Two weeks ago I promised to get back to you regarding Steinway Lyngdorf's Model S, a plug-and-play home theatre sound system that, at its most basic 2.2 stereo offering, costs $39,995. I was waiting patiently to listen to a 7.2.2 Atmos system being built in Perth, but being in Singapore for Christmas I did some Googling and I discovered that the company had a Model S system on demo in town. A few emails later they were happy to give me a listen.
Singapore is a town where the shops are open from 10am to 10pm Christmas Day, and every other day, and a Corolla costs $105,000. Yep, there's plenty of money up here so Steinway Lyngdorf has a presence. In the finest traditions of premium hi fi, I was directed to an industrial unit crowded with packing cases in an estate frenetic with trucks, forklifts and scurrying, singletted workers, none of whom appeared to fit the appropriate demographic. Inside, however, was quite another place.
![Singapore is beautiful, but for audiophiles the best bits are hidden on industrial estates..](/web/20170112000811im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/n/z/j/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtnzfz.png/1483927379215.jpg)
An enthusiastic Amos Goh ushered me into a darkened room where Everest was running at 4K definition through a system that the other 99 per cent of us can only dream about – seven S15 surround speakers, two S16s (essentially an S15 with a mid/bass driver that's 2.5 cm larger) in the ceiling, two massive subwoofers at far right and far left, three A2 amplifiers each pushing out four channels at 400 watts, a single A1 at 400 watts to two channels and a brilliant JVC X5000 4K projector throwing to a 330cm acoustically transparent screen. The whole lot was being fed by Oppo's just-released UDP203 4K disc player. I didn't ask the all-up price but I'm willing to bet it cost more than a Singapore Corolla. The hardware price alone in Australia is around $135,000, easily five or six local Corollas complete with extended warranty and optional upholstery protection.
The movie's helicopter landing took me back to when the Hughie pulls alongside the cliff in Vertical Limit, but most telling was what followed: conversations as the key characters moved around the crowded base camp. The sound was real, no other word for it. This was a bit of the Atmos tech with sound coming from above as well as from all sides, but mostly it was the sheer accuracy of what I was hearing. There were breezes carrying voices, there was unconnected activity quietly hubbubing around off-screen. It was the sound of being outside in a busy place; reverberations, reflections, sounds carrying and decaying with the breeze. Reality. I was there. Simple enough.
I asked Amos for some music and got a concert hall performance in which plenty of different singers sang while the star was the piano front and centre. The word for this was atmospheric. Acoustically I was seated in the centre a couple of rows from the front and every time there was applause it was all around me. The accuracy of the music, the excitement, was revelatory. Even turned way up high, and these speakers may be small but they pump immense volume, there was no hint of distortion anywhere in the audible range. Not a single hint. I wrote another word in my notes – seamless. The music flowed easily and precisely. There were no inconsistencies anywhere. Once again it was real, pure and simple.
Picture a Corolla lugging a caravan up a hill. Now think of a big V8 4WD doing the same thing. One struggles, the other is effortless. This effortlessness is the hallmark of the Model S, it makes everything else sound strained. And it's so compact that given a good installation you'll seldom even notice it. The bonus is that if exclusivity is important to you no one else in town will have one – Amos handles Singapore and its surrounding countries and if he gets four sales a year he's doing great.
The food is wonderful in Singapore. The Gardens by the Bay are terrific at Christmas and Orchard Road is like Times Square, only beautiful and safe. But my best time in town was at an industrial estate in the unit beside the car audio installer.