I love the burl veneer on the speaker cabinets. Burl wood grabs my attention in a way that ordinary wood cannot.
I stumbled into Ark Audio 2 or 3 years ago while I was walking to another destination. I popped in briefly, but I wasn’t in the market for anything in particular at the time. I recall the owner was friendlier than average. There are a couple other shops in Taipei where the owners and/or salespeople are friendly and willing to show their wares. One is https://www.pinyoaudio.com.tw/; another is http://www.yoson.com/yoson/ If you’re interested in DIY or kits, I really like THL Audio. They’re more or less equivalent to www.madisoundaudio.com in the US. For high sensitivity speakers, have you listened to LALS speakers? I know a guy in 八德 who owns the Neoclassical 12" speakers. They’re superb. On my first visit to his house, we listened for 8 hours, and I didn’t experience listening fatigue once. http://www.lals-audio.com.tw
There is a shop in Taoyuan where the owner gives you the evil eye when you walk into the shop. He very much judges walk-ins by how they are dressed. Since I typically wear shorts when I walk in, I get the cold shoulder. I just smile and chat with one of his salespeople. It’s too bad he’s such a dick because there is a great selection of gear there. No way would I buy anything from his store though.
I’m going to attend the upcoming audio and arts show next month. It’s held in the 圓山大飯店 in the middle of December every year. This will be my third visit.
Great setups you all have, looking forward to more photos. I am preparing for a house move at the moment coming up later in Dec, once things get settled I’ll post some photos of the new setup. I have a set of the new LS50 Wireless sitting at the office waiting to be relocated.
Edit: I’m kind of in the market for a new turntable also, but still eyeing up options!
I went to a show there in September actually…maybe a different org. These Avantgarde were the best thing I heard there. Don’t like the look/practicalities though. Some of the setups for the super high end stuff were strange to me though.
Horns…Oh, yeah. Unfortunately, not every wife (or spouse) is able to accept such beasts into her living room.
Purifi has really taken the audiophile world by storm. Their amp modules and their midwoofer drivers are very high quality. Are their products available here, or must they be shipped here?
In just my third day of quarantine and I’m going bonkers with too much free time. I just shot off an email to www.meniscusaudio.com asking if they’ll sell me the plans for speakers without the hardware. I could buy the drivers, caps, resistors, inductors, and miscellaneous stuff from THLaudio.com and commission a guy in 南投 to build Baltic birch cabinets.
My preamp is built by a very cool guy in British Columbia named Don Sachs. He got started by rebuilding Citation preamps. Then, after about ten years of that, he decided he was going to build his own. They’re spectacular without being outrageously expensive. There is an IC board inside - not 100% point to point - if that matters to you. His Model 2 has gone head to head with ARC, Cary, and McIntosh preamps costing $6k USD.
This one in my photo above was built for me in 2015. Current models no longer sport the left and right channel gain dials. I have the current model back in the States. I also have Don’s Kootenay 120 KT88 amp. Talk about a match made in heaven…
I hope more people join the conversation. As I already mentioned, I’ve got loads of free time for the next 11 or 12 days.
I’m interested in your impressions of the LS50 Wireless, too. I’ve heard the passive models three times, but never heard the active or wireless versions. What other gear have you got?
I’ve tested the passives too (and also the kef r series) and have actually never demo’d the active wireless (both old and new) variants. I’m buying these blind internationally as you guys know, some of the local the markups are quite jaw dropping.
I’ve always been more of a headphones/iem guy, never had the house to run a fancy setup, so these will be my first pair of higher end speakers. My turntable and digital sources were connected to a set of HD6s before being packed up.
If we talking headphones tho, I’ve just bought a set of sendyaudio aiva that just got shipped, never had a set of chifi’s before (just stick to the usual sennheiser types) and am reallying looking forward to trying them out. I’ve gotten rid of my older gear since I’ve moved to more digital sources, so running a toppings dac amp combo at the moment driving hd6xx’s. Will be running a balanced setup for the first time with these!
Whaddya know? Don got so popular that he’s up to his elbows in orders. This is a good thing. Many of his equipment owners have written up reviews in various forums over the years, and people can’t help but catch some of the excitement. I’ve taken mine to audio get togethers (in Taiwan, Canada, and the US) over the past few years, and I love the look on faces when people hear the difference Don’s preamp makes in their systems. Let me know if you’re interested. Once I’ve been here long enough that no one will worry about whether I’m a Covid carrier, I’ll happily let you hear it if you wish.
I’ve got a couple well connected audiophile friends here who probably know who to ask about availability of Purifi gear. I’ll check with them and get back to you.
I’ve had a pr of HD650s for years. They’re not perfect, but they sure are easy to listen to - especially if you’ve got a high quality amp. Just days before I hopped on the flight to get here, I ordered 2 headphones from a gentleman in the US who is going out of business due to health reasons. I picked up a barely used pr of demo HD800s and a new pr of Audeze LCD-2 in bamboo. Unfortunately, I won’t get to hear them until I’m back in the US sometime next year (after I get vaccinated!).
I’ve moved a lot or been very mobile for the past 7 years, so acquiring a TT and library of LPs just wasn’t practical. As a result, I’ve invested in high quality DACs. I may buy a TT next year, but it’s not a pressing need.
I’m boring and went with the black. I’ll be moving around a bit so I wanted to make things easy to match again. Actually, the all-in aspect of the wireless is what sold it for me, something I can pack up and move fairly quickly.
Edit: I watch Darko too but always found him to bit somewhat standoff-ish. I like his analogy though, since I am a black coffee drinker
I enjoy watching Darko’s videos. He’s a bit more commercial than I’d prefer, but I can live with this. There are several good YouTube channels that do a good job of discussing products, but I don’t watch them with any regularity.
I’m playing with the idea of switching out my current speakers for new speakers with a larger woofer. As wonderful sounding as my Fritz LS/5-R speakers sound, they lack sub-40Hz bass (F3) and they lack sensitivity. I’m casting about for a standmount two-way design with an 8" to 10" woofer and higher sensitivity. SB Acoustics Satori drivers are high on my list of high sensitivity drivers.
I got black too, I had asked for white but it would have taken some time to get them locally so just went with what they had. This ended up being a good decision as I like how they look in my space.
Darko can be a little annoying, agree, but he’s toned down a bit recently and his production is quite good. I can afford most of the products he reviews.
I found this video pretty interesting because some other reviews have really cited a large improvement for the new versions where as he pegs it as modest. I’ve only heard the original LS50 in a shop here and it was ok to me, the Meta version is way better than ok to my ears though.
Yes, I linked it above I think. It’s worth a visit if in the area, but I’m not sure about the general quality of their used vinyl. They do have a small collection of new as well.
They have some used (vintage?) equipment and speakers in the basement and maybe a few new speakers, but I honestly can’t remember for sure. They do have smaller new stuff upstairs like cartridges, cables, couple of turntables, and I think some NAD gear.
I’ve never been to Little Sound. It looks interesting.
I remember that you linked 38C, but I’d forgotten that you commented about it. (must be half-dementia).
As much as I enjoy visiting audio shops (anywhere in the world), I seldom buy from them. Nearly all my audio components are considered boutique gear which I bought directly from the person who built them, or purchased as a kit. There’s a huge cost savings to be achieved, and the sound quality is as good or better than the big name gear.
I just shot off an email to 
.