I was hunting for a pair of fronts, center ,sub and a receiver, for my second HT room, so I pay A&L IOI Mall a visit today,

its my first visit at A&L IoI mall, first impression, of the sale ex. service, RICK LEONG, hmm horrible, I arrive first, then he stare from my head to my toes, ask " yes wat u want?" I explain of my interests of purchasing a pair of fronts, center, sub and a receiver ,he suddenly saw a uncle enters , just jump out and greets him ignoring me still standing ,

( yes I purposely wore short pants and just my aikido t-shirt, proves he just customer by the looks I think)

asking me to u wait for a moment, and straight float like a ballerina to the unknown uncle, lucky I was in a good mood, I waited, wait, wait ,wait and waited, for 30 minutes, he keep sucking up on the uncle, without discussing any business,

it turn out both of them waiting for the audio room for the next audition, as its occupied by MR C.C Hong and a customer, and yet Mr. Rick don’t bother to serve me, or ask me to audition at the available, and empty theatre demo room, which I walk pass for the 40mins checking every single speakers they have in stock already .......

40 minutes later, my patient is starting to turn sour I slowly walk to him, still hovering around that uncle and sucking up to all his conversion. He then finally gets a hint and asks

He: ok so what u wants again?"

me: I want to get a pair of fronts, center and a receiver for gaming and movie used for my ps3, as for receiver what model u have for Lossless decoding that are in lower or mid end like denon 1909?

He: "outburst "what your point? ps3 cannot plays blu ray lossless, it’s useless to get that kind of amp, u might as well use Yamaha that can actually plays dts and ac3.
Me: "shock and awe” err but ps3 does able to output lossless, its call internal decoding to LPCM, "havent finish"

He:"cut off" hah, u knows what LPCM is actually, it’s not lossless, and it’s actually analog like signal...

Me:" piss off" okay, can we get back to the point,

He: it’s no use one u get that speakers if u donno the proper set up, wasting also if u get 10 -20k, we as a experience seller known all the set up
I’m just telling u so u won’t misunderstood how proper set up is matched,

Me: “annoyed" okay u mean if I use ps3 I can’t buy better speakers?

he: only blu rays plays lossless, gaming u don’t need one , why u need lossless set up, u know or not, hah,

Me: blu ray player are so damn cheap now, u means I can’t afford to use it?

He; oh I don’t know if the players are cheap or not, but REAL BLU RAYS are really expensive yet, over hundred thirty....

Me:"interrupt” do u know how many blu rays I collected...?

He: oh pirated and fake ones out there are not real lossless,

Me:" really piss” ok, first off can we get straight to the point of discussion, second are u implying I can’t afford real blu rays?
He: try to give a murk smile, oh, u know I been through a lot in our sales we just want to let u know what’s right and wrong only... u know, I talk straight to point one....

Me: ok ok ok, can get straight to the point? What u been blurring is irrelevant. I want to audition a psb t1, c1, and a velodyne impact 12+, what the price.
Me budget is 6k,

He: look and flip his book, write on a tiny paper here’s the price,
Me: can I audition the set?
He: ooh u have to wait, we are still waiting, to test speaker, I need to find, set up, it takes time, I’m with tat customer
Me: but your home theatre room is free, and cant u set it up for me to audition first? While waiting for the audio room? How about your colleague? Only u here?

He then annoyed and ask eh can u set up this for him to test,,,,

Mr. Hong, takes over from this point, he slowly set up the speakers test dark knight, tunnel, scene 20

First set up

Psb alpha t1, c1 ,impact 12
Sound was clean but at suffered muffle sound and all over the place when lots of effects are going on the same time,
When play at higher volume.

I explain, its not what I expected, is there an better recommendation for better and more dynamic sound yet more tight and solid? That falls on my budget of course..

