My session at the Toyster's...
Well I had a great session at Steve’s on Tuesday listening to his virtually new system (as shown in the signature under his posts). The last time I was down he was running a Linn Majik CDP/Spectral preamp/Densen power amp and a pair of Piega loudspeakers – so quite a change. I’ve always enjoyed listening to the systems Steve’s owned through the years because whilst we may disagree sometimes on specific aspects of preferred presentation (this is a matter of personal taste, after all) the systems he runs always play music, in the sense that one easily becomes immersed in the performance rather than merely seduced by hi-fi effects. This is because Steve, like me, pays particular attention to the correct set-up of equipment in terms of mains, supports and cables. So with this in mind I looked forward to hearing his latest collection of carefully chosen components and ancillaries.
As you will see all was well in the end but, initially, what a shock I was to get…
When I walked into Steve’s lounge where his system was set-up he was playing some raucous sounding material (poorly re-mastered Fleetwood Mac) at frankly too loud a volume. It was obviously a horribly compressed commercial recording and it was giving me ear bleed. The sound was quite frankly bright, 'shouty' and pretty unpleasant. He asked me what I thought and at first told him it was ok but I was thinking to myself "What on earth has he done?" Then we sat down and proceeded to do some serious listening, letting the track finish to the end.
When the track finished Steve again asked me what I thought. First of all I told him that it wasn’t really my type of music (not that I don’t like Fleetwood Mac, it was just the particular track Steve was playing) and the recording quality was dire, which he agreed. Then I told him what I thought of his new system so far. Now Steve and I have known each other for years so we are able to be frank without either of us taking offence. We are not 'precious' about our systems and always value constructive criticism. So I had to be honest with him as I would expect him to be about my own system…
I told him that I could hear the talents of the Bel Canto CDP and his TD/AOS valve power amp, but I didn’t like his Heco speakers. The Spectral preamp I felt was pretty much doing its job of relaying the signal it was fed, or so I thought. The sound coming from the Hecos though was very 'boom 'n' tizz' and almost completely lacked subtlety. The treble in particular had a glassy, piercing quality. At first I put it down to a 'German thing' (the drive units are made there) as in my experience Germans tend to like their speakers voiced in a particular way (as do most nations) which usually emphasises the bass and treble in an unnatural way to increase the 'excitement factor'. The more expensive ones tend not to do this but it is quite often evident in their entry level to mid level units.
Anyway, in order to assess things more accurately I asked Steve to put on a CD of my own that I was familiar with (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Everybody Knows EP) and asked him to play the title track 'Everybody Knows'. For anyone who doesn’t know this album it’s a live studio recording of bluesy acoustic rock with a country edge. As soon as the acoustic guitar intro and the voice of Ryan Adams came flooding into the room I knew this was instantly better. This is a superb album both musically and in terms of recording quality and so it showcases the talents of any hi-fi system. I knew that if Steve’s system didn’t sound good with this CD then something was badly broken. However good though it was there was still a prevailing artificial fullness in the bass and a 'peaky' quality to vocals, which I certainly don’t get in my system, so I knew there was more to come from this recording. Therefore it was time for a change…
I had brought with me my Sony transport and DAC, Croft preamp (recently modified) and my Yaqin valve amp. I asked Steve what he would like to change first, he wanted to try the Sony DAC, so we lifted up his Bel Canto transport, plonked the Sony underneath on his QS Reference acrylic rack, and separated the two units with some of Tony C’s 'black ravioli' isolation pads, connected a length of Transparent Premium Digital Link cable between both units, and configured the Bel Canto for Red Book playback, then pressed play and listened to the same track again. Within no more than the first few notes, we both turned to each other and said "Bloody hell!!"
