As a real "kampung" (village) boy I lived by the radio as others did; at least those who could afford one. It was our major source of real news and entertainment - my favourites were "syair", "gurindam"... We had to travel 3.5 miles to get a newspaper if there were any left. In those days, it would be like going to the moon as our mode of transportation were huge raleigh bicycles which sits 3 - one paddling, another seated whilst steering and the one seated on carrier at the back enjoying all the way! If we did buy, it would have been printed in Jawi - arabic lettering but malay phoenetics - as was our tradition in the times of Munshi Abdullah or even earlier. But not many bothered to read the papers. After all, news on the radio was free,
My first was a transistor radio which uncle bought back in the mid-60s. We would spend hours sitting in front of it whilst straining our ears to distinguish music or voice from white noise. It was large; the size of an A4 paper and thicker than two reams of paper. It was powered by 6 torchlight batteries (bateri lampu picit) as was known in those days.
In one black and white turned sepia photograph, I had a newer slimmer and smaller model - half the size of the former - dangling from my neck with the Lake Garden as the backdrop. I was so smitten with it that I brought it wherever we went. Step aside boom boxes! I have pictorial evidence that I started it back in the 60s!!!
Of course our cars were not equipped with a radio then. So this tiny bundle of joy was our sound system.
Then came electricity...You would have thought that my parents would get something more modern and smaller. Instead my parents saw it fit to equip our house with a mammoth - about the size of a microwave oven. It will be as hot as a gas oven after a few hours since it uses valves ranging in size from that of AAA battery to that of half a "pinta". It had, like the transistorised versions, just two dials; one for selecting the channels, and the other as a volume control which doubles as "on-off" selector that clicks when switching off. Ours, I swear, could be tuned to BBC London - at least that was what was announced. For the aerial, a wire from the back of would be "clipped" to another wire that rises up a bamboo pole. The last I saw this at home was 5 years ago atop a 50 year old glass fronted bookshelf!
Many hours were spent "looking" at the mammoth deciphering what was uttered amidst the ever present white noise and morse code.
Stereo? The newer transistor radios had twin speakers but they were still in mono mode.
Then came cassette tape player equipped transistor radios. Still offering mono mode but a lot smaller. My uncle uses the tape to record his lessons in an effort to pass his Senior Cambridge (or something light that) for the umpteenth time. I was introduced to this in the early 70s. By the time I was ready to see the world, I did equip myself with pirated tape recordings of Olivia Newton John, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Bad Company, Frank Sinatra, Sylistics...
The virgin hairs in my earlobes were titilated by my seniors and super seniors in Oxford in mid-70s when they piped true stereophonics to my ears. They were using vinyls; singles and albums played on decks connected to receivers or sometimes amplifiers that were connected to really "loud-speakers". A handful of them could afford this luxury.
Most, including me, continued with radio-casette players which, by now, were stereophonic. Of course you had to turn up the dial to the maximum to "enjoy" the music! Pump up the volume; pauper style. £64 per month was all I get a month then.
My ears were peneterated, waxes shattered forever no more than two years later. I was hooked onto "audiophile". Again, it was T. Marwan who took centre stage. He equipped himself with a Technics servo operated deck (upgraded to belt driven Mitchel soon after), mission amplifier and Mission 770 speakers. Dave Bruback's Take 5, Al diMeola, Sky, Linda Ronstadt's Blue Bayou, Pink Floyd's Off the Wall...now wafted effortlessly in the air. Stereophonic high-fidelity music to my ears.
I was stupified! Agog! Bowled-over!
His system was his pride and joy. Looking after "it" was akin to taking care of a child but with a lot more TLC (tender loving care) since these were very delicate state-of-the-art electronics. Change the cartridge by unscrewing micro screws, gingerly align the needle, balancing the priceless arm with counter weights, tune the rpm using a strobe light... Would a new born receive such gentle handling as that? You need dry static free steady hands, razor sharp eyes and a bottomless pocket just so that you can listen clearly. I thought a couple of cotton buds could do wonders!
