Hacking Out A Home-Shaped Hole @ Cassia

[Dwinsplace 48]

Hey Renotalkers!

I've been reading the T-blogs for ages now and finally it seems like its time for me to start my own!

Got shackled to the lovely missus a month ago and now we're embarking on an exciting journey to build our very first home.

We actually decided on the house late last year. We were torn between a smaller (and cheaper) 4 rm in Marine Parade with all its brilliant amenities; or a somewhat unknown area of Cassia Crescent which was quiet and closer to the city.

At first we were leaning towards Marine Parade since they only had corridor units available in Cassia that could be sold to Chinese. But then on our regular trawl of propertyguru we suddenly found a 5 room @ Cassia that we were eligible for! We were previously only looking at 4 rooms but when I saw that one i immediately searched online for the floorplan and fell in love. Unlike the 5 rooms in marine parade, this layout had no odd wall that I couldn't use. It already had a balcony which i love and just suited our lifestyle needs perfectly. In fact, I think I half decided on the place based on the floor plan alone! haha.

Being really close to the HUGE hawker center helps too. And we hope that the new stadium will bring more life and amenities to the area. Already we see a number of cool coffeshops / pubs popping up in geylang.

But this isn't a property forum! It's a reno one! So here is our floorplan! Well, the actual house will be horizontally inverted but this was ripped off the net.

HDBFloorPlan-CassiaCrescent by dwinsplace, on Flickr

Edited April 15, 2014 by Dwinsplace

[Dwinsplace 48]

Phew! Finally learnt how to embed the photos! That took about 20 mins of clicking and deleting...

Thankfully, the wifey and I have similar tastes. We both like clean lines and a neutral colour palette of greys, whites and blacks with a bit of brown thrown in. (I love natural wood) She enjoys the slightly scandi look, while I prefer the rawness of the industrial designs. The combination of which I found is really popular on this forum! So we've had plenty of inspiration to draw from and here's a few pics of what rocked our socks.

This is a motorcycle cafe in sydney called Deus Ex Machina. Not only are their coffees good, they also do custom bikes right there in the store!

This one is an apartment in taiwan that I ripped off a fellow blogger:

Toilet with black, white and woods:

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You see where I'm going with this....:

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Edited April 15, 2014 by Dwinsplace

[Dwinsplace 48]

Super cool edgy sink that I have no idea where to find:

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Clean, but raw at the same time.

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This one is just raw, but I LOVE it. Honestly not sure if I can LIVE in it? But the shot strikes a deep chord inside of me.

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We're currently meeting up with different IDs and I'll blog about the experience after we decide on one. Think it will give you all a much clearer and more concise feel of what we experienced. What I will say though is that we are really excited so far! Looking forward to posting more as well.

[Makanology 29]

Congrats on your new place and welcome to RT! Awesome mood pics!

[lemoncandy 39]

love the layout of your space

[Takaishi 44]

those mood pics are quite costly esp the black frames with glass. hope to see your transformation!

[alfredt 27]

nice mood picts. cannot wait to see the final work of your house. keep posting.

[Dwinsplace 48]

those mood pics are quite costly esp the black frames with glass. hope to see your transformation!

Haha yeah I know. The black frames, the solid plank counter top, the craftstone wall..... the bills will be scary!

But thats what mood pics are for. To paint the dream before the quotation brings me crashing down to reality. Haha.

I'm sure we will find a way to make some of it happen though! ....Maybe i just won't have any furniture in the house.

[Dwinsplace 48]

My wife and I keep very different schedules. I work shifts and she has regular 9-5 hours so we actually don't spend ALOT of time together. What we love to do though is cook and bake together and so the kitchen will be playing a fairly central role in our renovations.

The other thing is to lounge together on the couch with a glass (or three) of wine and a good movie. Currently we have an old 32" tv with one USB input and one HDMI input so I've been downloading movies and playing it through the USB. It wasn't ideal though. More often than not, there will be buffering issues with a large sized video file, subtitles couldn't be seen, and the TV speakers just couldn't handle the soundtrack. And then one day, my portable HDD crashed! So I had no way of porting the movies over except for a 256MB thumbdrive. Barely enough for a 30min sitcom.

So we haven't been watching movies together at home and I kinda miss it so I set out to come up with a new plan for the new home that would enable even my tech-phobic wife to access movies/serials from the hall anytime we want. With a proper sound system to boot!

