The Shun Mook Affair JS page 6

Conclusion
After spending the day with these Not-So-Very-Mad Monks, I thought them very sincere and their motives pure. They're into all this for the fun of it---for the rush of beauty that great music and sound can communicate. At the end of the day I played a Columbia Two-Eyed Glenn Gould for Andy Chow and he was, like, gone, man---totally lost in the music: eyes shut with a beatific expression on his face as he followed the musical line. You can't fake true bliss.

With a number of the synergistic Cable Jackets, careful attention paid to grounding, the Mpingo Discs on the front end, and the Spatial Control Kit, I found the effects on the sound were shockingly as advertised---the size of the soundstage, its tonal balance, and the focus we achieved were astonishing. The soundstage was as big as the Great Outdoors (or at least as big as whatever acoustic was on the source material)---we're not talkin' Big Audio Bloat here. The Harmonix room-tuning products stopped the walls from grossly resonating in the audio band, but the Shun Mook treatments enabled us to tweak and micro-adjust the sound to absolute best effect. We were able to dial in frequency response for a smooth, seamless, top-to-bottom, cohesive, Zen-like, harmonious presentation. Images took on a solidity and palpability that was positively scary. I've used that term before, but instead of drawing attention to the pyrotechnics, these treatments allowed me to sink deeply into the music's wash and feel its meaning---with rock, pop, jazz, classical, you name it. That's what it's all about, no?

Finally, the reticent Bill Ying says there's a rumor that Shun Mook was originally from Hong Kong, and is no longer being marketed in the US. Not true. Shun Mook was developed by these guys about five years ago in California, and has never been a product of Hong Kong. "Beware of imitations that won't stand an A/B test!" intoned Mr. Ying. Bill usually doesn't say much, but when he does talk, he roars.

Happy listening.



Footnote 3: I'll go into this subject in much greater detail in my upcoming review of the terrific Timbre Technology TT-1 digital processor, which I had the good fortune to drive with the C.E.C. and Forsell to-die-for transports, along with the supremely focused and detailed Esoteric P2S transport (weighing in at a hefty wallet-busting $8k). But let's just say that both what's under a transport and what the whole construct is mounted on (never mind the differences in cables) are of paramount importance and can drastically alter your system's sound. More later.

COMMENTS
jvjessen's picture

Edit: Stuff like this really should require a blind test with multiple staff to give a more credible review.

ishis's picture

It's fun reading these old letters written by foaming-at-the-mouth Nay-Sayers, 26 years later. Other manufacturers of accessories (vibration control, room-tuning discs, etc) that have been proven to work in the years that followed, have gained the respect of Audio Lovers everywhere. People have to be open-minded about new ideas and discoveries of things we were not aware-of before. If you 'dump' on things you do not understand, you just sound stupid later!

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