XTZ has the X factor

A new brand of hi-fi components has entered the Malaysian market. It is from Sweden and has been around for only a few years.


Yet in those few years, it has made a huge impact among consumers and the hi-fi Press in Europe.


The brand I am talking about is XTZ and you can hear the system at Living Audio on the first floor of Endah Parade in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur. Living Audio is one of the new additions - along with The Audio Store (see previous post) -  to the hi-fi scene in Malaysia and it opened last month.


On demo is a system comprising the XTZ CD100 CD player (RM3,000 rrp), the A100 integrated amp (RM5,000) and a pair of XTZ 99.36 floorstanders with ribbon tweeters (RM7,200).

The XTZ system on demo at Living Audio.

The XTZ CD100 CD player.

The XTZ A100 integrated amp offers Class A and Class AB modes.

The XTZ 99.36 floorstanders.

The ribbon tweeter offers a detailed and smooth sound.

Ean Soong Chee Wah, who owns Living
Audio, was previously with Audiomatic.

You can tune the speaker by plugging
the jumpers (the black objects above the
speaker terminals) into different jacks. 

Owner of Living Audio Ean Soong Chee Wah said the integrated amp can be switched between Class A (50 watts) and Class AB (180 watts) modes on the fly.


The interesting feature of the speakers is not the ribbon tweeter, but the fact that its crossover can be tuned to suit your listening room's acoustics.


By plugging jumpers into different jacks, the treble and bass can be boosted or reduced by a few decibels.


I spent a short time listening to the XTZ system and concluded that the sound quality was quite remarkable for the relatively low cost of the components.


Ean Soong, who was with Audiomatic previously, said he will be bringing in the top speaker model, the Divine 100.49, which is something that Malaysian audiophiles should watch out for given the rave reviews it has garnered.


* Ean Soong can be contacted at 019-5710383.