Resolution Audio - Cantata

I have to agree. Although I often feel, after comparing CD players, that the differences in the best players are small. I have had the opportunity to compare the Cantata to several other similarly priced players as well as the Opus 21 and thought the Cantata was easily noticeably better in all respects. The clarity, naturalness and analog like qualities were very obvious. The RA C-50 integrated amp is outstanding as well.

Well I thought I would chime in here since I have had the Cantata about a year now. I have ordered the 24/192 upgrade but do not have that yet. When I do I will report back on any differences.
But I just wanted to say that I enjoy listening to the Cantata as much today as when I first received that little gem packed in a custom wood crate! I just love this dac! I hate to admit it, but if I had all of my vinyl in the digital format, I doubt I would spin vinyl at all. I do still give the nod to the Basis with the best vinyl. There is room still to improve digital. But this player is so good that I am listening and enjoying a huge range of music daily. In the time I used to spend hunting for a record, I have already lined up a bunch of tracks on the iPad remote. The Cantata has been a game changer. Finally digital sounds like what they promissed back in the 80's. It is big fun. It might not be cheap at 6500.00, but it has become the hub of my high end stereo. Worth every cent. Well that's my 2 cents. :)

Ken

I found this blog that has some information about the Stereophile review of the Cantata as well as some other computer audio. I thought the review was pretty good, but could have talked more about the sound of the DAC especially through the USB with Pure Music and iTunes.

Ken

http://gnscblog.wordpress.com/

The Stereophile review omitted much of any description of how the Resolution Audio Cantata sounded. John Iverson did a good job of checking out all of the different ways in which one can get digital signals to the Cantata and said that all of those ways produced a good result. He omitted mention of how well it performs as a CD player. (I can comment on that: It's a great CD player.)

While it was a great review, I think that Mr. Iverson did not do the Cantata justice in that it is even better than he described. That the Cantata is flexible is pretty obvious. It would have been nice had Mr. Iverson done more to explain the more subjective and less obvious qualities of the Cantata. I think that he would have left an even more positive impression than the already great review.

I felt the same way about the review. Jon Iverson is an experienced reviewer who is well thought of and normally does a fine job with reviews. It is interesting he used a Marantz A/V preamp for listening and comparisons. It would seem there would be much better choices to evaluate a CD player the quality of the Cantata.