Equalizers (EQ) are great tools for fine tuning those little frequencies that is missing in your system.

EQs cannot be applied to solve foundation problems. In fact the more EQ is being used the worst off the system can be tonally.

Our goal is to naturally EQ the system using as much as possible, cable, power management and associated equipment etc., while maintaining an external EQ to fill in the minor missing gaps.

EQs must be flexible, less digital inclined and should not alter the tonal palette drastically.

It should be analog sounding where possible and have a good solid power supply section. EQs can help restore some voltage drop by enhancing back the signal before it is fed to the amplifiers or next chain of equipment.

That is all EQs should do. It is not a magical wand to cure system problem. It is an aid and not a cure.

Without EQs, a system can sound lonely, a tad dry and subdued (depending on systems). EQs enhances the presence, brings back hat little that is missing without overdose.

At Audio Creations (AC), we use Audio Control (AC) not because it is synonymous with AC but due to it’s long standing solidity and quality. We are experts with AC units and we know how to identify which units are better than others and what joys it can bring you, and what it cannot do.

We highly recommend modifications for EQs and crossovers (primarily AC units) by means capacitor upgrades and high-end modules. They make significant tonal benefits and improve the grip and control in the music material. We offer these mods, for both new and used alike.

Know the boundaries of what an EQ can do, and it can be a useful tool to bring you a step up in your car audio system.

Enjoy tuning….

Subwoofers!! Can’t live without one, yet some people are trying ways to do without them. Can we come up with a good car audio system without one? We cannot lie to you, the answer is NO.

I have seen many “champions” spend thousands on a good imported subwoofer but expect to get it all up and running for lows couple of hundred ringgit (RM). You see that commonly in Malaysia because imported car audio equipment is expensive here due to the weak currency, hefty shipping and high-taxes. Therefore people tend to stinge on the application and installs.

Subwoofers like any speaker driver sounds as good as how you build them. Enclosure, crossover and placement all plays an important part. In other countries, one may spend as much on making the enclosure right as they have invested on the subwoofer driver itself. Some people even build a couple of enclosure to see which ones works best and sounds best in their system.

Sometimes it takes a long time for a person to decide on what subwoofer to buy, but the minute they get it, they rushed for the installers to slap it into a box. Guess what, the choice is usually the smallest sealed enclosure. What if the bass is too hard and does not go low? Stuff it with polyfill?

Building a right enclosure is not rocket science nor it’s a simple task especially in a  car audio environment. It is still a tough nut to crack but with the right expertise, equipment and know-how, you’ll fall in-love with your subwoofer again. It can be a budget JL audio WO, to expensive JL audio W7, to exotics like Scanspeak 23w and Phase Aliante, all the same rules apply.

You don’t need an expensive subwoofer per se. Look at home audio subwoofers, many of them use reasonably affordable drivers, no where high-end! Yet, some home audio ones are very expensive (an indication would be rm5,000-rm15,000). Why? Because it has a built in plate amplifier? Could seem like a good reason but it is not. We know the prices of those plate amplifiers. 

Remember to spend wisely. Equal amounts to material, application and install. Efficiency, displacement and tuning goes a long way.

A sales pitch! Yes, exactly what it is. Audio Creations is putting out a challenge to enthusiast, customers, loyal followers and even beginners to visit us and see if we can better your system. No obligations, no unnecessary purchases or worries… just a bit of time and inconvenience of leaving your vehicle with us while you are busy at work, vacation or play. 

In many instances, the bigger the better, the more power the better, the more delicate the better sound quality, the more status the more bling (or is it the other way around?)… is that what you really want?

We are results oriented. You pay for huge performance and not a shiny new toy or bragging rights. No competitions, trophies, public recognition and attention grabbing. More admirers, less enemies. Gain respect,  gain stature without the fuss and let people brag on your behalf.

Sounds good? That’s what your car audio will be, if you take this step. Call us for an appointment.

 0123315669 – michael        0122962799 – victor

disclaimer: there is none!

Have you ever wondered why some car audio systems can sound so wholesome and powerful, while some other mega-watt and mega-expensive setups do not sound at all that powerful?

Interestingly, but not uncommon, some systems are so narrow and limited to certain music genres it can perform admirably, while others can give you hours of enjoyment with almost any cds you throw at it.

A very simple truth is a bad foundation. By that I mean, the system is sitting on a bad platform… no, not the car environment, not the car acoustics like everyone like to blame and critisize but a bad footing, known as power supply, or what we at Audio Creations like to term is as car audio power management (CAPM).

