HiWire

Any word on CD treatments? I've been considering Optrix or Walker Audio's Ultra Vivid - but then I think, "Snake oil." Actually, what I want is something that will lessen the effect of small scratches on my CDs without actual polishing. What I don't want is something that will mess up my CD permanently... e.g. http://www.tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/CD_tweaks.html That's just messed up. There's no way I'm going to start using a marker or demagnetizer on my discs, especially the really important or rare ones. The salesman at the stereo store recommended fluid for cleaning eyeglasses - I guess that's kind of logical, and a lot less expensive.

Thanks, I'll definitely check out the Audio Aero and EAR players downtown. Too bad it's almost impossible to find Esoteric and EMM Labs gear to audition, but it's not like I can afford them, anyway. With practice, I'm getting better at both choosing audition music and paying attention to the right details (and not forgetting to enjoy the music). If I could, I'd get a sideline job as an audio reviewer, if possible. Frankly, I'm so tired of DAC-DAC-DAC, iPod-iPod-iPod, porta-amp-porta-amp-porta-amp over at Head-Fi. I have nothing against DACs, iPods, or portable amps, but I love music more and I also like writing about it - I have a lot of doubt about the hyped gadgets that are being pushed on newbs out there. I've heard some great players and extremely musical systems in my quest so far. I guess I've been careful enough, since I've never bought a piece of home audio gear at a stereo shop in my life. The closest I ever came was buying a cassette walkman and a portable CD player in a store, both in my teens. I'm still using that CD player as a source for my headphone system. My "speaker system" is a set of Logitech surrounds hooked up to my PC. Eventually, I'll be able to afford a decent amp and speaker set to share my music with friends and family.

I went to my local audio shop and had an audition of the dCS Paganini player (transport, DAC, and clock), which is about $50,000. It was hooked up to Audio Research HD220 amps and Sonus faber Elipsa speakers. I had a nice, extended listening session by myself in a properly set up room in a comfy chair. It was a beautiful, natural sound. I really thought this combo broke through the technological limits of previous disc players. The $50,000 question is: can this be done in a less expensive way in a single box? I played the following pieces on it: Anna Netrebko - Sempre Libera, SACD layer Verdi - La Traviata (E strano! E Strano! - Sempre libera), I haven't ever heard high notes this natural and smooth on any player. The Paganini does a good job with space and the orchestral background, but really lets Anna Netrebko's soprano sing beautifully. There is an definite sense of magic in the air. It makes me wonder how my headphone system would sound hooked up to this amazing system - which would become the limiting factor? Jascha Heifetz - Brahms/Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos, SACD layer Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 I could hear the micro details of Heifetz's bowing technique, something that I haven't heard as clearly on my home and other players. Also, a sweetness to the sound of Heifetz's playing here belies the usual dryness that I've heard in his performances. The orchestra moves very adroitly along with the soloist, whereas it seems slightly more sluggish on lesser systems. Jane Monheit - The Very Best of Jane Monheit Hit the Road to Dreamland Ordinarily, Jane Monheit has a very clear, sweet voice that is laid back, but the player revealed a slight harshness in the recording that was probably an artifact of close miking. Bass performance was excellent - also, the soundstage appears to be much smaller than in the orchestral recordings. No surprise there. Jane Monheit - The Very Best of Jane Monheit Love Me or Leave Me Similar performance to the track above. The harshness wasn't in this song, probably because the compilation includes this track from Monheit's Sony Classical album versus selections from her previous independent label recordings. There is a lightness and sweetness that remains here; often, lower-level players are overwhelmed by the accompanying instruments as they reach their crescendoes. The Paganini handles the ensemble properly. Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction Sweet Child O' Mine This was an interesting experiment. I expected that this old recording would have sounded pretty shabby on such a high end system, but the opposite was true. There was no harshness or presence of any kind of poor recording - the guitars were placed appropriately far apart and Axl Rose's voice was perfectly pitched and musically screechy as expected. I'm most familiar with this track out of all of the test suite, and the Paganini didn't fail to disappoint. So the sound of the guitars, drums, and Axl was dead on as could be, with absolutely no unpleasant sound. We then played it again on the older dCS Elgar-based system, using a tube amp and Neeper Perfection One speakers. The guitars were more ringing, as appropriate for Marshall amps, but Axl's voice lost a bit of body and the sound didn't have as much slam as in the solid-state system. You can hear Slash's fingers on the guitar strings in the opening part, which I've never heard before and couldn't hear again on the Arcam CD36. More on that later. ... and a few tracks from the dealer's disc, Private Investigations: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler. There is a really nice live track with a harp that sounds very ethereal - also, the acoustic guitar is excellent, if overly intimate in recording. I'll definitely be looking for a copy of this or other Knopfler/Dire Straits recordings in the near future. Where to go from here? I went to another store and auditioned the Arcam CD36 again, for old time's sake. I was told the previous speakers that I disliked were Veritas - I'll make sure to avoid those in the future. It was set up on a Bryston amp and PSB Synchrony Two speakers. I played selections from The Very Best of The Platters, The Very Best of Jane Monheit, and Appetite for Destruction. Overall, the presentation was excellent, but I noticed that there was a bit more hardness in Monheit's recording. The Platters were excellent as usual (probably a less-demanding recording), with a focus on Tony Williams' voice and a very clear bell tone at the end of Harbor Lights. Sweet Child O' Mine had excellent rhythm and speed, but the instruments were definitely jumbled together and there was less air overall in the playback. Most of the faults can be attributed to the speakers, in my opinion, since I've heard excellent sound from the Arcam CD192 on PSB Platinum bookshelf speakers in the past. Also, the Arcam setup didn't have a dedicated room, so acoustics were definitely an issue for this session. I'll make sure to fix that next time. Next steps: I'm planning to listen to the Arcam CD36 again with more music, since I've been offered a good price on the player. I've been told that there is no replacement model planned in the near future, as Arcam's new product emphasis is on home entertainment rather than 2-channel audio. Also, I'll probably be listening to the following players next weekend - Rega Saturn, Accuphase DP-75, NAD M5, Bryston CD-1 and possibly the Moon SuperNova or a lower series player.

