Si,
Thanks! This is exactly the type of info I need. I would like to add Naim to my audition list, but I don't think any of their gear can play SACD. If you were in the market for a new player, would you stay with MF, or would you look for something with more bass and detail? |
Steve,
Thanks for mentioning the Classe unit. I was just trying to do a little research on it, but have not found much. How would you assess the Classe's imaging, etc. as compared to the other units (Linn, Esoteric, MF)? I have been frustrated in the past with players that seemed to do a poor job throwing a wide soundstage and holding images in place (maybe it's just my ears, but some players seem to cause the musicians to "move" around the stage, and I am pretty sure they aren't doing this while recording). Can you tell me a little more about what you found when you auditioned the Linn, Esoteric and MF players?
Thanks! |
Biggest problem with Ayre is that they upgrade their website less frequently than their product line! I can't find any info on the Cx5e on their website. I will watch for the Stereophile article. I have another addition to my watch list -- Cary 306 SACD. Thoughts, anyone...? |
Bsal,
Walked over to my pile of mail and found the July Stereophile issue with the Ayre Cx5e review. Thanks for telling me about this. If you read the sidebar about the measurements first, your expectations are lowered. But when you read WP's review, you start thinking, "I need to audition this player!" Which I will. I will call my local Ayre dealer tomorrow and see when I can get this unit home for a listen. I am intrigued... |
Ok, here is where I am. Today I brought home the Ayre C5xe and the Linn 2.1. After listening for 3 hours, I give a slight edge to the Linn on CD, and to the Ayre on SACD. I tried DVD-A in both, but the Linn choked on all 3 DVD-A discs, so I skipped that round. Overall, the Ayre seemed more solid on the bass. The Linn seemed to throw a wider soundstage, which was great on some recordings, but not so great on others. For example, on recordings where the Ayre seemed to compress the stage a bit, at least it was able to keep the vocalist in the center. The Linn, on the other hand, seemed to take these same vocalists and s-t-r-e-t-c-h them to the point where they were coming out of both the left and right speakers in an artificial way. Having said that, I must admit that on an SACD recording of Vivaldi's Four Season, the wide soundstage presented by the Linn player was really great. So in this respect, I have to agree with Steve's comment about the Linn and its ability to create a wide soundstage.
At this point, I am mostly just confused. I look back at my notes, and I see that my biggest critism of the Ayre (its somewhat narrow soundstage) is a mirror-image of my biggest complaint of the Linn (its too-wide soundstage on acoustic and vocal recordings). If I had to choose tonight, I would probably give the edge to the Ayre unit, mostly because of its general balance and the fact that it beats the Linn on price. My local Ayre dealer is also a dealer for Esoteric, so I think I will ask him for a demo of the X-01....Let's see if the big price difference also brings a noticeable performance difference. Unfortunately, he does not carry Classe, so I may have to find another source for a SACD-2 demo unit.
Despite my angst, I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun! |
Bsal -- Yup; XLR connections from the CD player to the pre and on to the amp. No question, the balanced connections reduce the noise enormously. EMM...now wouldn't that be nice! |
Bill,
Great post! Thanks for taking the time to give that review. I, too, was surprised that no one had chimed in with a nod for the kW SACD. But it is a relatively new unit, so maybe all those who have one are too busy listening to it to respond ;) I have been trying to get a demo unit, but my local dealer doesn't have any in stock right now. I would love to audition the kW along side, say, the X-01, which is another unit I am surprised no one has said anything about. I guess people are kind of tired of these "help me buy my next piece of gear" threads! |
Bill, et al -- Good news (I think)... my local MF dealer is suppose to get a kW SACD in next week from Signal Path. He promises to burn it in a bit and let me audition it. He also carries Linn, and he wants me to run it against the 2.1, which I have already heard. But it should make for an interesting comparison. I wish I could get the kW up against the Ayre, but I had to give that back so someone else could give it a listen. Don't these people realize I am on a qwest? |
Good evening, Audiogonnnnn -- In case anyone is out there listening, here is an update....
Today I went to my LD and gave a listen to his Linn 2.1 and the Musical Fidelity kW SACD he just got in last night. I had heard the 2.1 at another dealer, and was interested to see whether I came away with the same impression as last time. Answer -- yes. It is a nice unit and does a good job with the soundstage and keeps the higher end pretty liquid. Still, it is kind of weak in the bass. Interestingly, both this 2.1 unit and the 2.1 unit I listened to from the other dealer could not play the vocal on track 6 of Elenor McEvoy's "Early Hours" SACD.
