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Monday, July 7, 2014

KLIAV 2014 : The Good, The Bad and The Fun



The just concluded KLIAV Show 2014 marked the fifth year that Maxx Audio Visual participated in it. It was HT for the first year. Subsequently, we showcased Hi-Fi systems for 2 consecutive years with very good results and comments from audio reviewers. However, the HT camp wasn’t too happy. Hence, we went back to HT in 2013. The crowd in the room was overwhelming. We gave some talks on subwoofers too. 

This year, we did something different. We combined both Hi-Fi and HT together playing at intervals by using the same front loudspeakers. In this instance, Audio Physic Avantera Plus, the second top model, that was flown from Germany for the show.

The most painful part of the show is definitely loading and unloading. Long queue at the service lifts and the heat there are something best to be forgotten. Then, the setup and getting it correct. 

This year probably isn’t our year to date. As usual, we unloaded all the necessary equipment. With the excitement in us, we quickly arranged and installed the systems. All seems to go well. Then, the nightmare started. First, we have bad electrical hum in the system. As usual, you will have to check one by one to pinpoint the source. It took us by surprise as we have pre-tested the whole system except the Avantera Plus which we do not have it back then until it arrived in end June. 

 We managed to find the root cause but it threw a spanner into our initial plan. Luckily, Adrian of Audio Image is kind enough to loan us one of his equipment. It was already running late. Quickly, Ben darted to his shop to get it. In went the item. Problem solved. Then, another gremlin decided to turn up. One of the cables is not working. Luckily, we have spare cables.

We did the usual calibration for the home theater system. After getting it done, we took out the computer and microphone to check the room response graph. It decided not to work for some unknown reason since I am not good in computer. Alamak! What else could go wrong? All are not lost. Wong KN came and he offered to take his unit from his house which is quite a distant away. After about an hour, he came back. We did the usual check and a few tweaking until the graphs were acceptable. By then, it was already close to 12.30a.m. All of us looked tired and sleepy. We decided to call it a day….erm, a night. 

These is the graph for the HT system using PB-2000 and SB-2000 in the room WITHOUT any room treatments.





On the first day of the show, I came to realize that not only my left neighbor was doing karaoke. My other neighbor was on HT too. In this case, dual JL Audio Fathom subs were being handed the LFE task. My oh my. My room was literally being pounded left and right. 

For that, we bring forward our Plan A v2.0  a day earlier. We set up the SVS flagship SB13-Ultra sealed subwoofer on Friday night to replace the SB-2000. We ran the SB13-Ultra on both days for HT duty. We can see many grinning faces especially those who came on both days. About every hour or so, we switched to stereo to listen to few songs for our Hi-Fi customers and friends. too.

It has been great 3 days to meet up with friends, customers and fellow hobbyists as far as Kuching. A big thank you to Adrian of Audio Image and Wong KN for their help. Really appreciate that.   
We hope that we will not run into such luck again next year. Touch Ebony wood. 

Thank you very much once again to all who came.

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