Well, I’m back. My absence was due to a family trip, to Bangkok, London, Paris and Singapore. Got home this morning. Many interesting moments, although only some of relevance here.<\/p>\n
Way back in 1972 my father was posted for a time in Singapore, back when it was still Third World, but up and coming fast. It was supposed to be a short posting, so the rest of us stayed here in Australia, but I took the opportunity to acquire my first stereo system. I researched the options available, and issued instructions, and my very limited funds from a part-time job, to him: I wanted a 10 watt per channel Kenwood amplifier. It seemed the best value for money.<\/p>\n
He wrote back some weeks later that he’d bought me something else. Sucked in, I thought. The amp he’d bought was from a then unknown brand, Rotel. The RA-810 was rated at 40 watts per channel. I didn’t believe it, but later it was reviewed in Australian HI-FI<\/em> (for which I write these days) and the tests revealed the specification to be conservative. It measured 55 watts per channel. That was incredibly powerful for those days.<\/p>\n Now, of course, Singapore is an economic powerhouse and nobody’s conception of Third World. I explored only a small part of Sim Lim Square, a huge mall full of electronics shops. Many computers, digital still and video cameras, and home entertainment shops. I soon noticed that home theatre receivers were much<\/em> less expensive than here. All brands. For example, in one high quality shop — Alpha Audio — the Denon AVR-3805 (link to PDF)<\/a> was priced at $SING1,450, which works out to $AUS1,208. RRP here: $2,499. Guess what. Buy a budget airfare, fly over, buy one, bring it back and you’ll still be ahead (although without warranty support). May have to pay 10% GST on entry, although you can get your 5% Singapore GST back at the airport.<\/p>\n Then all you have to do is change the power plug. Singapore runs on 230 volts.<\/p>\n I made only one significant purchase there: the NAD PP-2 phono preamplifier<\/a>. $SING150, or $AUS125.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, I’m back. My absence was due to a family trip, to Bangkok, London, Paris and Singapore. Got home this morning. Many interesting moments, although only some of relevance here. Way back in 1972 my father was posted for a … Continue reading