Stereopal.com features Mazher JAFFAR

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Stereopal Featured System:

Mazher B. JAFFAR

of http://www.schwinnaudio.com/

Updated: Feb 26, 2005

1st Visit: Sept 15, 2005

A friend once told me, there are few audiophiles from India.

Avid audiophile Mazher B. JAFFAR from India have proved him wrong ! Mazher is a knowledgeable audiophile from Mubai India. He has his own Audio Consulting company. There are many impressive photos on Mazher's website:

www.schwinnaudio.com/new

We are honored to feature Mazher's system here on Stereopal.com. I wish I could meet Mazher in person as I have never listened to any of his equipments names before. The name Camelot is completely new to me until now.

List of Audio Gear Owned & Used:

SIMAUDIO MOON ECLIPSE CD PLAYER [SerialNumber A-211294-CD]

SIMAUDIO P-5 PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial Number A-081291-PRE]
ELECTROCOMPANIET EMC-1 24/192 CD PLAYER [Serial Number 01334]
AUDIOMECA MEPHISTO II CD TRANSPORT [Serial Number 2001045]
AUDIOMECA ENKIANTUS 24/192 DAC [Serial Number 2001073]
METRONOME T1A MK II TRANSPORT + UP SAMPLER
METRONOME C1A MK III TUBE 24/192 DAC
WADIA 861-B CD PLAYER [Serial # 086 130 0343]
BRYSTON BP-25 PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial Number 251744]
BRYSTON 7B ST POWER AMPLIFIER [Serial Number 773775 & 773793]
PASS LABS X-1 PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial Number 010388]
DYNAUDIO CONFIDENCE 5 SPEAKERS [Serial Number 729879 & 729990]
XAVIAN - XN360 SPEAKERS [SERIAL # 31 & 32] - CZECH REPUBLIC
VdH THE SECOND BALANCED INTERCONNECTS 1M
VdH THE FIRST ULTIMATE UNBALANCED INTERCONNECTS 1M
VdH THE REVELATION SPEAKER CABLE 3M
VdH THE MAINSTREAM HYBRID POWER CABLE 2M
XLO ELECTRIC TYPE 4.1B AES/EBU DIGITAL INTERCONNECT CABLE 1M
THE GRYPHON ADAGIO CD PLAYER [Serial # 0401111]
THE GRYPHON SONATA ALLEGRO PRE AMPLIFIER [Serial # 8890099]
THE GRYPHON ANTILION STEREO SIGNATURE POWER AMPLIFIER [Serial # 118]
CAMELOT TECHNOLOGY MERLIN PRO CD TRANSPORT [Serial # 301209]
CAMELOT TECHNOLOGY DRAGON 5.1 PLUS JITTER REDUCER [Serial # 103584]
CAMELOT TECHNOLOGY UTHER D/A CONVERTOR v2 Mk5 [Serial # 501202]
THE GRYPHON GUIDELINE REFERENCE BALANCED INTERCONNECT 1M
THE GRYPHON PSC REFERENCE SPEAKER CABLE 2M
THE ARGENTO VDM MASTER REFERENCE XLR BALANCED INTERCONNECT 1M & 1.5M
THE ARGENTO VDM REFERENCE SPEAKER CABLE 3M
WIREWORLD SUPER ECLIPSE 5 XLR BALANCED & RCA UNBALANCED INTERCONNECT - 1M
JORMA DESIGN JPC 2.5 POWER CABLE - SWEDEN - 2M - ALL ELECTRONICS
DC-CABLE TAIWAN POWER CABLES - CUSTOM TERMINATION [Front End Electronics - Digital]

GAMUT L5 SPEAKERS

New Gamut L5 Speakers

Mazher's Comments:

1) How would you describe the sound of your system ?

I have just put in a new speaker into my set up last week. Xavian XN360.

www.xavian.cz or www.xn360.com [just have a look]. They have not burnt in as yet !!! Hence, I will write about them in a while.

2) What kind of music do yo like ?

Mostly Classical, but a bit of Female Vocal (Jazz) & some classic rock occasionally

3) You have a very nice room with extensive use of Wood Paneling, did you design this yourself ? How does the wood affect the sound quality ? (See Below)

Yes, the entire design was conceived & executed by me. I did get the help of a dear friend of mine in the process.I started off with a room that was exactly double the length as its breath. 20' X 10'. This was a very very big problem.Hence, we had to play around to solve the problems of standing waves and certain frequency resonances. We have used American Red Oak Wood on the walls + floor + ceiling. It has been fixed with different techniques on different surfaces & the thickness too varies on the different places [floor - thickest + ceiling - thinnest + 2 side walls have different loadings with RCC Concrete poured in at different places]

The rear wall is sloped & is covered with real leather & is damped with different materials that are more at the bottom & less on the top. The ceiling has metal fans - 04 - this is for high frequency defraction.

The Flooring has been made in the following process :

A - Cover your current floor with 12mm marine ply. Before you fix the ply in the floor have the room treated for termites [with professional injections]

B - Paint the 12mm marine ply with 'Black Japan' on both the sides.

C - Place a 2 mm to 3 mm rubber sheet on it. This has to be glued on with industrial glue - Speb type / Fevicol SR etc.

D- Real wood planks that are 4" in width & have different lengths that vary from 2' to 5'. These have to have a 'V' groove in between them [to compensate for weather change expansion & contraction]. They have to be fixed onto the rubber + marine ply flooring by small nails.

E - The entire flooring has to be polished with a polymer based resin polish - spray. This will seal it and protect it from the 'mop' & shall make it maintenance free.

Special Wood Panel Wall Treatment

4) Which is your favorite CD ?

This is an impossible question to answer. However, there are several that I use for system evaluation & set up.

They are :

Burmester Test Disc # 3

Mary Black - No Frontiers - Looking Back [on Grapewive records & NO Dara - very very poor pressing]

M.A. Recordings - Begona Olavide / Mudejar MA042A
Water Lily Acoustics - Tabula Rasa WLA-CS-44-CD
ECM Records – Making Music / Zakir Hussain ECM – 1349
Moment Records – Ustad Sultan Khan MRCD – 1006
Reference Recordings – TUTTI ! RR-906CD
Chesky Records – The Raven / Rebecca Pidgeon JD 115
Mercury – Essential / Yello 512 390 – 2