Building the system.

After weeks of waiting the Bottlehead Crack amplifier arrived in the mail. Was super excited to get it up and running. So I immediately started building it the night I got it. Spent slightly under 8 hours to complete the project. Pretty impress with myself as an experienced builder mentioned that unless you are experienced you will spend more than 8 hours. Here are some pictures I took in the process of building it.

Upon completion of all the circuit, I spent the next few days looking for paints to add my magical touch to make it unique to me. So here is how my finish product looks like.

 Look at the beautiful glow. In addition, I bought some upgrade tube too.

 Definitely an improvement to the sound. But whether if its the best available in the market I would say definitely not.

Every audio system need a source. So I built myself a computer dedicated to media. Went in the direction of a mini-itx motherboard to achieve small desktop footprint. The next important requirement of an audio PC is that you want it to be ultra quiet. Don't want the noise of fans to distract you from you listening. There are 2 approach to go about that. First would be the fanless approach. Where your system purely depends on passive cooling. Add a good heat sink and you're good to go. Drawback I would say is limited max performance. Your PC is purely limited to less intensive works. You won't wanna have it overheat. Considering my character, I hate to be limited with what I can do. So of course I went with the fan route. So in order to have a very silent built you gotta use fans that have very low noise output. The best fans in the market would be Noctua fans in my opinion. Another factor that contributes to fan noise is its RPM. Lower RPM equates to lower air flow and lower cooling rates. Wanting to maintain low fan RPM means that you got to have a massive heat sink. Thus went with the Noctua super massive D15. Taking up almost 40% of the space inside the case. Fits perfectly inside.

M.2 SSD to achieve super fast boot up time.

Pair of 4GB rams (8GB)

 The super massive D15.

Now all that is left to complete the system is a pair of HD800 by Sennheiser.

Music fills my soul with joy.

Once again I've acquired new gears to my audio inventory. As of now my goal is to add the HD800 into my inventory. The pair of cans that placed a smile upon my face the first time I heard it. The moment I had it on and the music was playing, it was like having the entire set was playing around me and I totally forgot the pair of huge can over my head. Till now I've yet to achieve the same experience with any other cans. Tried the Audeze line but it was never the same. So without further delay let me share my new loots.

Firstly a DAC that purely functions as a DAC and nothing else. For those who do not know what it is. A DAC is a component in your audio setup that converts the digital file into sweet analogue signals that goes into your ears. Other form could be the most common device like the IPod. However unlike the IPod this here doesn't have an on-board storage to store songs. The Matrix X-Sabre functions purely as a DAC. Once you have a taste of high end music you will understand the difference a quality DAC makes to your audio quality.

Comes with various inputs such as USB, optical and COAX. Supports almost all formats of audio from CD quality to 5.6MHz DSD. Definitely a notch above my AK120 using my JH16s. With each step I take, I fall in love with music even more.

The next loot I've added or should I say in the process of adding is the Bottlehead - Crack OTL Headphone Amplifier. This will be used to drive the HD800 once it is completed. It is a DIY kit to build your own tube amplifier. Unlike most DIY kit, this ain't a fun kit to pass your time. This is serious stuff for true audiophiles to enter the world of DIY audio. So the only picture I can share would be what it will looks like upon completion.

So for all those budding audiophiles looking to get some DIY experience, look no further. Go to Bottlehead website and start on one of their projects available. 

Will definitely share my experience building this and of course my audio verdict once I'm done. Frankly I'm really excited. Like a little boy waiting for Christmas day to come. The image above shows how it is gonna look when built straight out of the box. So add a sprinkle of creativity and a dash of magic powder and you should be able to get the following results with the same amplifier.

When there is no love, we wear different pairs of shoe taking different paths. 

When there is no love, we see through different glasses never seeing eye to eye.

Loots from the west.

For those who knows me it has been exactly 3 months since my return back to Singapore. However I would still like to share with you this post which is long overdue.

The entire exchange experience there was a fruitful one. Thought me many valuable skills. Made valuable friendships along the way. However it was not all good. I saw the ugly side of the Asian culture of being very competitive. Unwilling to share knowledge just so that they have the edge over you. Rather disappointing I must say. Nonetheless the entire experience has been a wonderful one for me.

