It was in the middle school Chinese textbook that I first learnt the name of Cambridge, when an essay of SHU Zhimo (1897-1931), entitled as "the Cambridge I know" and his new poem "Good-bye Cambridge". In the old days when I practiced new poem, SHU’s crescent-school style served as my guide. For some 40 years, "those who are used to cities do not feel when season changes. They know that autumn nears because of falling leaves and that spring is close because leaves turn green. Take a good book for a long journey and find a piece of tranquil land to read the book and listen to birds. When you are tired, just sleep for a moment and let yourself follow the dreams, could there be anything better? Looking for dreams? Get a long row and take a boat full of starlight, braking through waters in green grass, while singing under the stars. Though I can not sing, silence is all I can keep, it is the sound of flute, bugs of summertime are singing for me; silence stands for Cambridge tonight!" It is always the land of imagination, inviting one to dream. This year, by chance, I could visit Cambridge in London, following the steps of the renowned poet. With my camera, I tried to get hold on the souls that only did appear in my dreams by Cambridge. Willows by Cambridge is one of the pictures, myself under the golden willows by Cambridge.

Just arrived from my trip to England, in the still a little chilly spring, I was excited to find the mighty Alón Exotica Grand Reference. The 4-piece-1-set jumbo speaker system is only available on magazines and has won the TAS (The Absolute Sound) Golden Ear Award - in 2001/2002/2003 in a row. Harry Pearson, TAS’ founder, granted the unprecedented 5-star recommendation and takes the item as reference speaker. The comments read: "The extraordinary performance rendered by this great speaker drives sound from frequency of smooth response to dynamic graduation, from 3D space, sound body to the full range of tweeter and woofer in an even style, releasing music in a natural yet absolutely pure way." Comments like this one is not rare, as you have heard them when talking about top speaker systems. Alón is something different, absolutely different, unless you listen to it for yourself, you would never know what really grand, a real hero, is about. In fact, Taiwan has seen grand speakers, like Avalon Sentinel, WEGG 3, Lunare 1, Wilson Audio WAMM, The Genesis 1, Infinity IRS-V and Rockport among others. Restrained display sites or unsuccessfully tuned equipment might have kept me from being amazed of something that makes even my Genesis II now a secondary piece. This time it is different, Alón did produced the woos, in the house of Chairman David Chu of Audio Professional Inc, a series audio venue, the audio system that made myself render for the first time. For 3 days I turned off my audio system, just to meditate, the time spent allowed me remember how splendid Alón and check out why Alón is this powerful.

The 4 sides of Alón Exotica Grand Reference

It takes a lot to make Rome what it is; Alón Jumbo was not born overnight either. To talk about Alón, we must not ignore its designer, Carl J. Marchisotto, an audio engineering in business since 1973. He may be a stranger to many music fans, yet those experts must have heard of Dahlquist, its DQ series speakers and the classic DQ LP-1 frequency divider (I have used it and Dr. KO has it this day). Carl was the chief designer and deputy chairman for engineering of Dahlquist. For 15 years, he designed and launched the DQ-8, DQ-12 and DQ-20 speakers, the LP-1 frequency divider and the CM-1 amplifier. As Dahlquist was sold out, Carl and Marilyn, his wife, then founded Acarian Systems in 1991 and made their overwhelming debut in the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show with the Alón IV speaker. Today, the company has launched a series of speakers ranging from mini bugs at US$600 a piece to the Grand Reference System for as much as US$126,000. The company produces wires and amplifiers to make speakers maximize power of speakers. In the 2004 Spring Electronic Show, the 2-piece-1-set Alón Proteus, a system only second to Jumbo Speaker drew attention of the public with favorable appraisals. It was in the system that Roy Gussman, a renowned conductor, first listened to the Walnut Flute Suite under conduction of Pitta, true music to Gussman, Charles Whitener agrees by saying he had never listened to such a great piano play in any other speakers.

Alón Jumbo consists of a main tower and a pair of woofers, all over 2 meters in height (84 inches). The main tower stands 12 inches wide and 16 inches deep. The woofer is 13 inches in width and 26 inches in depth. Basically the system resembles Infinity IRS and The Genesis I, II, only the narrower face attenuates diffraction. The main tower comes with the channels of individual speakers and to make precise sound, they come in a mirror and symmetrical configuration. The picture shows that it bears the benefits of linear sound source and spot sound source. The main tower is responsible for the frequency area ranging from 400,000Hz to 45,000Hz while the woofers for 16Hz to 40Hz, a much improved splitting than The Genesis. (There, the main screen takes care of 80Hz to 35,000Hz and the woofer post is responsible for frequency under 80Hz. The design is to lower the orientation problems created by the woofers and helps configure the 4 elements in an easier manner. The state-of-the-art main tower that carries full range as other supreme items is the most important one when it comes to layout. The woofers and medium range of the main tower (40Hz to 400Hz) has each of the channels be controlled by 4 8-inch casting woofer in a vertical array, 2 on top and 2 on bottom. The 8-inch woofer has a conic surface treated with metal magnesium and then the rim is coated with natural rubber. Brass studs on the inside for correct phases, perfect piston response helps maintain at 5,000Hz, much beyond the range of 400Hz it is there for, as absolute impact and minimum audio pollution. The top-bottom elements are in a sealed chamber, where the walls are provided with dampers to eliminate audio pollution.