Without power, there is no music. Power feeds the source unit, feeds the amplifiers and all tuning devices (processors) before it can do anything to re-create music within your space.

Just like any of us are aware (or if you have not by now), if you playback bad media (badly recorded material, pirate copies, scratched compact disc etc.) through your source unit, do not expect to get much except garbage-in, garbage-out.

However, ever noticed that even if you support well recorded cds, not all of it sound as to what you expect before you pop-it into your cd player. After awhile, you may even stop buying because ‘expensive’ did not give you the desired results or equal enjoyment.

Why? you ask us… At Audio Creations we address the whys and why nots before addressing the change this and change that because we believe in giving you more than what is worth to your ears and not what it is worth to your pocket.

CAPM is a serious issue, especially if you have spent thousands, tens of thousands or more on your system without jaw dropping improvements. Without writing an essay, CAPM gives you:

a) squeezes out the full capability of your equipment – you want 100% from your investment and not merely 20-30% of what your gears are capable of.

b) makes a quieter background, one that is less hissy, spitty and noisy – we always blame hiss and brightness on the recording and some even blame the tweeter without realising it is not.

c) reconditions the wholesome and life in the music – bad power thins out music and robs the life out of what would have been a good performance.

d) makes future upgrades worth every penny - a good foundation paths the way to  realising that high-end is not about snake oil (unfortunately some may be). when a system is able to show it’s full potential, we can judge better if an upgrade is worth the invesment. without power management, changing an equipment could only give you a measly 10% improvement (suprisingly yet people accept, as is), whilst with it’s price-tag, it’s claimed to give you a huge difference (50%-100% at least).

CAPM is not easily understood. That is the reason why nobody sells the idea. There is really nothing to see or touch. Only seasoned, winning competitors and some exhibitors may use them as a secret weapon. Now, it’s about time you understand and upgrade your weapons too….

What say you?

The cost is in a shade below RM15,000 but the promised performance equals a lot more than what is being offered in the market.

Spend only RM30,000 and you drive home a system that makes you fall in love with your car again.

The No-Holds Barred
With the optional No-Holds Barred car audio system package, new standards have been set for an in-car pleasure… Yes, music pleasure and whatever that comes with it! This package that is purely high-end provides the closest approach to the ideal, without mundane things like practical limitation spoiling the fun.

We could use world-renown speaker drivers like Scanspeak, RAAL etc. and the phenomenal Mcintosh, Luxman power amplifiers, along with high-end Duelund CAST or Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil crossovers but to keep the suspense, we will keep it a secret until you give us the pleasure of explaining to you what it is all about.

CALL VICTOR 012-2962799 or MICHAEL 012-3315669 to discuss the options that is most suited for you and your budget. There is definitely something for everyone…

Sounds dumb isn’t it? Yea, but some people still do it, mostly not due to stupidity but because of space constraints.

Amplifiers come in different designs, but all designs use a heat sink to dissipate heat, some coupled with either a fan or two for additional cooling. Some amplifiers have no fan at all but depend solely on sufficient heat sinks to handle the heat.

Having said that, common sense tells us that to let the heat sink do it’s job, it must be ventilated and heat should not be trapped on it, around it or channeled to it from hot surfaces, devices or heat from the sun. If you feel there is insufficient ventilation, by all means add a fan or relocate it to a cooler spot, an area which does not absorb or trap heat.

The reason why I bring this up, is that lately we have seen a few cases of overheated amplfiers, and in extreme cases damaged pcb boards, severely premature amplifier life and “pregnant” or buldging capacitors as part of the consequences. Particularly in scorching summers or hot climate countries all year round, where additional care must be taken to keep your gears cool and within operating range.

Last week, I solved yet another “ignorant” install, failing to understand the very basics of car audio safety and maintenance. The amplifer in question was a Zapco Reference 1000.4, a high powered 150watter x 4 running only the fronts (there is another amplifier for the subwoofer).Firstly, this is a very slim unit and secondly, it has no fan in-built. The amplifier was mounted upside down just below the rear parcel shelf in the trunk.

In a hot country like Malaysia, heat builds up considerably fast in the cabin space and equally fast in the enclosed trunk space. Your dashboard, just beneath the windscreen and the rear parcel shelf, just below the rear screen soaks up the direct sun when you park outside in the open. 