The difference was quite incredible – the sound became instantly 'bigger' in terms of not only soundstage width and depth, but also in overall scale: it now had a feeling of live music. Ryan’s voice had much more presence and character, the acoustic guitar gained weight and body together with greater resolution and timbre such that the plucking of strings conveyed more of its natural nuances, and thus one gained more insight into the performance as a whole. Tonally, gone was the 'peaky', mechanical, midrange, and one-note bass, although there was still an element of over-prominence in the lowest registers and a slight grainy quality to the presentation, but all-in-all it was a massive improvement. Quite simply, the Audicom International modified Sony DAC comprehensively trounced the built-in one in the Bel Canto CD player. It confirmed to me yet again the musical superiority of NOS DACs using TDA1541 chips.
At this point I was quite keen to hear what the Sony transport would do together with the DAC compared to the transport in the Bel Canto, so we unplugged the Bel Canto and replaced it with the Sony X-777ES, and played the same track again. Interestingly, initially, it was not an improvement. The Sony transport introduced a thinness and somewhat opaque quality to the sound. However, part of this was due to the fact that it had been powered down for some hours and was cold. Prolonged listening showed that it was starting to get into its stride and was now sounding very nice indeed with the Sony DAC. It however had a leaner, slightly more forthright presentation than the Bel Canto transport, but also one that to my ears was more detailed and tonally accurate. However with vocals the Bel Canto appeared to have more textural resolution. This one, unlike the DAC, was by no means as clear cut and boiled down to personal preference. I preferred the Sony (just) and Steve, the Bel Canto.
I know from experience though that the Sony DAC and transport don’t like being placed together so near each other, as I’ve had them on top on the same shelf at home and they definitely perform much better on separate shelves on the rack. Next time Steve comes round to my place (probably for the forthcoming Chester fest) we’ll compare transports again and if the Bel Canto pulls off the same trick in my system then I will have to look into things further. One thing it proves though is that the transport mechanism in the Bel Canto is very good indeed, and an order of magnitude better than the built-in DAC. It seems obvious where most of the money has been spent on this player. Either that or the Sony is several leagues ahead in performance to modern DACs being made today.
We kept the Sony transport in with the DAC and continued to listen to a variety of music, enjoying the much improved presentation the Sony DAC was giving; its combination with the transport being so musically compelling. The whole system now was starting to sing, so we thought it was a good time to introduce the Croft. Therefore the Spectral was whipped out and the Croft, with its separate PSU connected with a hard-wired umbilical cable, somewhat awkwardly inserted into place on the QS rack. The PSU was placed on its own dedicated mini QS Ref acrylic support, and the main preamp section on the rack itself. We had just been listening to Ray Lamontagne’s 'Empty', from the album 'Till The Sun Turns Black'.
All I can say is that if the difference between the Bel Canto DAC and the Sony was huge, then this was huge with a capital 'H'! Quite frankly, it was one of the biggest differences I’ve heard with hi-fi. And in 25+ years of fiddling with all manner of exotica that’s saying something… The remaining slight 'boom 'n' tizz' factor and grainy edge that still persisted even after introducing the Sony DAC, which in my head I had attributed to the Heco speakers, was now completely gone and replaced with a wonderful layering of textures throughout the frequency range giving bass notes a tight, rhythmic, propulsive, quality reminiscent of top-notch Naim equipment when fully on song. There was also oodles of 'slam' and extension. The top end however was now sweet sounding, detailed, and massively extended such that it enveloped musical notes with a vibrancy and shimmer that made Lamontagne's music become a palpable living, breathing, entity instead of the somewhat artificial grainy sounding, 'mechanical' rendition in evidence before when relayed through the Spectral. The result was that the Croft and TD/AOS valve amp had combined to dramatic effect.