Hong recommends me, Missions front speakers and PSB image c40 or c60. C60 is too huge for my placement, so he re-setup for me ,with no complain or whatsoever,

Second set up

Mission full range front (forgot what model), PSB image c40, (no sub)

Sound way better, can tell the direction of every effect way better, highs are clear, lows are alright, overall much better experience

Decided to get it, but still looking for Denon 1909. As I m lazy to purchase again from Desa lowyat, Mr Hong, said he’ll try to cut stock from friend, and he start to make a call, outside,

Mr Rick walks in and ask oh u want this? Not PSB? I explain PSB is a no no , the highs and mid are not really for my cup of tea, he quickly said ohh then don’t use mission, use Dali ….WAY BETTER…
he then set it up for me.

Third set up

Dali concept 6 , Psb image c40, (no sub)

The high this time was much more dynamic at high volume, mids are tight, lows are slightly deeper.
Got improvements, not way much than PSB vs Mission before but its an improvement,

Hence I decided to get the third set up along with denon 1909, I explain,
Mr Rick , said why not u get Yamaha sound way better and have better features…
With previously done researches on both Yamaha 665 and denon 1909, I just play along and act dumb and listen, he turn slowly encourage me to get Yamaha rx-v565, said this unit is very nice one Lossless also , no problem at all…
(simple problem , I cant live with, as using component input in 565, one cannot reassign to analog audio in, he never heard of it)

Mr Hong returns said he manage to help me on denon, just charge me costing Rm2190 + 2% service, I say okay why not, as DESA price are back to 2199,

Conclusion, my impression of Mr Rick Leang, sales executive , email: rick@alaudio.com.my are:

Rude, impatient and sarcastic, ask 1 question blurb irrelevant subject, maybe he's under stress but it’s just suck, for a first visit, I decided to walk out till

Mr C.C.Hong , Operation director, 012-398 0093 are

Friendly, helpful ,straight to the point, patient, and insightful.
Im returning tomorrow to buys Dali concept 6 fronts, Psb image c40, denon 1909 from Mr Hong,

ps: Mr Hong ,did explain and apologize on Mr Rick behalf during the audition, said he is like tat sometimes quite rude, maybe his cantonese is not fluent, HOI NAM chinese hard to find right word maybe, so ask me to excuse him, its because of this, i really repect Mr Hong and decided to purchase from him, and never ask for any discount nor bargain, with him. Highly recommended. Kuddos to him !!!

This post has been edited by Hwoarang45: Jun 30 2009, 12:22 AM

So here's my set up for tomorrow, what u guy thinks any better set up or comments? please share

Dali concept 6 + Psb Image c40 + Denon 1909 + deliveri to puchong, + cheapo cables = Rm5933.80

my budget is RM 6k for front, center and receiver.
Sub later baru purchase, rear back and surround back dah got liao.
Front , center speaker cable arriving next week, Belden 1131a yippy~~~!

Sorry to hear your bad experience bro. You are a very cool guy . If its me being treated for the 1st time like that I will walk away and never return.

I never deal with Rick before. All my purchases from there I deal with Alex. Never fail me so far. Even one time I already ordered NAD 545BEE but cancel my order when the item actually has arrived in stock, he still very polite to me and say its ok. If I decide to get it later I can contact him again.

Yep PSB Alpha is a nice entry level but suffer at high volume. Good choice on Dali but I think it would be better if you drop Image C40 but go with Focus Audio FCC2 instead for center speaker. Audition first and you'll know what I'm talking about. Good luck and I'm sure you'll enjoy your purchases even with a little hickup

This post has been edited by arremie: Jun 30 2009, 12:23 AM

the mr. rick really very rude, PS3 cannot play lossless? and what real blu ray and fake blu ray, WTF is he talking about?

LPCM not lossless? if say bitstream still acceptable lar, that guy seriously laugh my ass off....

Will definitely go there some day. Hehe. But i only went to A&L Sg Wang. Andy Liew there is a very nice person. From the start to the end of our deal. 1st day, 2nd day and so on, still serve me patiently. Nice service from him and his staff. Know my range of budget well. So i decided will never go to any other shop other than A&L Sg Wang Plaza.

thanks bro, yeah i heard alot of negative comment on c40, but im short of time in kl, and need to settle this set up asap for my kl home, before i return to ipoh punya HUT. heheheee.... plus i malas to drive here and there get one here and one there...any recommendation should i ask for different models from them?
remember my budget still RM6k at the moment for center, front and denon 1909...

yup i lazy to even argue with him , all i want is an audition and recommendation and price, he cant even get to the point , my god, who have piss him off so bad before me??? feels like a punching bag,

lucky i was in a good mood, so wanna try one of my choke and joint locks on him, ahem.... ahem.. fuuhhh...