Yes, I've considered the RAM-modded Oppo players, Modwright, SACDMods, etc. as well. If I went that route, I'd probably build on a Sony ES SACD player, but I'll consider the Denons as well. I'm really looking at the lower end of $1,000 - $5,000, so it's unlikely that I'll be buying a used flagship player unless I get lucky or something really special crosses my path. Also, I prefer a new player, if possible. I'll cross the MF player off my list - I just included it because of its size. Thanks for all the responses (even the inadvertent ones), guys. I think that most manufacturers do concentrate their engineering efforts on the analog outputs, specifically, the single-ended ones. Recent threads at Head-Fi seem to indicate that balanced and other outputs are generally marketing-driven or an afterthought. Also, I recall that it's generally difficult to implement a low-jitter optical interface.

I can't remember what drew my attention to the Arcam player, but I think it was a positive blurb in a magazine, or possibly the Arcam/Rotel comparison thread at Head-Fi. In reviewing and auditioning the player, I am starting to think that it has exactly the sound and style that I'm looking for, but I won't know for sure until I hear more sources. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to hear many of the players that I've listed - a lot of the UK manufacturers only have limited distribution in Canada, the Sony is not carried in the Canadian product line, and Opera Audio doesn't have a Canadian distributor at all. Buying an Oppo player would allow me to crawl away with my wallet intact, whereas these other players are at least several months worth of investment. However, the Arcam FMJ CD36 would always seem like the one that got away. The other thing that makes the decision difficult is SACD playback - it is something that I really want (I have about 20 Hybrid SACDs so far), but only if the performance truly exceeds Redbook by a noticeable margin. Reports on the differences between the 2 formats are conflicting, and my own listening has been inconclusive so far. Ditto with HDCD, if possible.

Thanks for your comments, Tom. Canadian prices often carry a premium over US prices, despite our currency's parity value. I was also quoted $2,700 for the Arcam FMJ CD36; purchasing players at these prices is a serious investment for me. I've listened to the Marantz Reference Series SA-15S1, but not the other players in the series. Both the Marantz and the NAD players are very capable, but left me with the impression that I'm looking for something better or different. Basically, I've been searching for near-flagship performance (dCS, Reimyo, EMM Labs, etc.) at mid-fi prices (e.g. $5,000 or less, but with impressive performance/value). I'm looking at the following players (that I can remember offhand) with interest: 1) Marantz Reference Series SA-11S2 - pricey, but worth a listen; great build quality 2) Cambridge Audio Azur 840C - appears to have an unconventional DAC design 3) Rega Saturn - good reviews, right price range 4) Opera Audio Consonance CD-120 Linear - the sole non-oversampling design in this group, hi-fi+ award winner 5) Musical Fidelity X-RAY v8 - small and good? 6) Sony SCD-XA9000ES - the 900-lb gorilla; well-reviewed SACD, but ancient in this market 7) Linn Akurate - also pricey; possibly a unique sound signature Naim CD5i - PRAT The Oppo units caught my attention because of their extremely reasonable prices and widespread acceptance in the reviewing community. Since you have to buy them direct, it's almost impossible to audition one. If I bought one, I'd probably listen to it for at least a year or two before modding it.

