I loved my CAL Alpha but was amazed when a simple little Audio Alchemy 3.0 came along. The CAL is very nice but pricey and can be tempermental. The AA was abusable and simple. My vote for AA. Sony shouldn't even be in the same ballpark.
CAL's Aria mk III vs SONY's XA777ES
This is not a question, but the actual comparison of the above components because I feel I owe it to a lot of people on Audiogon who provided me with illuminating insights.
It all started last summer when my Berning EA230 lost a channel and I made a fateful and imbecilic decision to fix it locally in Chicago to which David Berning, being extremely busy, didn't particularly object. I was afraid that it may take David a month or so until he gets around to it. Well, it took five or six month and three times as many trips to local experts, not mentioning replacing a lot of parts that probably didn't have to be replaced, until I heard my EA230 sounding its usual self (if not better I must admit).
During this time of suffering and self-cursing, I got into Audiogon, read on SACD's and DVD-A's and started thinking that audio progress was passing me by. Until then I was fairly content with my system -
CAL Aria mk III into
passive PS Audio volume control into
EA230 into
Celections SL 600.
I normally listen to classical 'AAD' or 'ADD' CD's only, almost no 'DDD' recorded and think that some of them are as good as LP's, no fatigue there, which, possibly, points to modern recording technique as a reason for general discontent rather than a genetically flawed CD format.
Anyway, after all that reading, I became convinced that, while my 20 year old speakers and amp could still hold their own, my more than 10 year old Aria was becoming the weakest link. Once the Berning is healthy, I told myself, I'll have to check out SACD's.
When the moment came, I had a SONY XA777ES SACD player loaned to me by the local Audio Consultants and a couple of SACD recordings highly praised by reviewers which performances I already had in Red Book version: Glen Gould's Goldberg variations and Bruno Walter conducting Mozart. The loaned player was a demo and, presumably, sufficiently burned in.
At first, I decided to check out the CD playback. A lot of wonderfully insightful people from Audiogon had a favorable view of the Sony and its CD playback. Whatever the merits of SACD technology, I told myself, it was time to upgrade to a better CD player. So, I've plugged in two identical disks of V. Sofronitsky from 'Great Pianists' series in both machines and pressed both remotes. Just switching between the machines showed that Sony's was noticeably cleaner sound, but the Aria was not put away. About 15 minutes into this I decided that was a silly exercise. I started playing a whole track of Scriabin's sonata movement over and over again, alternating between the two machines. After a couple of switches, it became shockingly unmistakable that only one of the machines was playing music and that was not the XA777ES. What the Sony's latest produced was very clinical and extremely pure as if the sound was repeatedly filtered and pasteurized to get the last bubble of air and emotion out of it. I suddenly remembered why I got the Aria 10 years ago in the first place. It was already 4 or 5 years old but it played music with feeling and emotion while the other CDP's, even from CAL, played frequencies.
I've unwrapped the Gould's SACD and played that after I played my CD version on the Sony. Gould on SACD was clearly better than Gould on CD but still bland in nature. I placed the Red Book version into the Aria, but I already knew the result. My Aria was still playing music, while the other machine went on with an academic exercise in sound emasculation using millions of extra bits. The sound difference between the two formats on both machines was almost as pronounced as in the previous comparison.
Should I unwrap the other SACD with Bruno and Mozart or plain return it, I've asked myself. Meanwhile, I had the Red Book version of it in my CDP, with Prague symphony's 1st movement sounding wonderful and effervescent under Walter's baton. It's a lovely recording, I mean the sound and the conducting despite (or, maybe, because of) its age. Then, by movement's end, my poor Aria, obviously resenting the contest, started mistracking rather violently (which it did before on occasion) until, like an old wife fearing a replacement, it broke down completely and irrevocably.
Totally demoralized by the prospect of another multi-month altercation with a repair shop, I started the CD on same movement on the Sony. Bruno, bubbly and ebullient just seconds ago, was gone and replaced by a Karajan-like martinet ready (can't help it) to join the Nazis for the third or forth time.
I mailed the Mozart's SACD back unwrapped, which is not an indictment of the new format, it's just somebody, like CAL, has to built a proper player for it.
The moral:
a) maybe you do not need all those bits,
b) maybe it's the tubes,
c) better stick with your old wives.
