KL International AV Show 2018

This is a yearly event which I was always keen to attend. Not much of an audiophile nowadays but I like good recording. The current hifi setup I had was bought after attending one of this event a couple of years back and it was a good event to see new gears and just have a good look.

This year's venue was a departure from the last one. It was held at Sunway Putra Hotel, right next door to the old The Mall opposite PWTC.

I'm legit!The venue was smaller than before - JW Marriott at Bukit Bintang. But the concept were the same. Using hotel rooms emulate our living room to a certain extand, which gave better acoustics rather than open spaces. But walking through hotel corridors did pose some unique problem. The traffic flow around the venue as well as queue for the lifts proved testing.

So, did I hear any good stuffs? I sure did.

This must have been the most expensive kit on display Some of the gears were deduct loudly expensive and relatively unknown. The rigs were too big and difficult to maintain. I wanted a streaming system which is more practical and would fit both my budget and space.

The one which caught my eyes were the system from Linn. Not an all in one like my Naim set, but sounded excellent. The units were not yet available in Malaysia though. The unit on show were from Singapore although I was welcome to order.

There were some good clearance deals as well as it was the last few hours of exhibition. And I was guilty of picking up a Bluetooth amplifier. I have yet to get a speaker for it at the minute but the deal was just too good to ignore.

Now to the poor man's area ...Headphones were also seemed to be making a comeback ...There were units going in excess of RM100k with great sound. But it would depend on the source. Just a plain CD would not be enough to explore the real quality of the system. Most of the units either use a specialized streaming unit or turntable. Not practical really for casual users like myself.

I may have a closer look at the Linn system once a local unit is available. The sound were good enough for me ...

The Wee Printer

Anita had always wanted to print her phone snaps especially after travelling. Sending them for printing could be tricky. Even the online services available were not very easy to use. Printing using our laser printer could be tricky and she was not used to using Photoshop.

A simple solution would be to buy one of those portable photo printer. There was an offer going on, made by Fuji and we decided to try it.

Setting up and printing was straight forward, all done via wifi straight from my iPhone. Once printing was done, it took a while for the prints to become apparent - about 3 minutes.

The quality of the print was not exactly great and the cost of the papers could also be substantial. In the long run, using an online service may be a better idea but where is the fun in that.

Inserting the film cartridgePriming ...Done ...I have so far printed some of the photos from our recent Cherating trip. I would need to get more film cartridges later for more prints. Next would be to find a way to display those prints ... a new album may be.

ASTRO On Demand

I must confess that all this while, I had been taking it for granted. I was flipping the channels and Netflix when I accidentally pressed the VOD button on my ASTRO remote. Then I learned that the new WestWorld season and episodes were out. And to my surprise, they were free and available through the box, via the internet. And they were the uedited US versions.

More exploration and then I learned that the fifth season of “Silicon Valley” was also available. Far out!

I was done with the WestWorld - only 2 episodes released so far - and was catching up on Silicon Valley. The WestWorld episodes were pretty heavy stuff though, with revelation aplenty. Too much for casual viewing ....

Anyway, the point of this post was clearly ASTRO offered a lot more that met the eyes through their “on demand” service. Most of the movies needed paying though and selection were pretty limited. But when it came to TV series, they were free, up to date and were the US versions. Not to be missed!

St Regis Singapore

I really made an effort to get there. Anita had a good deal booking into one of the suites at the hotel. It would be such a waste of we let it passed. Especially when everything had been paid for.

Arriving at 4 am meant that we wasted a day's stay. But still checking in was straight forward and we declined to be sent up, opting to make our own way there. Straight away we ordered some food - more like a super early breakfast for me.

A quick shower and I was already in fairy land. I was really tired. The bed and the shower were just amazing.

The main lobby. Rather quite in late morning.The next morning, I woke up for some omelette as a second breakfast. The breakfast in the room were part of the package of you opt against going down to the café. Limited selection but in mornings such as this, it was priceless.

I spent the next day walking with my camera while Anita did some exploring in the hotel. The Butler we were assigned to confirmed our booking for the Night Safari later in the day while I had an afternoon nap.

The exterior looked unassuming Time for afternoon teaWe got back from the safari at 11 pm, straight away into the shower while the boys sat in the bath. The next morning, we had a proper breakfast by the pool - again amazing food.

Even though our stay there was short, it was enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it although the pool at Marina Bay Sands was hard to beat. The location being near Orchard Road was a plus if shopping was part of the plan.

Should I have more time, I would've sampled the pool. Maybe next time ...

Gone GoPro

I finally succumbed. The final straw was when one of my nurses brought her little GoPro along at one of the ward lunches. I had to give that a look.

GoPro had a bad Xmas. Their sales were not doing very well. They announced that they were closing their drone arm - which I thought they were doing very well at until I read about the technical issues they were having. They were now looking for a buyer for the company and the prices of their cameras were being slashed.

I managed to get a decent deal and bought the Hero 6 Black, just in time for our Singapore trip. I planned to take only small cameras for the trip - which would likely mean the GR II and the GoPro. Too much hassle to carry the Sony or Fuji as time would be limited and were planning to fly and travel light.

So far, I had only had the chance to use the camera around the house. The photos and videos were much better than our old GoPro. I fact I was stunned by how good the stills were. The control were neater and having a dedicated touch screen and GPS were definitely bonus.

Some of the earliest photos from the GoProNext, I would like to see how well the snaps transfer onto the phone apps. That would make sharing that much more straight forward. The trip this weekend should allow me to do some field test with the camera.