Since the amplifier is mounted right below the rear parcel shelf, heat is transferred to it direct from the mounting screws and gets trapped with little air movement. This results in the amplifier getting extremely hot (untouchable) even after 5 minutes of normal use.  Naturally, the amplifier shuts down thanks to the build in thermal proctection.

During the mornings and nights, the amplifier could play a little long before turning off by itself. The installer failed to address the problem and blamed the amplifier for being faulty. 

Another bad but not as seriously faulted install that I have seen many times is one amplifier mounted vertically on the rear seat and just below it, mounted  flat/horizontal on the floor trunk another amplifier for subwoofer duties. Naturally, amplifiers run hot and heat goes up, especially when you are running your subwoofers hard or for long-hours! The heat passes through the amplifier above it. Not a big problem but could be avoided if you care for your gears.

Love your amplifier, maintain it well and it will serve you for years. Use a fan if you have to (note: fans can induce external noise and also noise into your system) but better still use our common sense.

In an ideal and simple form, we could use full-range speakers to wonderfully playback music in our home and car hi-fi. However in reality, most full-range speakers in exception to a few expensive and exclusive speaker drivers are not capable of reproducing the full frequency spectrum faithfully without signs of strain.

Instead of using full-range speakers, some car manufacturers adopt co-axial speakers that promises to give a step up in sound performance. The co-axial speakers are sold in pairs, each consisting of a high frequency driver, called a tweeter, attached to a cone, called the mid/woofer. As a complete whole, it plays the full range of frequencies from the highs, lows and the frequencies in between in which we call midrange.

The speakers will be fed with high level music signal by the player’s in-built amplification or a dedicated amplifier. In the case of a 2-way co-axial, a small capacitor is placed before the fragile tweeters to only allow the high frequencies to enter the voice coil and diaphragm. The midrange and low frequencies are filtered away to protect the tweeters from being damaged. This is the simplest form of a crossover, called a high-pass filter.

In most cases the bottom cone will still be fed with the entire music material and the effect you get with the extra tweeters, is a sparkle in the highs which translates to a slightly better separation and clearer reproduction. Some manufacturers introduced 3-way or 4-way co-axial speakers or 6×9” speakers, with large peak power ratings but sad to say most are hypes without much substance.

2-way separates or components were then introduced that comprises of a pair or tweeters and a mid/woofer. Tweeters came in all types of size and shapes, with ½”, ¾”, 1” and even 1-½” dome variants, using all sorts of materials from silk domes, aluminum/metal domes, beryllium and even diamond, each with it’s own character and capabilities. Common mid/woofer sizes are 4”, 5”, 5.25”,6”, 6.5”, 7” and 8”. These come with engineering designs of all sorts, various build quality, and cone materials such as paper, polypropylene, aluminum, Kevlar or hybrid materials. 3-way separates goes one step further by introducing a dedicated midrange driver that is usually 3”, 4” or 4.5”. In true high-end cases, a 5” mid-driver is used but one has to take into account the complexity of installation and space constraints. 3-way separates introduces better division of duties, where highs are dedicated to the tweeters, mids to the midrange, and lows to the woofer. Properly set-up and implemented, they can sound a step up in performance compared to a typical 2-way component.

Why Audio Creations Passive Network?

Anyone can build a crossover, seriously! However, it is the level of importance one place in building that really matters. The knowledge of how the transducer/driver will respond to different crossover points and crossover designs cannot be merely studied by reading but it has to be experienced.

A speaker is only as good as how it is being installed and the crossover being used. The crossover is the heart of any speakers. Speakers do not sound polished by themselves, they need to be controlled and guided to perform their best. A good speaker driver is like a good athlete – Just like a dancer or a gymnast require a coach to bring out the best in them. That is why we call them raw drivers.

Unlike home audio loudspeakers that have the enclosure to bring out the best of the drivers, the car environment is limited to doors, kick panels and pillars for mounting and placement. Thus, even the best install will leave much to be desired and countless hours of tweaking is required to bring the best out from the speaker drivers.

Isn’t using an electronic crossover an easier solution? Electronic crossovers are flexible and useful but the quality of sound and tonal character again leaves much to be desired, leaving the reproduction to sounding dry, clinical, thin and uninvolving. My partner actually calls it ”boring music”, which is exactly what it is. Equalizers will help in the aspect of fine tuning and tweaking but being electronic and limited to the quality available for car audio use, the more natural and analogue method still boils down to the use of custom crossovers like you see in any home audio loudspeakers.