So they finally dropped the price on an Arcam FMJ CD36 in Canada. But... 1) Will there be a replacement soon for the CD36? 2) I'm still waiting for reviews of the upcoming Oppo DV-983 - it's supposed to have the same audio output section as the DV-980H. 3) Can a TweakAudio modded Oppo beat an Arcam flagship CD player? 4) Does an Arcam transport beat an Oppo transport? 5) The Oppo can play HDCD and SACD discs - does Redbook quality trump Hirez playback? 6) Oppo has video output - is it worth sacrificing great DVD upsampling video for brilliant audio? Also, I listened for about an hour this weekend to the $2,500 NAD M5 on a NAD M3 amp with (green) Audioquest interconnects on PSB Platinum towers. The NAD is smooth and mostly does everything right, but it was missing the magic that I heard previously on the Arcam CD192. It was a big step up from the NAD M55 universal player in terms of transparency, soundstage, and detail, but I felt like I had heard better playback elsewhere. The overall sound signature is neutral, but with sins of omission rather than commission. Unfortunately, I walked out of the shop pleased at the listening session and the player's sound, but not enough to upgrade even from my lowly Panasonic portable CD player. In my opinion, the NAD M5 sounded Very Good out of PSB's flagship speakers, but I was looking for Excellent or beyond. I played tracks from the following discs: 1) Jane Monheit - The Very Best of Jane Monheit Felt muffled in the treble range at first. I asked the salesman to remove the speaker grills and the sound opened up, improving steadily throughout the listening session as the equipment/listener warmed up. Excellent performance in the bass, but percussion was a bit too prominent. Soundstage is ok, but not holographic by any means. 2) Sophie Milman - Make Someone Happy The salesman immediately commented on the poor recording of Milman's voice. The voice was very upfront and probably mixed too hot but overall the songs sounded good, especially the background standard jazz instruments. Rhythm was decent, but not compelling. 3) Glenn Gould - Bach: The Goldberg Variations, 1955 Performance (Zenph Re-Performance) SACD Hard to tell with this performance; I only listened to the first 4 variations. The volume was probably set a bit too low to hear all the detail from the piano. 4) The Platters - All-Time Greatest Hits The stereo separation was exaggerated, as was normal at the time, on the later tracks. It was hard to tell how well the player was performing with the older mono recordings, even re-mastered. They have a tendency towards echoey and slightly blurry (mic placement?) sound, which may have been customary but it also made it hard to listen to details other than Tony Williams' astounding voice. If you wanted to do something absurd like that. 5) Heifetz/Chicago Symphony - Brahms/Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (Living Stereo SACD) Very musical and followed the details of Heifetz's violin playing well. The orchestra was also lively sounding and cohesive. Overall, a great performance. 6) George Michael - Patience Precise and tight bass on dance tracks, but missing sparkle and urgency, and space. George Michael is reportedly a fussy studio recorder, but good players reveal the limits of synthetic pop like this fairly easily, no matter how well produced.

The search seems to be messed up. I can't find "NAD" in the Dedicated Source forum.

Alessandro MS-1

I usually listen from 9 o'clock, but classical recordings are at 12 o'clock. My amp is low gain, so it really depends on your setup.

They're fine for non-critical listening... e.g. while you work, etc. In my opinion, they should only be purchased if they're heavily discounted... they're not worth their list price when better headphones are available.

Happy Birthday, Phi... er, Jay

I think it's cool that you rock the Qualias. It's just a matter of system-matching to synergize with their strengths... If I had loads of money, I'd try an electrostat setup - either the HE-90 or Stax Omega.

Sweet. The HP-2 will definitely be in attendance to quality meets.

We'll have to do another meet sometime. I'm curious about the MS-Pro/RS-1 sound, if Renato is coming. Also, I'm looking forward to getting an Oppo source, if the new DV-983 model is decent (should be released early next year). Then I can finally use those RCA interconnects you gave me last time.

Philodox, do you think bass boost is required for the 271? The reviews lean that way, from what I've read. I gave up looking for closed cans a while ago and will purchase v-moda Vibes if they come in blue.

I think somebody tested the theory on Head-Fi. No difference... I expect RS-1 to continue sounding much different than MS-Pro.

I dislike the design of the new RS-1s. If the MS-Pro go the same way, it's guaranteed that I'll never own a pair.

I am also interested in how the comparo turned out.

The HP-2 go pretty deep into the bass... a lot of headphone listeners keep trying to boost or mod their headphones for more bass, only to be disappointed. You can't get the impact of moving air or moving ground (like the drums in a marching band, for example) hitting your body through headphones. That's why headphones will always be a more cerebral listening experience than speakers, which are more visceral. The lack of dynamics probably has something to do with the playback medium. It's hard to convey the information from a full orchestra using the CD standard for example - it's just an approximation.

Meh. Let us know how it sounds when you get it. People are idiots.

I think the ultimate form of iPod setup would be to completely replace the DAC and amp section inside the iPod case. It would be the ultimate stealth mod, but requires manufacturing resources beyond most hobbyists' reach.

I'm more interested in the HeadCode. The Diablo looks like the penultimate iPod freak's wankbox

Is the Dynahi still considered to be at the flagship level of amps?

I'm glad you were able to compare some flagship CD players. Unfortunately, I think this category of equipment will only ever be a dream for me, like exotic sports cars - barring a sudden lottery win. Sadly, I'm now fascinated by the $250 Oppo universal player.