[HiWire]

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.

 

[vcoheda]

50K just for the player. damn! i never see myself having that kind of money to spend on gear.

 

[HiWire]

Yeah, but it's 3 boxes. That's only $16,666.67 per box. Wait a minute...

To me, this kind of system is for rich wankers and lottery winners. That's definitely more than a year's salary for me and completely out of my price range and the next ten guys' too. However, it's good to know what technology can do. Even dCS sold the P8i player, which was a little downmarket for them. Also, they licensed a version of the Ring DAC to Arcam a while ago.

You can see from their web page that they still offer a single-box player, the Puccini. No doubt it is also obscenely expensive, but it would be interesting, theoretically, to hear the difference between 3-box and single-box CD/SACD playback. I was very impressed by the dCS system that I heard, now I want to see if I can get 99% of that performance at a small fraction of the price.

Later on, I'd like to hear some Esoteric, EMM Labs, and Marantz gear just to get a better handle on SACD performance. I'm already happy with the Redbook music that I've heard lately, so hi-res implementation is the next question. I don't know if Redbook has reached its limits, but I suspect its pretty close with players like the Paganini.

 

[Asr]

The Paganini uses their proprietary Ring DAC, right? That DAC is legendary.

Thanks for the impressions, looking forward to your impressions of the Accuphase and NAD.

 

[HiWire]

Yes, that's why I wanted to hear it, and in fact spent all my time listening to dCS sources rather than the Rega, Simaudio, Cambridge Audio, Accuphase, Primare and NAD players present. The salesman wisely decided to move the mid-fi audition to next weekend; coming down from the Paganini would be an unpleasant fall from heaven. Also, it would allow him to set up a few sources on the same system, allowing us to make more valid comparisons between sources alone.

He offered to set up at least 3 sources, and 5 would be about the maximum possible. I think I'll listen to the Accuphase, NAD, and Simaudio players.

 

[vcoheda]

if you move up to the scarletti, you get the esoteric transport.

 

[HiWire]

I'd literally be moving up to the Scarlatti - the salesman mentioned an $80,000 player upstairs. I was wise enough (?) not to go upstairs

 

[vcoheda]

sometimes, it's better not to know.

 

[HiWire]

Now I can say that I've heard a cost-almost-no-object system.