C40 is not bad actually. Its just that Focus Audio much much better. Heck even my crappy RC52 way much better than C60 not to say C40 (to my ears la....no offense to users). You can audition Focus Audio at A&L Amcorp la bro. No need to drive here n there

Have to agree with you that Mr. Hong service is very good.
First time there, he served me, very helpful, even though he knows I just ask prices only.
Months later I went there again, he still remember me. Again, just doing survey and not buying, he still serves me with patient

i had good experience dealing with Alex as well...this was when he was still in SG wang

hmmm amcorp mall err, not really know tat place, but wats the price for RC52? 2.3k right? i think over budget liao

whoa , nice , yeah i really like his attittude talk slowly , listen to u then , think before talk ,not just babble nonsence.

Alamak the one I go is A&L Amcorp la not the IOI mall one anyway IOI should also have Focus Audio I think since they are same company. Its ok if your budget tight but do listen 1st...the tight will become wide open

hahahah sure sure , but too bad wallet wide open only come out flies and smell, no enough greens

I've been to A&L IOI Mall few times
and most of the time was served by Rick

So far I have no bad impression towards him
He was very helpful on helping me to audition few items
and me ended up buying some of the items from him

He's quite knowlegable on HT setup
Only some of the infos I think he got it wrong, eg. LPCM like u mentioned
The way he speak from certain point of view is considered rude
For me it's still acceptable as i've seen more rude and annoying sales ppl talking like nobody's business and he's the only one who's knowlegable

Regarding the simple attire u wore
I also wore t-shirt and shorts while paying visit there
yet he still served me well
maybe the time u visited there he's mood was not good gua

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Added on June 30, 2009, 1:16 amI totally agreed
C60 is considered as quite good range of center speaker oredi
but compared to FCC2, no match at all

This post has been edited by robinlim: Jun 30 2009, 01:16 AM

yes sure, thats still not a perfect excuse, on how one should serve a custormer,in what ever mood u are, i garantee in reverse if anyone been serve like this today , your feeling will be mutual too.

plus he is not in a bad mood, not from what i seen , how he suck up to the uncle just going around every corner asking oh wats this, oh this is nice, oh wats that, no offence to him , but , i have just waited 40min + standing there, so hope u can understand..

if mood not good dont go to work lor, its your job to do it, noyone is forcing him to be there, how u see its also its not an excuse to act as such,

i seriously wont want anything to do with him ,ever again,

This post has been edited by Hwoarang45: Jun 30 2009, 01:19 AM

wait u go visit CM-wai hehehe ... if ur face canot afford dynaudio...tak ala layan pun

JHehe, he thought uncle uncle got more money and richer compared to ones who wears t-shirt, shorts and sandal. You should see one's pocket actually. I saw someone like you, looking for laptop, the way he look of course, like wanna play play only suddenly take out RM8k cash and said, i want this one.. now.

lol

This post has been edited by maxizanc: Jun 30 2009, 01:27 AM

actually CMY....i have never bought from them...but most of them are very eager to serve and answer questions (my exp was with the one in Pyramid/1U and Damansara Utama)....so it was not a bad experience.

Been to both branch.. i live at kinrara but still prefer A&L amcorp... they just let me watch half of Batman... Served by Alex and Yap very patiently.. Both are ok It's better to go there during office hour when there is less customer..

u all see unkers no up?? most of them go cm-wai to get dynaudio for put into bed room listen songs at nite

i saw 1 unker .i guess mechanic outfit.... auditioning the tall tall flagship model of dyaudio

dun playblay...can buy a CAR

lol, honestly when i go out to buy stuff i rather wore low profile cloths, wont be an easy target with cash carried, plus im a aikidoka, im always in a ready ,this close makes it easy for me to move around for attacks and counter attacks, ,ahem, and me paranoid also...