I, on the other hand, had to contend with audiophile magazines as a source of inspiration, endless dreams of the perfect sound, an Amstrad Amplifier, Dual turntable (both bought from Comet) and a pair of home made 8 ohm 3 way speakers. Mine strained at the seams whilst belting out Boomtown Rat, Sid Vicious...noise rather than music really befitting the songs that were sung.
Then came Zahrol, Zahimi and Dr. K...each outdoing the other.
Zahrol was at the bottom of the rung with Rega Panar, integrated amplifier and Mission 770 speakers placed in the sound attenuated lounge (egg crates on walls to reduce resonance - he says). Bottom rung because of his pocket.
Zahimi had the same deck (I think) but valved amplifier and electro static speakers. These were housed in his dedicated lounge. His was a thick, bulging wad from a fairly wealthy and one sibling family
Dr.K.'s was the creme de la creme. I can't recall all the famous brand names that he subscribed to! One name left me gaping. The then Rolls Royce of turntables at £900. But it wasn't the Linn Sondek LP12!
His system was housed in the basement. But what a sound! Dave Brueback's Take 5's un-cut version was never the same again. It was as if you were there in the concert hall. Really! His pocket was bottomless - salaried at home and endowed with a hansome scholarship to study by, I believe, the British Council at £600 a month (or was it 900 - both the front numbers look so much alike)
Each of them owned an assortment of cartridges - one for a particular type of music. Of course, aside from their collection of static and dust free pristine vinyls, they collected different magazines for different items - cartridges, speaker cables, speaker stands, turn tables, speakers, amplifiers... Then there were the more technical magazines on bi-amping, bridged speakers...
Of course, I had to compare these vouched for excellent reproduced music with the original: concerts! Boomtown Rat in Huddersfield, Dave Brueback in Ashton-under-Lyne, Sky in Liverpool, Linda Ronstadt in Liverpool, Three Degrees in Manchester, Stylistics in Manchester, Air Supply in KL, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, to name but a few...even chamber music. For every single concert I kept the ticket and the programme. It was worth it; these were my benchmark.
I was preparing my ears to be sodomised - for want of a better word now.
In the mid 80s, I was back with a vengeance. I splurged on a pair of Mission bi-amped 780A speakers, Musical Fidelity amplifier with my rolls-royce of the marque as the front end - Linn Sondek LP12. I too had an assortment of cartridges and arms. What were their brand names?
My sparing partner then was Kaswandi. He chose Rega Planar 2, Quad Amps and Bang & Olefsun electrostaic speakers. Or was that owned by another hi-fi nut in Birkenhead?
I remembered that we went one further by trying out different speaker stands: mono-spikes, concrete blocks,... We also experimented on speaker wires - coaxial, gold... Even the floor covering were tested: concrete, wall to wall, timber...
It didn't last long.
The compact disc had arrived. We both jumped on the bandwagon. Each chose different brands - Japaenese Marantz versus british Naim! My musical collection was doubled for I had to have a copy each; in vinyl and now CD.
A battle ensued in the hi-fi fraternity. Some swore that manual version (vinyls) were superior. Others kept vehemently stood by their claim that the clinically clean digitally mastered sound from CDs are clearer...cymbals crash instead of clashing, drums beating instead of bashing. The list was endless!
I stopped right there. Enough is enough. Anyway it was time to go home. The rough 2 months journey by sea didn't do my RM30k musical experience any good. Mildew neither! Only one company dared to assess the damage done. But I wasn't going to spend 5k to repair the turntable.
So, I played the remarkably intact CDs amplified by the now defunct Musical Fidelity and battered base of the 780A in a cramped resonating flat. Occassionally I balanced the arm, took out a fresh needle and used the same old cartridge, turned on the strobes, warmed up the amp and whilst holding my breath gently place the cartridge assembly onto the now slightly warped mildewed static laden album...
And that was ten years ago, the last time I took time off to actually "listen" to music.
What a load of codswollop!!!
To this date I can't even distinguish a c# from a flat... because I am tone deaf.
(Dedicated to my genre of hi-fi buffs. Perhaps I should remember the brand names that we so lovingly and at times heatedly argued. The front ends, arms, cartridges, pre-amps, power amps, integrated amps, speakers, speaker cables, needles....)
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