KL International AV Show 2017 Report
Kuala Lumpur International AV 2017 Show Report
KLIAV 2017 Show Report By Christopher Tan

  B&W of course has to be present. In this show, the 802 D3 has pretty humbly colleagues in the form of Pro-Ject RPM 5 Carbon and Rotel RC/RB-1590 preamp and power amp combination. Despite this the 802 sound shines through in a very balanced, even sound.

Audio tech (Or Audiomart on Facebook) is a local dealer for various products targeted at the budding young audiophile is doing a good at educating them from the looks of the enthusiastic owner patiently explaining to some youngins. They carry products suited for desktop audio such as Toku & Gawa Loudspeakers from Taiwan and Elekit tube amplifiers from Japan but also include big boys’ toys like AURALiC media streamers, Eastern Electric DACs. The Toku & Gawa loudspeakers are rather unique as the speaker enclosures are made from solid Acacia wood with fullrange drivers customised from Tang-Band.

What is interesting is their obsession with power and rightfully so. On top of carrying SINE products, they also manufacture their own line of grounding products. The grounding box is connected to the speaker's negative (black) terminal and only that terminal. They did a quick demonstration with and without their equipment and with the grounding box connected, the music's noise floor dropped and provided an audible improvement in terms of sharper highs, more detailed backdrop and improved dynamics. YF Fong, Audio Tech's Technical Manager explains that the hotel power lines are extremely 'noisy' and his products help remove the noise. The levels of effectiveness really depends on where you stay where apartments get more benefit than landed homes with the electrical wiring's earth actually spiked into the ground.

Again, another system that made me not really wanting to leave. JBL S4700 are on display powered by an all Mark Levinson line-up. The relaxed but not limp presentation and reproduction of the music's nuances really evokes your emotionally. Might the Editor actually pay me for these articles, I could actually afford the system after a few decades of audio reporting. Sighs, one can only hope.

Final Thoughts
The KLIAV show brought about a few surprises for me as there were a good number of good sounding rooms where the dealers clearly cared by matching systems and speaker placements. Also was the opportunity to hear some first in Asia products like XTZ home theatre speakers and the PMC. The scale of the show was rather overwhelming too and as such not all rooms were covered and I do apologise for that.

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