Many available electronic equalizers are not useful/powerful enough in the first place. At Audio Creations, on top of using high-end capacitors and coils as NATURAL equalizers, we still use equalizers, but only analogue units. We use them for serious fine tuning and not a quick fix or a mask to problems. The major bottlenecks like the power supply and the passive network has to be addressed early on. Once solved, they make a  solid foundation of a good sounding kick-ass system.

At Audio Creations, we manufacture crossover networks using capacitors, inductors and resistors from highly regarded companies like Duelund (Denmark) and Mundorf (Germany), which we have tested and proven countless times to provide the best reproduction available from any high quality speaker drivers. We also use premium V-Caps (USA) in our applications.

Our custom crossover comes complete with high-end parts soldered with 4% silver solder or highly recommended Mundorf silver/gold solder, wired with Transparent Cable or highly recommended Van den Hul CS-122 and encased in a tasteful but simple enclosure (classy enclosures can be requested). We restrain from any form of connectors to avoid sound degradation and therefore prefer to hard wire all connections. We fully emphasize that cables from the amplifier and to the speakers from the passive network should be soldered and heat shrinked for a safe and sure connection. Five cents connectors should be avoided at the speaker ends.

Bring your speaker performance to a level that justifies the price you paid for them. Visit us and learn more about Audio Creations custom crossovers.

The quality of power (by our local utility provider) that we feed our equipment has always been a major hindrance to a good sounding system.

Apart from room acoustics, power supply plays big importance to any hi-fi system so much so that no system or equipment should be judged without proper power conditioning.

With power quality problems, there will undoubtedly be a bottleneck to what your gears are truly capable of. To the novice end-user, it may be difficult to grasp because to us it is only common sense that the music signal only passes through equipment, interconnect, speaker cables and speakers, so what does power have to do with anything.

Bad power introduces noise to the system and noise kills music! Music sounds edgy, messy (worsen when more instruments are being played) and not poised to begin with. Background hiss and grit robs music enjoyment and we are not able to play loud because it gets irritating.

At Audio Creations, we were taugh by our high-end customer friends some years ago that power conditioning brings a system to a different level altogether. Since then we have tried/loaned various power conditioners to learn what it is all about.

At Audio Creations, we use Audio Magic power conditioners. Why, and not try others? We have and we like how the Audio Magic sounds… because it does not alter the character or inject any false promises or hide/mask problems from the hi-fi system. What is does, as should any good power conditioner, remove EMI/RFI from the power line so that background can be pitch black and quiet for the music to flow our naturally without sounding held back, muddled out or cluttered. Nor should it amplify or inject any additional frequencies or sound to your system that makes it sound unnatural.

With good cleansing effect, your power line can give quiet and full sounding supply to your equipment without sounding thin and cluttered. Your system becomes more musically involving. Highs, mids and lows should tighten up, giving it a step up in control and definition.

A good power conditioner should also not limit power or current. Most high-end power amplifier makers suggest that their amplifiers be plugged directly to the wall. This is because the  majority of power products out there are current limiting ,which robs the dynamics and power from the amplifier. The Audio Magic Stealth Mini Reference has a duplex (two dedicated outlet) for your power amplfiers. 50 watters, 100 watters, 200 watters, 400 watters and up does not matter, this power conditioner does not hold anything back.

Stealth Mini Reference

Features:
1. Large ga. silver conductors
2. Cryo treated parts to help stabilize resonance
3. MST treatment to enhance the crystalline structure of the parts to give maximum conductivity
4. QP pulse generator and QP passive Disrupter to remove EMI and RF
5. SonicCraft super audio capacitors
6.Leviton hospital grade duplex’s
7. IPF super filter with ERS paper for further RF and EMI suppression
8. 20amp mini breaker-detachable power cord inlet

A recent review in the Star by Sujesh Pavithran tells us a better story:

SPECIAL PROMOTION

Listen up guys, if you own a Mcintosh cd head unit/transport/dac, you owe yourself to experience these high-end upgrades for them. The upgrades are applicable for models MX406, MX4000+MDA4000 and MX5000 + MDA5000 including their respective DC-DC power supply.

Incidentally if you do not own a Mcintosh head unit, you can always purchase one from us at very attractive prices.

If you think your exisiting unit is good enough, you’re in for a big surprise, as it can be miles better. We guarantee it!! Mcintosh gears are very well built and long lasting, therefore worth enhancing, investing and keeping for many years to come. 