The 6 5 1/2-inch individual speakers per channel that comes in a 3-layer casting stand for the frequency ranging from 400Hz to 3,500Hz control the medium tone. An open barrier driven by Alnico system (the powerful magnetic field is capable of reproducing natural harmony). The 6 medium elements come in vertical array between the top and bottom woofers and by the tweeters. The dipole open barrier design of the medium elements is to get rid of the mechanic audio pollution created by the 4 major resonance that would be otherwise produced, panel resonance, the air flow resonance (standing wave), the delay resonance (retransmission by the conic basin) and driver resonance in ordinary boxes. Special drviers would be needed in this kind of environment. Alón’s Alnico 3-layer conic basin is to drive woofers in immediate response and delivers minimum distortion and audio pollution one would never sense, eventually perfect low resolution and dynamic variation, precise harmony and excellent instant response are achieved (allowing one to tell initial, extension, disappearance and reproduction of music in vivid experience).

(The Genesis G2 owned by Dr. TSAI KO-HSIN, an already state-of-the-art system, after CAI listened to Alón Exotica Grand Reference, the amazed TSAI had to turn off his audio system to meditate for 3 days.)

The 9 4-inch speakers of ribbon tweeters come in vertical arrangement and take care of frequency ranging from 3,500Hz to 45KHz. For minimum kinetic mass (0.0061g), even a massive sound released in an instant does not produce acute sound. For instance, sound produced by percussion instruments mixed with other harmonious sounds, driven by the alnico drivers, would only turn into relaxing music in extremely harmonized level. The use of 9 ribbons instead of a large one is for the precise control of sound by the membrane. Different from EMIT of planar dynamic in Infinity IRS, we are talking about real ribbon and audio coil as the same time. More expensive it is, though it does eliminate the audio pollution of planar dynamic. The tweeters, just like the medium sound elements, come in a dipole configuration on an open barrier board, which is to minimize diffraction as well.

The woofer tower in Alón Jumbo is to compensate the ultra woofer of 16Hz to 40hz in the main tower. The ultra woofer of each of the channels is composed of 4 12-inch-tall woofer elements in vertical arrangement and each of them has its own partition boxes and reflection channels. The driver is a double 7LB magnet for the ultra-low distortion voice coil, so the woofer elements can conduct linear movements larger than 1 1/4 inches and the two woofer towers work together, they would produce voice pressure of more than 120dB. This ultra-low sound emission is a completely different system from Genesis’ server correction driving, demanding frequency dividers of a different design and concept. Instead of the concealed woofer post of Genesis, Alón excels in performance, though it delivers no reflective box sound and lag ordinary woofers would produce.

For the sake of optimal sound quality, the 3-way passive analog sound divider of the Jumbo main tower is available in the outer box. The arrangement is to avoid interaction between the dividing network and the magnet in the speaker units and prevent mechanic vibration as well, allowing the main tower release even smother sounds. Besides, there is another low-pass filter that connects the main tower and the ultra-woofer tower, such as the case of the renowned Dahlquist DQLP-1 divider. This active low-pass filter is of a special design as its circuitry was designed by Carl back in 1976 and Saul Marantz, the famous audio designer, who was working in the same company, took care of the planning of the panel and the box. One of the purposes of the box is to deliver optimal low-frequency instant response and, instead of the 3^rd or 4^th-scale filter that would be a common practice, it features 3 strings to provide variable gradient dividing and produces no instant vibration. Gradient on the first 8° is 6dB, the second one 12dB and the third one 18dB. Continuous variation of frequency is allowed between 40Hz and 400Hz that makes micro adjustment acceptable at one’s discretion. Besides, Jumbo does not come with high-pass filter and the main tower is allowed to play in the full range and let the frequency below 40Hz roll down on its own. In addition, to cope with Jumbo, Alón has upgraded DQLP-1 by replacing it with the latest spare parts and adding storage capacity of the power supply. After 27 years since its birth, DQLP-1 remains a key player in the industry, an amazing performance in audio. What is worth mentioning here is that, besides the option of continuous cutoff point of more than 37Hz, DQLP-1 comes with cutoff points in the left and right channel and separate level adjustment. This means that the listener can set the micro adjustment to the lowest frequency response for the space available.

A later-level amplifier of at least 4 channels would be needed to drive Alón Jumbo (up to 8 channels). A duly assembled Jumbo may come with a frequency range of up to 16Hz-45kHz and it output ranges from 20Hz to 20kHz at 120dB. The main tower’s speakers come with an impedance of 8Ohm (7 as minimum), the ultra-woofer has the minimum impedance at 1Ohm. Sensitivity of the main tower is at 90dB/2.82volts and that of the ultra-woofer at 99dB/2.82volts. As of the connection among the speakers, the dividers and the amplifiers, the following diagram shows the Halcro DM 10 front amplifier and the DM68 MONO rear amplifier (for the left channel only).

