Confessions of an Ugly Singaporean Audiophile
(contributed article by fellow forumer, Ericssan. Thanx Eric!)

Disclaimer: All that is written here are purely my personal opinions. Do not send flames. I'm not affiliated to anyone or any organisation or any business.

My Favourite Haunts (not in order of preference)

1. The Adelphi (where else, but I tend to avoid this place especially when I'm broke. Bery depressing to see mouth-watering components and its price. I'm going for cheap and good upgrades nowadays :P)

Ground Floor - General hifi stuff with the exception of Ong Radio :P

1st Floor - Getting more hi-end, not necessary. AFA cables and so on. But the Tony's Café is great! Serves nice Popiah on Fridays and Chicken Rice on Saturdays.

2nd Floor - More hi-end, though not necessary. Visit SOM for nice tube gear and listen to Rethm spkrs. Sniff some nice CDs.

3rd Floor - highest floor. Hi-end stuff here? Depends on u. Well. I like to visit AN S'pore. Hear their latest products and discuss possible upgrades.

Important: Do not audition components on Saturdays, esp when the shop is having a massive promotion after advertising on section 64 of C.A.T.S. :P

2. Sembawang Shopping Centre

2nd Level: A heaven for audiophiles living in the North. got NDV, Audio Jas (friendly duo Jay and Steven) and Audio Line (used hifi shop).

3. Chinatown

Larry Hi-fi: Chit chat with 'much more established' audiophiles. Talk abt tubes, Altec spkers, tube gears.

4. Burlington Square

Well Audio Labs - Frankie is there to answer my silly questions on various tube combination or when I want to top up my tube ammo.

5. Library (Surprise!!!!)

Audiophile magazines, no less! I like and prefer the HK audiophile press. You'll be surprised by the collection that our local library has:

The Hi-End Audio Journal of Hong Kong (my fav!), Sight & Sound Journal (my fav S'pore hifi mag), What Hi-fi (yaks), Hifi World and Hifi & Records Review (my fav British mag).

I could search for the mags with specific issue on the OPAC. I could even reserve a particular copy, in case I kiasu, must read it before u people know.

6. Bras Basah (Surprise)

There is CD/Magazine Shop #01-51/53. I got my latest 'Sight & Sound Journal' and 'Stereo Sound' from there.

Note: Stereo Sound is a mag published by Japanese audio nuts. Japanese version is a monthly issue which I could understand its graphics. Another one, which I never fail to buy is the seasonal issue (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter
Edition).. published in HK. but the contents are summarised from the Japanese editions .. printed in Chinese. Very nice graphics with audiophile essays. I like the regular feature of showing various audiophiles' setup and home setup.

7. Orchard Road

This is my last resort. When I lust after a recording that I could not get. I'll pop down desperately for my special Japanese-pressed CD or some rare DCC recordings. The places to go are HMV and Towers.

HMV: lotsa of jap-pressed stuff and good labelling of Mandarin/Cantonese. But steep pricing.

Towers: lotsa of nice classical recordings. Friendlier staff. Price also quite steep but not as former.

Okie. That's all. All these . not even my wife knows abt it. Please don't let her know . if not she'll know where to 'ambush' me...


No mUziK, no LiFe

  Ericssan