Yes, some of our upgrades may seem expensive such as those for very high end gears but once you see the quality of the parts we use, the extensive work involved and then hear the stunning end result you will understand why they cost what they do.

Once you have experienced a new benchmark in high-end reproduction, there is practically no turning back.  Head unit cd players/ Digital to Analogue Convertors /DC-DC power supply that enable the reproduction of exceptionally beautiful music in consumer’s cars where it was thought not possible to achieve. We have not a single case of buyer’s remorse.

Mods/Upgrade available:

1] MX406/MX4000/MX5000 compact disc player

 - high-end low jitter correction clock.

- cryogenic  fuses

- high quality RoHS Mundorf silver/gold solder used

- bench tested for 2 hours

2] DC-DC 15v convertor power supply

- power supply filter capacitors upgraded to higher capacitance / lower ESR premium capacitors

- high-end bypass capacitors used in power supply

- cryogenic fuses

- high quality RoHS Mundorf silver/gold solder used

- bench tested for 2 hours

3] MDA4000/MDA5000 digital-to-analogue convertor power supply upgrade

-  power Supply filter capacitors upgraded to higher capacitance / lower ESR premium capacitors

- high-end bypass capacitors used in power supply

- signal path coupling capacitors replaced using premium capacitors with capacitor kits

- cryogenic Fuse

- high quality RoHS Mundorf silver/gold solder used throughout.

- bench tested for 2 hours

Service/Parts -available for MX406/MX4000/MX5000

More details and reviews to come… Please contact Victor at 012-2962799 for a step-by-step explanation on the upgrade paths.

What’s Cryogenic?
Cryogenics is the production of low temperatures or the study of low-temperature phenomena.

Deep cryogenic (freezing) treatment, or DCT refer to cooling, holding and allowing a product to return to ambient temperature over a period of time with the use of liquid Nitrogen, or LN2, as the cryogen.

DCT has been around for many years and is widely adopted in the industrial sector for treatment of tool steels, knives, etc., as it improves the wear characteristics of these items. Cryogenics is also widely adopted by auto racers—who are always looking for a performance edge over their competition.

For this purpose, we refer to DCT of audio equipment. DCT as applied to audio is, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively new application, showing great promise as a tool to enhance ones enjoyment of high performance audio systems.

We are interested on how this process would affect audio gear, especially receptacles, ends and cabling. As a distributor for Audio Magic cables, we know how highly it benefits from the difference that DCT made on their cables and power conditioners.

Benefits of Cryogenic?

Research indicated that changes occur in the microstructure of metal as a result of deep cryogenic treatment. These desirable changes are why many knife and sword makers use this process as it gives metal a more uniform hardness and greater dimensional stability, due to the conversion of austenite (large unstable particles of carbon carbide, resulting in a large grained lattice structure) to martensite (fine grained lattice structure). Although swords have nothing much to do with audio… but the same basic principles apply.

When Copper, Silver, or Brass, or any metal used in audio, is formed into cables or plugs, the materials develop residual stress. For example, microscopic examination of the Copper in an powercord would reveal many voids in the crystal lattice structure of the Copper due to these residual stresses. Deep cryogenic treatment works at the atomic level; research indicates that as the temperature decreases the atomic bonds start to weaken and the crystal structure of Copper reverts to its original state and removes these stresses. These changes, theoretically, are one of the reasons why cryogenic treatment makes a positive difference to the sound.

As cryogenic treatment of audio parts, in the grand scheme of things, has not been around very long no one completely understands the mechanisms involved as to why it makes a difference in sound.  As cryogenic treatment becomes more widespread in the audio industry, the application is being used by many high end manufacturers.

The difference it makes, as quoted by the experts:

-More inner detail, especially in the upper midrange
-Much smoother presentation—with more detail
-A more “relaxed” presentation, or a sense of “ease” in the presentation
-Vocal seems to have more energy to it

The own test on our rig found the music more presentable, calmer, quieter background, thus giving the music better space and smoothness.

Retailed at RM120 per piece, we now offer it at an introductory RM80 a piece for the first 100 units. It’s a no brainer,  don’t need to think twice, grab them NOW!! The cryo’ed fuse has all the hifi qualities that you dream of at a fraction of the price of changing interconnects/speaker cables.

Stocks we have ready – 40A, 30A, 20A and 2A.

* updates 13 Aug: Very limited stocks left. Once finished, new shipment of fuses will only be available end of September 2009.