Did a bit of research and found that my best option was to have a media player with dedicated internal HDD so that I could download on my computer, pump the files over to the media player and just have it on hand next time. Some people suggested using AppleTV or similar to just stream the movie from my computer but then I'd have to purposely go into my study, turn on my computer, play the file, and then run out to join my wife on the couch in the hall. I felt that the first solution was neater and also more energy efficient cos I wouldn't need to leave my computer on the whole time.

A friend recommended Popcorn hour A400 vs my suggestion of the common AC Ryan HD3. After watching a few reviews online for the popcorn hour, i was fairly sold. High end visual and audio chipsets, a sleek metal frame and internal HDD slot. Supports all the codecs you need and also supports 3D videos. What I liked the most was that it has an internal bittorrent client so that I could let it do the downloading and turn my computer off! Even more energy efficient!

Then I found out that AC Ryan could do pretty much the same thing with 2 things better.

1. The user interface for AC Ryan is sleeker

2. It's available from a store in Sim Lim. Popcorn hour as far as I know is not sold in singapore. If I'm not wrong, it originates from the philippines (I'm sorry but that country isn't really known for its electronics) and can only be bought from online sites for singaporeans.

Popcorn wins out in capabilities, but ease of purchase and price made me pick AC Ryan in the end.

So I've now bought it, plugged it in and I'm happily downloading 4GB bluray stuff with it!

After playing with it a little while though, I found that it's not without its flaws.

1. The internet apps and capabilities are slow and somewhat difficult to navigate. You really need a keyboard and a mouse to effectively use it. The remote has odd buttons that aren't marked and you really do need to fiddle about with it to navigate. Till now I can't search for stuff on google via my TV.

2. The Movie Jukebox function is nice. It automatically finds movie thumbnails or album art for your music, along with director rating and plot summaries etc. Problem is, you need to install it on your computer and it requires a bit of setting up. I also can't get it to work properly at this point but i suspect thats because I always don't download the .nfo file in the bittorrent in order to save a bit of space. heh.

3. The interface is sleek but requires you to click quite a few times to get where you want to go. For instance: Main menu -> file manager -> internal HDD -> the movie you want.

It's early days yet and maybe i'll find a way to optimise the system for my own use but I really like it!

I have also bought a speaker system to complement the home theatre experience but I'm running out of time now and so I'll blog about it later. Haha. Imported from the US somemore... man when I get obsessed, its crazy. My wife says its endearing but I think she's secretly scared. lol

[fahrenheitbunny 5]

yes, i am secretly scared.

but i love you.

[Takaishi 44]

so mushy...............................

[KiaMingTan 0]

What a lovely layout you have. My wife will goes crazy if she see this, especially the balcony. Looking forward to your updates.

[Dwinsplace 48]

Now for that post on audio!

I'm not really an audiophile. I download most of my music and I don't spend hours with my eyes closed and my ears enclosed in a set of high end headphones. But I do appreciate decent sound.

I like to be able to pick out the different instruments and where they are on the soundstage. I like to be able to hear movie dialogue clearly and feel the effects whizz past me and the explosions rumble through my seat.

I distinctly remember when I was a teenager, I went into the Bose showroom at plaza sing and just sat in for a presentation for fun. They put us in a dark room and played a video about the history of sound and its production and about how size used to equal power and performance (bigger is better). They had these 2 HUGE speakers about my height in the room and you could feel a physical wall of sound coming out of them, and the music just got louder and louder. And then at this point, the salesman comes in and moves the 2 huge speakers and you see that they are just empty boxes. What was really making all that sound was just these 2 teeny tiny jewel cube speakers and i was like . And I told myself, someday I would get them...

That day had come! And despite what my audiophile friends told me about bose, I decided to go and try it. I mean, they are so beautiful and discreet! Unfortunately, and no offence to the guys who own Bose, after the audition I felt that my friends were right. The quality of the sound simply wasn't worth the $4.5k price tag! I was sad...

So i hit the mecca of all things audio, Adelphi. And after listening to a ton of stuff, including Sonos, B&Ws, Q Acoustics, Cabasse, Pioneer and a few others, I learnt a few things.

1. Size does matter. A tiny satellite speaker will never sound as round or as complete as a floor stander in the same quality class.

2. Music and movie theatre concerns are totally different. The first asks for a more mellow, warmer sound. Whereas movie effects tend to come off better with speakers that are brighter and more tinny. The former are also cheaper!

3. Looks come at a very hefty price. Especially if you want the speakers to not really look like speakers. If you get what I mean.

