Meitner versus Meitner – The CDSA SE 'metal tray' upgrade

Well, we finally got around to doing the shootout between the CDSA with the old plastic tray and the latest with the metal tray.

Both players were on HRS nimbus couplers which coupled the players to the HRS M3 Isolation Bases they were sitting on [so we did not use either of their feet, neither the old nor the new].

Both were connected to the Lamm L2 Reference linestage on its L1, L2 symmetrical inputs [its direct input by passes a few things and sounds a little better] using Stealth INDRA cables.

Both players were broken in – though the older one has been played a lot more. Both cables were also well broken in… Both players were powered by ELROD EPS-2 Signature power cords.

We used Radiohead Amnesiac, Rachmaninoff, and Dire Straits – of which we had two copies each – to switch back and forth between players.

The short and sweet – the older player seemed to be a bit louder, a bit more dynamic, the sounds were more clustered together and was slightly ‘edgier’ than the newer player.

The newer player was more transparent, more naturally spread out in the soundstage, and a little less dynamic [but it may need a little more breaking in? The player has been off a lot during the last month with all the thunderstorms we have been having – us being a little lightning-shy after being hit last year.]

The weird thing is that the Meitner CDSA was at the top of the list of un-edgy, un-digital, un-harsh sounding solid-state players. But the newer CDSA clearly beats it. This greater listenabilty was the largest difference between these two – and made us not want to listen to the older player knowing what we now know.

That is the problem with these shootouts. A person LEARNS things – and can’t go back to the sweet naivete of ‘about the same’ and ‘good enough’.