International Sound & Sight Exhibition 2007 as I was visiting without a proper camera. Most of the pictures here were actually gathered from the friendly and generous audiophiles here. The exhibition occupied three floors with the lower floor more catered for statement products, home theatre setups and a hall for seminars. The other two floors were meant for demos with dealers taking up hotel rooms to showcase their rigs.

It was delighting to see the meanest and boldest model, Audio Research Reference 610T monoblocks in action. If that was not enough, the Clearaudio Statement was surely going to floor you with their no hold barred design. Sonus Faber Cremona Elipsa was a sight to behold.

 

Some serious 3-piece source Scarlatti system from dCS, feeding the Boulder 850 monoblocks. The Rockport Antares was a serious pair of speakers with unique curvatures which traditional method could not fabricate. There were no parallel dimensions to be found!

 

Music making towers, with Rockport Antares, Eggleston Savoy and Rockport Mira Grand completing the trio.

 

If seeing Naim driving ProAcs in this part of the world was no surprise to you, we have Naim source and amplification, SuperNait, driving the Magnaplanar 1.6.

 

FM Acoustics FM111 monoblocks in an unassuming corner.

 

We heard how the Uno Nano performed in the last show back in KL, we had here the Uno Picco taking center stage. Digital source was from Reimyo CDT-777 transport and DAP-777 converter. Amplification was from a pair of Air Tight ATM-211 monoblocks while power conditioning was handled single-handedly by Audience adeptResponse aR12. Analogue source was the Dr. Feickert Analogue turntable, a considerably new player.

 

The Leben CS300 giving out only a measly 12 watts, yet ample to drive the Totem Acoustic Arro. Source was Audio Note CD 1.1x while the overkill Shunyata Hydra V-Ray cleaning up the power.

 

Acoustic Arts, the new German marquee in town. We had the whole family from PRE I, AMP II, DAC II and the CD Player. Taking the center stage was the AMP II driving the Vivid B1. Acoustic Solid Solid One turntable was featured as well.

 

The handmade in Germany AMP II 260 watts @ 8 ohm power house.

 

The complete Venture lineup was here as well. From VP100L line stage, VP100P phonostage to VP100A+ monoblocks driving a pair of Grand Excellence III Prestige.

 

The much acclaimed stereo version of Reference One in Reference S-One guise.

 

The Einstein "The Last Record Player" CD Player, "The Tube" line stage, "The Light in the Dark" stereo power amplifier and "The Turntable's Choice" phonostage. And also the Continuum Criterion deck with the Continuum Copperhead arm, they call it the affordable world reference turntable system.

 

Fed by source and amplification from Plinius, we had Dynaudio Sapphire making a huge presence. The Sapphire was made of exemplary woodwork to reveal its jewel like cutting in commemoration of Dynaudio's 30 years of speaker making history.

 

From the carbon future, we have the Wilson Benesch Trinity stand mount monitor to handle the upper register up to 80 KHz. The lower register was handled by the Torus Infrasonic Generator, a subwoofer which was not based on conventional woofer design.

 

Latest products galore, we had Response ProAc Tri Tower floorstanders and the latest ProAc Response D Two stand mount. Nope, the D Two was not supposed to replace the Response 1SC, and yes, the Tri Tower sounded as sweet as the 1SC, with better lower grunt. Source was Vimak DT-600 CD player, line stage was New Audio Frontiers Absolute and finally the Almarro 6C33CB parallel single ended monoblocks.

 

Worth mentioning was the Orgue Diatone P-610S, which was a classical full range loudspeakers holding its heritage back since 1947. It was not until 1992 that the original manufacturer stopped producing them. Here, we have the revived version which could easily cater for the current high resolution digital format while retaining its signature sound.

 

Finally, the Audio Magic products made their appearance in Singapore! After many ravings in the cyberspace, at last we could get our hands on them! Preliminary testing on the Audio Magic Mini Reference power conditioner proved to be nothing but positive.

OK, I promised to do a better job next time.