Apart from the awesome experience that have been etched into my memories here are some of my physical loots.

Firstly an awesome leather briefcase from Saddleback Leather Company. 

Full grain leather. No zips. No magnetic clips. Only buckles to secure your stuff. The quality on this bag is just amazing. As this is full grain there will tend to be marks and sometimes scars of the cow that the leather was taken from. Thus every single bag is unique and no 2 bags are the same. In addition the way that you use it will also affect how the leather age. And of course something so expensive would also require good leather care. Would highly recommend anyone who is interested in leather bags to consider this.

Next up would be something to add into my audio equipment collection. Aftermarket cables from Toxic Cables.

Unless you're an audio addict like me, this probably means nothing to you. However if you love audio like I do, Frank from Toxic Cables makes one of the finest custom cables for any headphones/earphones of your choice.

What I'm about to present next isn't much of an "exotic" buy compared to the above 2 purchase above. However what made it special was the price.

So for those of you who follows the price of micro SD cards, you would know that the 128GB card is a rather new product and cost a bomb. When it was first released it had big price tagged to it. Selling at close to 200USD. Manage to snag one up at a whopping price of 109USD from Amazon. Just in case you're wondering about the authenticity of the card, I can guarantee that it is 100% original. This is because it is sold by Amazon and not some third party dealer. Even checked it with Sandisk. Amazon still holds the lowest price till date. So for those interested to grab it.

Last but not least the final loot. A Club Master Shades from Ray Ban.

Have always loved the classic look that Ray Ban had. So to add to my collection on top of my current Wayfarer, I got the Club Master. For those who owns a pair of original Ray Ban, here is some information that maybe useful to you. Ray Ban guarantees lifetime warranty on all manufacturing defects. So as long as damage is to to poor manufacturing claims are free. Got my Wayfarer lens replacement as the polarized coating had delaminated. Only cost that was covered by me was shipping and admin fee. They have certainly bought me over on their service quality.

Well that is all I got to share and I hope you all enjoyed.  

Learn to learn

It has been exactly 1 month since I first touched down in the states. Everything is different here. From the climate to its culture. And the only way to survive is to adapt to it as quick as possible. I guess I came here with the wrong mindset. Thinking that its gonna be much easier. After all that is the impression I got from people who went on exchange. As a result I kinda suffered a little in the initial phase. Finding it hard to keep up with lessons. Thankfully I manage to adapt quickly and everything is going rather smooth now.

 Looking back, I realized how much I've changed. I've learnt to be more independent with learning as information are no longer spoon fed to us. You learn as much as you want to learn here. So if you don't bother to find out, you will never learn. There are no such things as notes here. Lessons are written on boards and your note is as much as you copy down. It has made me realized how pampered we are in Singapore's education system. Where knowledge are given to us regardless if we seek it or not. Every module has a set of notes that we can purchase. Many a times after doing class assignments here, I realized that the coverage of topics in class isn't sufficient to solve many questions. As a result it would be necessary to do some self-studying.

My view on the Singaporean education is that it has higher rates of success in terms of producing graduates that meets the industries requirements. However it will not produce exceptional graduates that can create change within the industries. Not saying that it doesn't, just that it is less likely. We kind of lose the skill to seek knowledge. A skill which in my opinion is very important trait if you want to be in the forefront of research and development.

Overall the Singapore education system is a well implemented system. However it is too sheltered. I feel that if we want to excel some form of change must occur. It need to develop a culture that promotes independent learning. Where students take charge of their learning. At the same creating an environment that makes students thirst for knowledge. Like the saying goes, you can bring the horse to the water but you can't make it drink. In this case the horse being the student and water being knowledge.

So how can this concept be applied to the education system? The education system will first of all need a pool of resource where students can approach to seek knowledge; which I feel is already available in the Singapore system. Information will no longer be given on a full scale instead only on the fundamentals. Lastly to create an environment that creates thirst for knowledge.

Easy as it may seem, I believe to implement such a system we are still a long way to go. Nonetheless I would see such an improvement in the system.