But the business end of the audio spectrum – the midrange – was where the Croft/TD AOS really excelled. Here, it imparted vocals and acoustic instruments with a tonal purity and expressiveness that was nothing short of beguiling, showing that valve preamps (and power amps) done well impart a magic on the music that no solid-state devices, through design, can realistically replicate. It's that 'valve thing' again. Remember, the Spectral is hardly 'entry level', costing some £4k+ new, but it was quite simply outclassed. The Croft was always a good preamp, but it has become something truly special since being recently modified by Glenn Croft. Steve has heard how it originally sounded and obviously how it has since evolved, and I’m sure would confirm that it has improved leaps and bounds since being upgraded and modified by a very talented valve engineer. I will be writing a separate detailed piece shortly on the Croft modifications because people need to know just how good things get when a Charisma-X is tweaked to perfection.
At the end of the session we tried the Yaqin instead of the AOS/TD amp, and whilst it was very good it lacked the magic of the AOS/TD amp (as described) and sounded somewhat 'hi-fi' like in comparison. This is not to say that the Yaqin was poor – it wasn’t; it didn’t do anything wrong – it was simply that the AOS/TD amp was *SO* good. There is clearly much more to come from the Yaqin when Anthony modifies it further. Certainly after hearing the results of his work with the AOS/TD amp, it bodes well for what the Yaqin will become after it receives similar treatment. I am very excited by the prospect.
Talking of talented valve engineers, there is another who deserves much praise. I’m of course referring to Anthony Matthews of Tube Distinctions who redesigned (it’s not simply modifying in this case but something much more fundamental) Steve’s Puresound A30, which in itself is an excellent valve amplifier, but as an AOS/TD incarnation transports its status firmly into the big league. The synergy and musical talent of the Croft/AOS (TD) has quite simply got to be heard to be believed. I have never before encountered an amplifier combination that gets it so right on every musical level, and yet comfortably ticks all the prosaic hi-fi boxes, too.
A final word must go to the Heco loudspeakers, which I was rather disparaging of when I first arrived. Quite clearly they are an excellent design and offer serious sound-per-pound value due to their construction in China. They’re extremely well built and feature drive units of the highest quality not commonly seen on speakers of this price. However, quite clearly, they require top-notch source and control equipment to showcase their sonic and musical abilities. These are not speakers I would use with equipment of the same price, or even necessarily somewhat more expensive. They must be partnered carefully in a sonic sense by equipment that is tonally even through the frequency range, I would say preferably with valves, and given the best source signal possible. In essence what I'm trying to convey is that in my opinion the Hecos are best with valve rather than solid-state gear.
Whilst in terms of system building there is undoubtedly a case for adopting a 'speaker first' philosophy, and indeed in this computer audio orientated day and age it is usually sensible to do so, Steve’s albeit traditional system, was one example where only by improving the source signal quality did the capabilities of the speakers become truly realised. This clearly demonstrates and confirms my belief that there is no 'one true path' with hi-fi and that there’s still much to be said for the traditional approach of getting as much information from the recording as possible, and handling it correctly down the chain, in order that a pair of talented speakers have something fundamentally 'juicy' to chew on, providing of course that speaker/room interaction has been optimised. In Steve's system it was simply not enough to have a 'competent' source and preamp - it needed something more talented downstream to showcase the full capabilities of his speakers.
So it was indeed a very interesting and educational listening session. If Steve can obtain a Sony DAS-R1, or something of its ilk, and a Croft preamp similar to my own then he will have one hell of a system. Indeed I’ve been informed that the recent addition of the Heco 700s have brought about some significant improvements, so I shudder to think what those would sound like with the previous electronics quoted at the helm. I think he owes it to himself to find out!
As such, I think Steve should listen to the modified DAS-R1 against the separate Bel Canto DAC, which is capable of facilitating the new high resolution digital formats available with computer downloading. What he needs to assess is what plays his existing CD collection best (some 1000+CDs) versus the undoubted exciting possibility of what can be achieved by high resolution formats in the digital computer audio domain. I suspect that the NOS DAC will be best for Red Book CD duties, although this has still to be confirmed by doing the necessary comparison, so I guess it depends on how serious Steve intends to get into computer audio.
Time will tell, and personally I can’t wait to hear the results…
Thank you for reading!
Marco.
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Originally Posted by Marco
