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My audio and jazz history: The 44th episode "That's why I can't quit being an audiophile!" (Part 2) by Kenji Kondo on December 9 Recently I have replaced my power amp and pre-amp with a MC602 and C46 of McIntosh and have been trying various ways to optimize their performance.
The two-way bi-amp system using two power amps is said to be an ultimate audio reproduction system. In the JBL4344MK2 speaker system, you can change it to the bi-amp system. In the past I tried to do it once but gave it up to my regret because gain, network, crossover, etc. of two amps were ill-matched for each other. For a successful bi-amp drive system, it is ideal to use two high-performance power amps though it costs high. Satisfaction will double to offset the high cost. However, the fruitful result of my effort to try systems other than the bi-amp drive system finally came out to my great pleasure. The tones were refreshed to be high-quality excellent tones. What was in question was how to minimize loss in the JBL4344MK2 four-way speaker system, though this was said to be quite difficult. I had had information that I could obtain much better sound than on speakers currently designed, if ever I succeeded in my trial. I also heard that there were many speakers that reproduced correct sound, while there were a few speakers that were able to reproduce superb sound. I got excited at these words. "I will try anything! This is challenging!" The question here was how to release the energy that was blocked there. To my happy surprise, I was able to gain greater improvement of tones after my trial than I had expected.

Even in a bi-wiring system that has the highest performance in all systems to connect speaker cables, tone reproduction is dramatically influenced by how to connect a single wire, though it is also influenced by the speaker itself. However, the example here is a connection method to enhance the tone quality, and I got the result from my experience. I connected the cable to the low range (woofer side) for +, and to the high range (tweeter side) for -. In other words, cables were crossing. (Jumper cables were also connected in a similar way.) By this connection method, the speaker reproduced the best balanced sound with the original jumper as well. Though it depends on your preference, it is worth trying once if you have not tried it yet. The CD I listened to for tryout was "Sweet Loraine/by Andrea Pozza Trio" TKCV-35347 and "And So Is Love/by Rita Coolidge" KICJ-485. The sound reproduced was so good a trinity of piano, bass and drums, to which I had never listened. The localization was exactly fixed and there was no phase delay. How come this happened? The sound widened smoothly all over. In addition, wide sound field and sound expansion were also outstanding. The speaker sound was completely refreshed and became expressive with clear contrast. Upon listening to its first tone, I could not help but feel this was great! Then I got absorbed in listening to it. Furthermore, I said to myself, "This wonderful reproduction makes me fascinated deep in my mind." Unintentionally, I was holding firmly the armrests of my arm chair. (To be continued to the next week.)

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