QI CONES creator Go Yong Kung had a hifi room that was a "tourist attraction" for audiophiles.

It measured a mere 5 feet by 7 feet, about the size of two sofas put together, and smaller than most toilets. Yet Go achieved amazing sound in that tiny room. He could put a thousand musicians in there, performing Mahler's Symphony No 8.

The room was so sensitive that everything inside affected the sound. Move even the smallest item and you would hear a dramatic change.

Sadly for curious audiophiles - and for Go as well - he would soon have to move to bigger premises. The room, compliments of Go's boss, will revert to being a storeroom.

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'God cannot help'

When Go was first given the room, he sought help from a Singapore hifi dealer who was well-known for his set-up skills. The dealer told him, "Even God cannot help you!".

Go decided to help himself. It took him more than five years of experimentation and fine tuning to achieve good sound in that room, plus another few more years to achieve great sound.

He did it without the usual, expensive hifh tweaks partly because he could not afford them, but also because they did not prove very helpful.

Go, a carpenter, made his own tweaks, experimenting with all sorts of materials. In the process, he developed extremely sensitive ears.

One product of his experimentation is QI CONES, a set of isolation cones made from carefully chosen, specially treated wood and crystal.

Qi, incidentally, is a Chinese word meaning "life force" or "energy" and is the basis of all life on earth.

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Beware of copies

The cones look somewhat ordinary, like a slim pyramid with its pointed tip cut off and with a yellow crystal sitting on top. BEWARE OF IMITATIONS, as the general shape can be easily copied. Some people have tried to copy them, but the sound was not right. Buy QI CONES only from authorised dealers.

The secrets lie in the precise measurements - Go experimented millimetre by millimetre, listening very carefully with each modification - and with the choice of wood, the special treatment process and finally, the choice of the crystal.

Not all wood sounds alike, even if they belong to the same species. Similarly, not all crystal sound alike, even though they may be of the same type.

When they have been carefully selected and shaped by Go Yong Kung, however, what you get is, by far, the best sounding isolation cones in the world of hifi.

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DIVA System
Incidentally, Go listens to an all-DIVA hifi system comprising:

• turntable with DIVA Virtuoso phono preamp
• DIVA modified Marantz CD63 CD player
• DIVA M-7 preamplifier
• DIVA Blue Sky power amplifier
• DIVA Toccata & Fugue interconnects
• DIVA Mongoose power cords
• KEF LS3/5A loudspeakers