The MF kW SACD was interesting. I thought it did a very good job reaching low and controlling the bass. It was a tad edgy on the high notes, but I attribute that to the fact that it is a brand new unit with no break-in time, and because the dealer hooked it up by its solid state RCA connections (the cool thing about this player is that it has both solid state and tube connections!).
I have the kW at home now, and I will be auditioning it this weekend. I am listening to it right now, and I am pretty impressed. Not sure where I will come out on this one, yet.
So here is the question, for anyone who has a view -- Audio Aero is launching its new "Prestige" CD/SACD player in a couple of weeks. This will be a $13K unit. If I like the MF after this weekend, should I just get it, or should I hold off for the AA Prestige? Anyone out there hear the Prestige at any recent shows that would like to share the experience? Is any player worth $13K??? Ahh, what an obsession this has become.... |
Never mind. I have ended the audition. What a huge disappointment! After running the MF kW SACD for a few hours, it would lock up if I tried to play an SACD disc after playing a CD. Instead of just starting with track 1 after the SACD was inserted, the player would flash "Play" and then start scrolling through the tracks on its display screen -- 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The first time this happened, I grabbed the remote and keyed in the track I wanted. This worked the first time. However, the next time I went from a CD to an SACD disc and had the same lock-up, I could not coax it to play even with the remote. I tried powering the unit down and restarting it, and it worked (what is this, a Microsoft op system???). BUT, the next time I went through the CD to SACD sequence, neither the remote nor the power-down efforts could convince the player to play. Despite the fact that the kW SACD sounded pretty good, I won't get it. At this price point, it is just unacceptable to me that the unit is so finicky that it cannot play a disc. The search continues....
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Oldpet,
No, I have not heard the Classe SACD-2, yet. That is now at the top of my audition list. The MF demo unit was working this morning. Must be a problem with an overheated circuit or do-dad. Anyway, it is going back to the dealer. |
Islandear,
I've been watching for the Audio Aero Prestige, too. Based on the great reputation of the Capitole, it promises to be a good unit. I have been speaking to the distributor, Globe, and a dealer on the west coast. Both tell me that the Prestige has just shipped from France and should be available for a demo in New England (where I am) in mid-July.
However, I think I may have found my new player. I have had the new dCS P8i in my system for the past couple of days and I am shocked at how good it sounds. Sure, for the money, it had better sound good, right? But I had no idea how good digital could sound until I put this player into my system. I was half-expecting, half-hoping that it would not create this big of a difference. That way, I could be content with a more reasonably priced unit. But this dCS unit was a HUGE upgrade in my sound -- amazing 3D sound stage, incredibly well-controlled bass and silky smooth treble where cymbals sound like...cymbals! Seriously, I was floored. Redbook CDs were particularly good, due I suspect to the fact that the P8i upsamples CD to DSD. My wife would come into the room and just seem me with my jaw agape and shaking my head in disbelief.
If I can work out a decent deal with the dealer, I am going to get one. I expect that the AA Prestige will be quite good, but I love this unit. Besides, the dCS will allow me to run a digital coax from my whole-house music server into it and access its DAC. |
pmatera,
This was fun and I am glad you and maybe others found it useful/interesting. As fun as the auditioning process was, it had to come to an end. I ended up getting the dCS P8i. The price tag definitely makes you swallow hard, but I new once I heard it that I would be fighting upgrade-fevor if I bought something else. In the end, I probably would have spent more by buying a different player and selling it later at a loss. I was hoping I would get to hear the Audio Aero before I finished the search, but I think it just got into the US. As you know, the Prestige uses tubes, and I expect it will sound fantastic. I was a little bothered, though, by the fact that it converts the SACD DSD signal into PCM. The P8i converts CD redbook to DSD, and leaves the SACD data in its native form. While the players take very different approaches to the D-to-A conversion process, I wonder how they would sound in an AB comparison. Both units are priced about the same, so it would be fun to audition them together!
I am not surprised to hear your comments about the Shanling. I have heard others complain that the T200 transport and pick up are unreliable.
As for the MF kW, despite the mechanical problems I had with the one I auditioned, the sound was very impressive. The build on that unit was almost over the top. It is a huge player and weighs a ton. The sceptic in me had to wonder whether the weight was a matter of form following function, or if MF intentionally beefed it up in order to make it seem more substantial to those audiophiles who tend to think pounds=performance.
Another player I would like to have heard is the Classe SACD-2. I expect it would have been a real contender. Alas, the dCS unit "ruined" my fun. After my audition with it I just had to get one for myself.
It is too bad you cannot audition players in your own system. There really is nothing like testing a player in your home. I brought home several players that I expected I would not be taking back to the dealer, only to find out that, in my system and to my ears, something was not quite right. Oh, well. Good luck in your search. |
