What is new with the Memory Player?

After *navigating* under the specifications heading via the Nova Physics website,
it appears the unit can be had as a digital drive only, or a player with an on board 32-bit tubed output Dac.

Clement's review, although detailed when it comes to the cd sources and the overall sonics from each cd, is completely void of any information about what he paired this MP transport with! ? He makes no mention of the cables, amps, speakers...let alone the actual DAC he uses (very very important, everyone agree?). Furthermore, he even remarks about taking it on the road and putting it up against a Theta transport-dac combo, but no mention what he used, as if it were a "player" not a transport. "Resting side by side next to a high-end transport from Theta Digital using a very expensive digital to analogue converter, the Memory Player clearly outperformed studio house masters!". Also, later in the review he uses player and transport interchangeably, but never divulges his system, his DAC, etc. Finally, later, he says "Next up was a fully loaded Memory Player with its own 32-bit tube DAC and internal volume control going up against the $42,000 digital stack from Zanden Audio... This fully loaded Memory Player belonged to another writer who had invited me over to hear his rig. It was more coincidental than planned that at the same time, another audiophile with serious industry credentials wanted to hear this unit. In addition to having a front-end consisting of the Zanden transport and DAC, he also had the new German ASR amplifiers and the BIG NOLA reference loudspeakers.". Clearly Clement's MP was not the max'd out one with a tube DAC. So what DAC did he use earlier in the review.....and please don't say "it doesn't matter".

I like Mr. Perry's reviews, and I like Stereo Times. Hell, I THINK I like the MP....but....this review is as confusing and contains the same amount of sleight of hand as the rest of this whole Memory Player media coverage. I just don't understand why it needs to be so cloaked, and so confusing. Clement, did you fail tot ell us what the transport was connected to for a reason? Maybe that has something to do with the sound?? Or at least spell out what you used. Any reviewer worth his/her salt would level set a review, especially one that introduces a new concept and a new architecture. No one would let a reviewer write an article about the sound of a cartridge or arm without saying what table it was being used on, for God's sakes, or write up a glowing preamp review and fail to tell what the upstream and downstream signal path was taken through.

I the MP is going to be successful, even on a moderate level with a small niche of listeners, it needs to have a clear light shining on it.

I'm not trying to kick up dirt and have no agenda. Just trying to get some information, because I think the MP concept is the way to go.

I think this answers other questions that have been asked in the past on the theory the MP isn't anything more than an over-glorified computer. Well, if that was true then why hasn't anyone come up with a likely alternative as of yet?

I believe they have, sort of. Perhaps not in a commercially-available turnkey package, however.

JRiver (~$40) and EAC (free) have provided bit-perfect ripping for years. Like the MP, I believe JRiver and EAC make bit-perfect copies to hard disk by reading and re-reading until every bit on the CD is recorded to hard disk as an exact copy of the CD original--this can take hours for heavily-scratched CDs. Perhaps the laser doesn't wobble, but in the end you end up with a bit-perfect copy. Ramdisks (Superspeed RAMdisk ~$40) have been around for decades, and people have been playing music files from ramdisks (i.e., RAM.)

Many, like myself, have loaded bit-perfect music files into a ramdisk and played them from there. Until the MP, however, I have not seen a turnkey solution that comes with both bit-perfect ripping software and ramdisk software (or whatever the equivalent is in the MP, if not a ramdisk) already installed. Instead, owners would have to buy and install the 2 pieces of software individually (~$40-80 total).

So, aside from the MP being a convenient turnkey package, I ask what's new here? Posters in this thread have appeared to dismiss that it's merely a PC-based transport with a wave of the hand, but provide no information as to whether the MP does anything different than 1) make a bit-perfect rip, 2) load music into RAM, and 3) play it from there.

I believe that's a reason the MP has taken some heat, particularly from people who've been doing PC-based transports using ramdisks who may see this as nothing new. It appears the MP is being marketed as revolutionary because it plays from memory. Not that this matters, but if I sold something like the MP, I would market it as a way to get the benefits of a PC-based transport without having to deal with PCs - less jitter when you don't read from a spinning disk, software is already installed, playing from RAM is already set up, don't have to understand PCs, etc.

In any event, I think it's a step in the right direction and I wish it much success.

The Behold power amplifiers of Mr Perry each have 8 pairs of Analogue Devices DA converters (the AD1853 to be precise). I don't know if these are of-the-shelve or made to order specially for Behold. But, there you have it. Wonder how much it contributes to the experience of the MP...

I think the concept and player itself needs to be clarified or simplified for more folks to understand.

There still seems to be a bit of confusion with the review and how the player faired as a transport only, or a player with the built in dac.

A lot of variables take place with or without digital cables, power cords and the like.

The Memory Player has great potential if given the right direction, although the trickle-down theory will begin to take effect for lesser cost.