The Alón Exotica that has been upgraded from 2 pieces to the Grand Reference of 4 speakers in 2000 reflects continuous improvements. We are talking about the latest Series II that has been introduced. In the past month, we have tried it using records played on the Ayre D-1X CD audio system, the VPI TNT-HR turntable, the JMW-125 arm with the Lyra-Helikon stylus with repeated adjustments. Myself have obtained the following results (far beyond the 20 hints for ordinary audio systems):

1. Extraordinary dynamic: The system give the sensation of being in a concert hall while actually I am listening to a home audio system, that is to say, I do not feel a minimum contraction. The new system reproduces instrument and musician plays from ultra tweeter to ultra woofer as they are, assuring fine variation in music or change of musical instruments, regardless the size and without exaggeration or deformation. In Pulse, New World Records/Classic NW 319, the fine development of the percussion instruments of low level in John Cage’s The Third Construction or the No. 1 Chinese Drum (D) (Marco Polo 8.225950HDCD), the Flying Dragon and Jumping Tiger, the orderly drum beating in high, medium and low volume are fully reproduced. In Red Thin Line, the moaning of the symphony and the outraging tone of the violin in the 7^th track of the original movie and the bell tolls, soaring symphony and thundering acoustic tubes in EPICS (Telarc CD-80600) are all reproduced to you by Alón Jumbo without toil, there is just nothing left behind and you do not have to worry about being collapses.

2. Full transparency: As some would say that a sound field seems to penetrate walls when high fidelity is involved. In Alón, I SAW the rear wall for the first time in my life. That is to say, the musicians in the concert hall, the rhythm in the surrounding makes the walls transparent, something not accomplishable otherwise without a smooth frequency range and even phase, in which instant responses of different frequency areas must be produced at the same time, without delay, just like lightening flash.

3. Easy high frequency: Easy high frequency is available with a large number of speakers, it would never be easy to deliver enough energy and dynamic at the same time. You would understand what I am talking about by only listening to Argento’s Valentino Dances (RR-91CD) or the triangles and cymbals play in Jazz Variants in Manger.

4. Authoritative low frequency: Few are the speakers that could keep sound body from disintegrating and in correct proportion ranging from top of low frequency, to low frequency and ultra low frequency. Alón achieves this without toil. This is true when we listen to Michael Haydn’s viola, cello and bass in Raritaten fur Kontrabass (Ars Vivendi 2011196), The London Bass Sound CALA/TMCD 1068, The Abandoned Baby (Fashion TCA-5243), Guem: Percussions (Harmonia Mundi LDX 274 845). We may tell instruments of different low frequency areas, it would be much harder to tell a large number of bass violins playing at the same time. When it comes to drum beating, all dynamic volumes come in perfect shape and detail, resulting in impeccable echoes. The air-moving flow and the ultra low frequency makes one feel relaxed. On these records, Alón does it all.

5. Natural music: What makes Alón a distinguished system is its natural sound-releasing and natural music. Its fidelity does not show any artificial work, a real life-like Hi-Fi. This requires capability of releasing natural music, which is available in Alón thanks to its Super Dynamic. To name a few, Symphonic Dances (R-96CD), A Sea Symphony (Telarc CD-80588), Requiem (RR-57CD) are all model records of superb performances. With Alón, you would be right in the middle row of a concert and in front of a 100-musician symphony orchestra and choir enjoying life and natural music.

6. Sophisticated listening experience: Despite of natural music, Alón delivers only truth, as all flaws, in music source or audio systems, would not be forgiven. For instance, JIANG Hui’s Taiwan Hot Song, a piece of state-of-the-art work of popular songs, does reflect man-made effort in the not-so-perfect mix. What I would like to bring to you here is that Halcro front and rear amplifiers do take credit out of the success of Alón Jumbo and without these amplifiers of ultra low distortion and sound pollution, broad frequency range and maximum dynamics, you would not realize what Alón Jumbo is really about.

7. Take it all: Alón is capable of reproducing all original recording in proportion and linearity of solos, chamber concerts or orchestra plays. This is a system of huge capacity for reproduction of recordings. To prove it, you may make the try with the play of Schubert’s Piano Trios by the Stuttgart Piano Trio (D.898 D.28)(Naxos 8.550131) and the original tape of Gladiator (Decca 467094-2).

Alón Jumbo arrived in Taiwan less than 1 month ago, yet it is working perfectly, with time; it must become much better. It requires only Siltech wiring. Carl claims that he has Black Orpheus and Thunderbass wires designed for tweeters and woofers used on Alón. It is said that these systems perform excellent in terms of focusing, tangibility, sound field and dynamic, hopefully Audio Professional Inc. could bringing them to Taiwan and then Alón would become undefeatable.