P.S. My Aria was cleaned and fixed in 3 to 4 days (which is badly needed after 7 - 10 years of usage) and, I think, sounds better (factor that into the comparisons). Glen Gould on SACD, anyone?
It all started last summer when my Berning EA230 lost a channel and I made a fateful and imbecilic decision to fix it locally in Chicago to which David Berning, being extremely busy, didn't particularly object. I was afraid that it may take David a month or so until he gets around to it. Well, it took five or six month and three times as many trips to local experts, not mentioning replacing a lot of parts that probably didn't have to be replaced, until I heard my EA230 sounding its usual self (if not better I must admit).
During this time of suffering and self-cursing, I got into Audiogon, read on SACD's and DVD-A's and started thinking that audio progress was passing me by. Until then I was fairly content with my system -
CAL Aria mk III into
passive PS Audio volume control into
EA230 into
Celections SL 600.
I normally listen to classical 'AAD' or 'ADD' CD's only, almost no 'DDD' recorded and think that some of them are as good as LP's, no fatigue there, which, possibly, points to modern recording technique as a reason for general discontent rather than a genetically flawed CD format.
Anyway, after all that reading, I became convinced that, while my 20 year old speakers and amp could still hold their own, my more than 10 year old Aria was becoming the weakest link. Once the Berning is healthy, I told myself, I'll have to check out SACD's.
When the moment came, I had a SONY XA777ES SACD player loaned to me by the local Audio Consultants and a couple of SACD recordings highly praised by reviewers which performances I already had in Red Book version: Glen Gould's Goldberg variations and Bruno Walter conducting Mozart. The loaned player was a demo and, presumably, sufficiently burned in.
At first, I decided to check out the CD playback. A lot of wonderfully insightful people from Audiogon had a favorable view of the Sony and its CD playback. Whatever the merits of SACD technology, I told myself, it was time to upgrade to a better CD player. So, I've plugged in two identical disks of V. Sofronitsky from 'Great Pianists' series in both machines and pressed both remotes. Just switching between the machines showed that Sony's was noticeably cleaner sound, but the Aria was not put away. About 15 minutes into this I decided that was a silly exercise. I started playing a whole track of Scriabin's sonata movement over and over again, alternating between the two machines. After a couple of switches, it became shockingly unmistakable that only one of the machines was playing music and that was not the XA777ES. What the Sony's latest produced was very clinical and extremely pure as if the sound was repeatedly filtered and pasteurized to get the last bubble of air and emotion out of it. I suddenly remembered why I got the Aria 10 years ago in the first place. It was already 4 or 5 years old but it played music with feeling and emotion while the other CDP's, even from CAL, played frequencies.
I've unwrapped the Gould's SACD and played that after I played my CD version on the Sony. Gould on SACD was clearly better than Gould on CD but still bland in nature. I placed the Red Book version into the Aria, but I already knew the result. My Aria was still playing music, while the other machine went on with an academic exercise in sound emasculation using millions of extra bits. The sound difference between the two formats on both machines was almost as pronounced as in the previous comparison.
Should I unwrap the other SACD with Bruno and Mozart or plain return it, I've asked myself. Meanwhile, I had the Red Book version of it in my CDP, with Prague symphony's 1st movement sounding wonderful and effervescent under Walter's baton. It's a lovely recording, I mean the sound and the conducting despite (or, maybe, because of) its age. Then, by movement's end, my poor Aria, obviously resenting the contest, started mistracking rather violently (which it did before on occasion) until, like an old wife fearing a replacement, it broke down completely and irrevocably.
Totally demoralized by the prospect of another multi-month altercation with a repair shop, I started the CD on same movement on the Sony. Bruno, bubbly and ebullient just seconds ago, was gone and replaced by a Karajan-like martinet ready (can't help it) to join the Nazis for the third or forth time.
I mailed the Mozart's SACD back unwrapped, which is not an indictment of the new format, it's just somebody, like CAL, has to built a proper player for it.
The moral:
a) maybe you do not need all those bits,
b) maybe it's the tubes,
c) better stick with your old wives.
P.S. My Aria was cleaned and fixed in 3 to 4 days (which is badly needed after 7 - 10 years of usage) and, I think, sounds better (factor that into the comparisons). Glen Gould on SACD, anyone?
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- 11 posts total
- 11 posts total