In the end (after like 5 visits to adelphi) I decided that since this system was gng to be used in the hall, movies would be the main concern. And since it's such a common area, looks factored very highly for me too. So I picked a US brand called Anthony Gallos that had just what I wanted. I got the higher end A'Diva range for the front 3 speakers because thats where most of the sound and movie dialogue is from. Also, if I play music normally, only the front 2 speakers will be used since I don't download 5.1 music. Then I got the lower end Micro Nucleus which sound considerably brighter for the rear 2 speakers so that I can hear all the whizzy effects. And buying online saved me about $300 compared to buying from adelphi! Now its currently being shipped to me. heh. Can't wait to get them even though I don't have space to keep them at the moment. haha.

Downside was that I had set out to spend about 2-3K on the entire system. Now I'll be spending just under 4K for everything including cables and AVR. If this is a sign of my tendency to scale up during purchasing, i'm doomed for the rest of the reno.

[Dwinsplace 48]

Here's a very brief review of the more notable speakers that I auditioned.

1. Sonos Soundbar.

Great for tech geeks that love the wireless aspect of it. Clean and minimalist and if you pair it up with a wireless bridge, you can a large number of speakers to it. Place 2 at the back for effects. Place 1 in the kitchen for music as you cook. Place 2 in the study for when you read. Each speaker would need its own power point for power but everything can be remotely controlled by your IPad/ smart phone thats connected to your home network. You can group the speakers together and SIMULTANEOUSLY play up to 12 different tracks on 12 different groups of speakers. So you could have a movie going in the hall, and music in the study all at the same time. Pretty cool eh? Only down side? I think it sounds like crap for a 4K system. (includes soundbar, wireless bridge and 2 satellite speakers)

sonos

2. Bowers & Wilkins 685:

After the Sonos, this sounded like a dream! They played Adele's Someone like you and I could hear the warm tremble in her voice. The placement of all the instruments around her voice. It was thick without being muddy. Immersing you in the song. Even when I airplayed my downloaded music from my phone, the bass from the dance tracks were carried off well without a need for a woofer. And when I played jazz, the speakers excelled! Beautiful sound for a understandably high price of 4K for a 5.1 system. Sadly, just looks like... well... speakers. Nothing visually interesting.

3. Cabasse IO2

These are french made and I only found them cos I googled "interesting audio speakers" and I have never heard of them before. Obviously what drew me was the looks. On that wooden stand it looks almost like a sculpture. So beautiful! So i went to listen to them in Adelphi and they couldn't do a full 5.1 set up but I heard it as a 2.1. The sound was terrible also. Clarity and all that was fine. A bit thin compared to the B&Ws but what I couldnt stand the most was the very very small sweet spot. What that means is that there is ONE position at which this will sound good. Move to get a glass of water, or simply move to the next seat, and you will hear one speaker or the another cut off. Or you will only hear the woofer. Or you won't hear the woofer at all. I suspect that the concentric design of the speakers resulted in a very specific line of sound and therefore also very specific areas where the sound from both speakers cancel each other out. Needless to say, it was a no go.

4. Anthony Gallo satellite speakers

I only heard about this from one of the shops in Adelphi. They had bought a second hand high end Reference AV set for half the price and asked me if I was interested. The set was originally worth about 8K, looked to be in decent condition and so I was quite keen! Unfortunately when they were connecting the speakers I noticed that they had some issues with one of the jacks. They said it was fine but second hand electronics without warranty and dodgy connections started to sound a lot less appealing. Besides, the front and side speakers were far too large for my house. Can you imagine 3 of these framing your tv set??

reference AV

Thankfully though, it led me to research Anthony gallo's other products and they have this super sweet satellite range. The size of a grapefruit and perfectly spherical. Beautifully cast in stainless steel (or black/white) and just beautiful. Of course, after the cabasse I was a bit scared of concentric designs so i went to their singapore store and had a listen, and its good!! No problems when I moved all over the room. Could hear dialogue and effects with a deep rumbly bass. The music isn't as mellow and the B&Ws but I've learnt that for small speakers, these were pretty damned good. It also helped that I could get the entire set for about $500 less than its competitors if I ordered online. So thats what I got! ... that and a speaker sized hole in my wallet. haha.

Gallo micro

Edited April 19, 2014 by Dwinsplace

[El LoCo 3]

Hi,

Nice review of sound system. Since u order online, does that mean yr contractor help u to install the sound system and one noob question~ if I buy more speaker, meaning I can pipe music into my bathroom wirelessly too?