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Blind Shoot-out in San Diego -- 5 CD Players

On Saturday, February 24, a few members of the San Diego, Los Angeles and Palm Springs audio communities conducted a blind shoot-out at the home of one of the members of the San Diego Music and Audio Guild. The five CD Players selected for evaluation were: 1) a Resolution Audio Opus 21 (modified by Great Northern Sound), 2) the dcs standalone player, 3) a Meridian 808 Signature, 4) a EMM Labs Signature configuration (CDSD/DCC2 combo), and 5) an APL NWO 2.5T (the 2.5T is a 2.5 featuring a redesigned tube output stage and other improvements).

The ground rules for the shoot-out specified that two randomly draw players would be compared head-to-head, and the winner would then be compared against the next randomly drawn player, until only one unit survived (the so-called King-of-the-Hill method). One of our most knowledgeable members would set up each of the two competing pairs behind a curtain, adjust for volume, etc. and would not participate in the voting. Alex Peychev was the only manufacturer present, and he agreed to express no opinion until the completion of the formal process, and he also did not participate in the voting. The five of us who did the voting did so by an immediate and simultaneous show of hands after each pairing after each selection. Two pieces of well-recorded classical music on Red Book CDs were chosen because they offered a range of instrumental and vocal sonic charactistics. And since each participant voted for each piece separately, there was a total of 10 votes up for grabs at each head-to-head audition. Finally, although we all took informal notes, there was no attempt at detailed analysis recorded -- just the raw vote tally.

And now for the results:

In pairing number 1, the dcs won handily over the modified Opus 21, 9 votes to 1.

In pairing number 2, the dcs again came out on top, this time against the Meridian 808, 9 votes to 1.

In pairing number 3, the Meitner Signature was preferred over the dcs, by a closer but consistent margin (we repeated some of the head-to-head tests at the requests of the participants). The vote was 6 to 4.

Finally, in pairing number 5, the APL 2.5T bested the Meitner, 7 votes to 3.

In the interest of configuration consistance, all these auditions involved the use of a power regenerator supplying power to each of the players and involved going through a pre-amp.

This concluded the blind portion of the shoot-out. All expressed the view that the comparisons had been fairly conducted, and that even though one of the comparisons was close, the rankings overall represented a true consensus of the group's feelings.

Thereafter, without the use blind listening, we tried certain variations at the request of various of the particiapans. These involved the Meitner and the APL units exclusively, and may be summarized as follows:

First, when the APL 2.5T was removed from the power regenerator and plugged into the wall, its performance improved significantly. (Alex attributed this to the fact that the 2.5T features a linear power supply). When the Meitner unit(which utilizes a switching power supply) was plugged into the wall, its sonics deteriorated, and so it was restored to the power regenerator.

Second, when we auditioned a limited number of SACDs, the performance on both units was even better, but the improvement on the APL was unanimously felt to be dramatic.
The group concluded we had just experienced "an SACD blowout".

The above concludes the agreed-to results on the blind shoot-out. What follows is an overview of my own personal assessment of the qualitative differences I observed in the top three performers.

First of all the dcs and the Meitner are both clearly state of the art players. That the dcs scored as well as it did in its standalone implementation is in my opinion very significant. And for those of us who have auditioned prior implementations of the Meitner in previous shoot-outs, this unit is truly at the top of its game, and although it was close, had the edge on the dcs. Both the dcs and the Meitner showed all the traits one would expect on a Class A player -- excellent tonality, imaging, soundstaging, bass extension, transparency, resolution, delineation, etc.

But from my point of view, the APL 2.5T had all of the above, plus two deminsions that I feel make it truly unique. First of all, the life-like quality of the tonality across the spectrum was spot-on on all forms of instruments and voice. An second, and more difficult to describe, I had the uncany feeling that I was in the presence of real music -- lots or "air", spatial cues, etc. that simply add up to a sense of realism that I have never experienced before. When I closed my eyes, I truly felt that I was in the room with live music. What can I say.

Obviously, I invite others of the participants to express their views on-line.

Pete

petewatt
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
I listened to my cd player again today for most of the afternoon.

It is definitely 6 dimensional.

Each channel has 20-64bit chips and 3 power supplies.

Runs on 220V.

Awesome.
sabai
2,027 posts
 
Audiofeil, you need to work on your sense of humor. Fplanner, Mrtennis,Sebrof, et al. I was fortunate to pick up a mint EMM CDSA SE recently at a 50% discount. Even at the price I paid it was over the top for me but I went for it because I didn't think I would be able to do better in terms of sound quality at that price point with any of the "competition". If I had a cost-no-object budget I might have gone for an APL but this was a moot point since APL is out of the ballpark for me. Although I have never auditioned an APL, from all reports it looks like it would probably better the EMM in terms of sound quality. But I have chosen my other components and cables carefully, and am tweaking my system to death to maximize its potential -- with very positive results. The latter have made a much bigger improvement than I could ever have imagined. So I am very happy with the sound quality of my system. Although a "winner" can be proclaimed in shoot-outs the point I have been making -- to the dismay of some who are tired of hearing me say what I care to say in which case they can easily skip my postings instead of complaining about them or making stupid humorless comments -- is that we are facing a real problem in today's economy. The price of top components cuts all but the rich out of the picture. The price of second and third tier components lets a few more of us in the door but we have to be careful how we spend our audio dollars before they are all spent and we find ourselves sitting at home with an inferior component or cable that brings the whole system down. So finding out as much as we can ahead of time about what our hard-earned dollars can buy is very important and that is where the Audiogon forums enter the picture -- especially for people like me who live abroad and who cannot audition equipment without getting on a plane and traveling a long distance at great expense to an audio-friendly country. The forums help people like me make important audio decisions. If shoot-outs were conducted in a more complete way -- following some of the suggestions I have made earlier -- they would help a lot of people make better choices within their budget, not simply leave us with one high five and everyone else in the dust. I will be writing a review of my system in the New Year that will include some of the amazing results I have been obtaining with a wide variety of tweaks that have made a huge difference in the sound quality of my system. I hope that my review will help others and that it will stimulate some constructive comments.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi sabai:

there are two issues i have with your point of view.

first, regardless of the number of recommendations, there is a risk that an individual with unique tastes and romm and stereo system won't like the recommended component.

secondly, whatever component is recommended, it is highly probable that another component, not recommended may be equally worthy of consideration.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Mrtennis, what you say is true, but how would one break through the paralysis, or ever be in a position to know that one can make the 100% perfect decision? Until there is a local store carrying every piece of equipment made, with a loaner program to listen in your room before buying - we are left with some collective wisdom deciphered with a little bit of healthy skepticism and a small grain of salt -but surely a careful reading of Audiogon comments can lead one to making some pretty good choices in buying equipment; not sure we have any better way; better than blind faith, but faith nonetheless. Is the EMM CDSA SE the best? Who knows. But if you can't be happy with it and enjoy it, there is a problem that probably can't be helped with another equipment fix.
sabai
2,027 posts
 
Pubul57, I think your comments were directed at my posting, if I am not mistaken. I was not talking about a "100% perfect decision". I was talking about a well-informed decision. There is no such thing as perfection as we all know. And there is no paralysis. There is only the process of evaluation. For those who are lucky enough to be able to audition equipment evaluation is a simpler process than for people like me who cannot audition equipment without traveling abroad. So a more complete shoot-out incorporating more variables would have been more helpful. That's all I'm saying.
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