Well in the last weeks or so I've been trying hard to find faults or shortcomings in the sound of the "Spoiler" when comparing it to the "Zanden" or the "Verdi Encore" and as a caveat I feel compelled to mention something which of course we all know, that we all have our preferences and that all hearing is subjective. But I'll try all the same:
You cannot beat the Spoiler - Pace Car - Toshiba laptop combination in the rendering of small groups, female singers or solo violin. Dizzy Gillespies hilarious "Swing Low Sweet Cadillac" comes to mind here, Stacey Kent's "Breakfast on the Morning Tram" CD or Hilary Hahn's rendering of Bach's solo violin sonatas and partitas. the presence and immediacy of the rendering is uncanny with the "Spoiler", with the "Zanden" mind you, coming a very close second. The "dcs" in DSD-mode did not convince me. Hahn's violin and the voice of Stacey Kent lost a tad of its itimacy and naturalness here. Bloated would be too hard a word here, but the sound went into that direction.
With big orchestral classical music now, the "Spoiler" presented a sounstage that was wonderfully deep and wide, again with the Zanden a close second. What the Zanden however seemed to do better here, was the rendering of the richness and warmth say of massed strings, also brass instruments were more natural, the reeds sounded more "right" and it was hard here to hear a difference beween the Jap and the Brit. (dcs) Here I found the "Spoiler" just a tad too dry for my liking. These are minor quibbles, mind you. On the other hand however just let me share another really amazing experience with you, which I made with the "Spoiler": There is this musically outstanding rendering of all the Beethoven symphonies with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonics on a set of Deutsche Grammophone CDs, the sound of which is just plain terrible. This is something which can drive an audiophile and musiclover to despair: Great music on badly recorded CDs. The other day I found the same music on DVD. I did not know, that all the sessions had been filmed. So I put Beethovens 9th into the CD/DVD player of the Toshiba laptop and listened to the music through the "Spoiler". What a difference. All the congestion of the music in the DG recording was gone, the soundstage huge, the rendering so clear and differentiated, that you almost could hear every single voice within the chorus, not to speak of the indiviual singers who came through wonderfully clear. I did not bother looking at the film, in fact I found it distracting, I was so enthralled by the music. No dryness here I found, so I wonder if the Spoiler is really at fault here and if it is rather to be pinpointed to the CDs I used. So more critical listening is called for, which I don't feel like doing right now. I'd rather just relax and enjoy for the moment.
Cheers and thanks for your interest,
Detlof
