Holy Zoo
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2001
- Posts
- 79
- Likes
- 14
There was a box sitting in the living room when I got home! I just love that.
It was $330 from J&R (plus something for shipping, but I don't remember off the top of my head).
I waited till the kids fell asleep, then wired her up. For the moment it's sitting in my bedroom on my nightstand, so I can lie down and relax to music at night, something I haven't done in 15 years. Eventually this unit will move into the living room as part of the home theatre, and I'm thinking of buying either the 333ES or higher end single disk player (if/when the price drops a bit more).
So... my first impressions? WOW. Sounds spectacular. I have 5 SACDs that I bought from Amazon over the last few weeks, so I flipped through them quickly, then settled in with Miles Davis - Kind of Blue.
I'm going to skip the hyperbole, and just say that it sounds wonderful. Rich, warm, etc etc. I don't remember enjoying listening to a cd this much *ever*. Could it be my imagination? Me just *wanting* it to sound great? May be...
So, I did a test... a comparison with my CD version of Kind of Blue that's a couple years old (it's also a Sony, mastered with their SBM technology).
How did they compare? The SACD is, to my ears, a LOT better. In places where Mile's trumpet sounded harsh and shrill on the CD, on the SACD it sounded musical. The piano sounds more real, and there seems to be more depth to the recording. Not sure if I can explain it any better than that.
On the possible down side, I'm using my Sennheiser HD545s into the SACD player headphone jack directly, no headphone amp. Also, it took 15-20 seconds to switch from the SACD to the CD, so there was plenty of time for my "hearing memory" to decay between switching. I'd really love to do this test again set up so that I can do the switching instantaneously, and perhaps even "blind".
It was $330 from J&R (plus something for shipping, but I don't remember off the top of my head).
I waited till the kids fell asleep, then wired her up. For the moment it's sitting in my bedroom on my nightstand, so I can lie down and relax to music at night, something I haven't done in 15 years. Eventually this unit will move into the living room as part of the home theatre, and I'm thinking of buying either the 333ES or higher end single disk player (if/when the price drops a bit more).
So... my first impressions? WOW. Sounds spectacular. I have 5 SACDs that I bought from Amazon over the last few weeks, so I flipped through them quickly, then settled in with Miles Davis - Kind of Blue.
I'm going to skip the hyperbole, and just say that it sounds wonderful. Rich, warm, etc etc. I don't remember enjoying listening to a cd this much *ever*. Could it be my imagination? Me just *wanting* it to sound great? May be...
So, I did a test... a comparison with my CD version of Kind of Blue that's a couple years old (it's also a Sony, mastered with their SBM technology).
How did they compare? The SACD is, to my ears, a LOT better. In places where Mile's trumpet sounded harsh and shrill on the CD, on the SACD it sounded musical. The piano sounds more real, and there seems to be more depth to the recording. Not sure if I can explain it any better than that.
On the possible down side, I'm using my Sennheiser HD545s into the SACD player headphone jack directly, no headphone amp. Also, it took 15-20 seconds to switch from the SACD to the CD, so there was plenty of time for my "hearing memory" to decay between switching. I'd really love to do this test again set up so that I can do the switching instantaneously, and perhaps even "blind".