by Michael

Playback Designs MPS-5 versus the EMMLabs CDSA SE

This was a rather hurried back and forth shootout that lasted about an hour to an hour and a half. Neli and I were somewhat at an advantage, because we are very familiar with the system – and a very high-resolution system at that.

The system consisted of the Marten ‘Coltrane Supreme’ loudspeakers, Lamm ML2.1 amps, and Lamm L2 linestage. Cables were a mix of Nordost ODIN, Valhalla and Jorma Design PRIME. Powercords were Elrod and AcroLink. All components were on HRS platforms (and the front end on the HRS SXR equipment rack) except the Marten speaker crossover [Hmmm… we got to get this boy a M3 too].


[More photos of the PD in the previous post]

The Playback Designs MPS-5 (PD) only had about 300-400 hours on it so far, so we assumed that it was enough like the CDSA that its break-in process would be go through likewise phases of dynamic compression before opening up at around 700 to 1000 hours.

In some large sense the fact that the PD is still breaking in invalidates some of what we heard. But, considering how many of the reviews out there are of unbroken-in equipment – we thought we’d at least publish a few impressions to add a little sanity to the mix.

The short and sweet is that the PD is a very good player but I don’t think it beats the CDSA SE with the latest transport and software updates.

That doesn’t mean EMMLabs can rest easy – this player has a lot going for it – and it is similar enough to the CDSA [at this point] that it will cause confusion in the marketplace [though at $15K versus the CDSA’s 11.5K, there is a price difference – though the PD does offer additional functionality for the higher price tag by providing digital inputs on the back of the unit).

OK. Details…

The PD had very good PRaT which I thought was slightly better than the CDSA.

The PD had a slightly more colorful tone – which is not to say warm, tho it might be thought of that way – but more like the Kharma kind of exuberance – or that of analog. The Meitner is also known for its pureness of tone – and the PD was like that, only tipped up a little. I did not find it to be out of proportion to reality, necessarily, but it was a definite difference from way the CDSA was interpreting the CD.

Another difference was that either the soft notes were made more prominent – or the midrange and highs were made more prominent – which I think resulted in several more sonic differences [according to my mental model of what is happening]:

1. The soundstage was more forward. This was neither more or less pleasant than the CDSA – it just WAS.

2. There was more ‘perceived’ resolution – a lot of the subtleties of the music were more evident [note that this differs from Dave’s interpretation – by I think I have an explanation for this further on]

3. There was a higher noise floor

4. Because lots of very soft sounds were now more in evidence there wasn’t a clear demarcation between images in the soundstage.

5. This lead to a feeling that there was a larger presence, more of a oneness or wholeness to the stage – perhaps even more ‘continuousness’ where notes flowed well into each other.

All this elevation of low-level detail also to a feeling that there was [is? have to remember – this player isn’t broken in yet, and although the CDSA doesn’t sound like this when it is breaking in – this is not the CDSA] an innate lack of dynamic range between the quietest note and the loudest – and that there was ‘fuzz’ between the musicians. I felt that there were too many ‘cues’ [very low level subtle sounds like the sound bouncing off the guitar] telling the ear where everything was and concluded that there was some information that really shouldn’t be there – that things were moving around too much and too large – and that it also tended to make the notes rounder – even though the notes were great there were just a lot of other sounds around the note that was filling in around it – perhaps making it *seem* rounder.

So, in conclusion, this is a very nice player but CDSA SE owners do not have anything to worry about, …yet. However, if they look in the ‘solid-state players less than $50K rear view mirror’, they will see a new player has appeared out of nowhere where before there was none in sight.

Emm Labs is a company with equipment in most pro studios in the world. This is Playback Design’s first product.

I am hoping that Playback Designs and EMM Labs continue to diverge with respect to the sound of their equipment – both to reduce the potential of litigation [the head engineer at PD is from EMM Labs] and to offer the audiophile more choices.

Our heartfelt thanks go to Dave for lugging his player up all those stairs 🙂

—-

[Whew! Hard review to write, trying to be fair to both players and to both manufacturers who we like and respect – and one of which, Emm Labs, we represent in the marketplace. Also, people get so passionate about their latest high-end audio toy – one of the reasons magazines only publish positive, non-comparative reviews is just to avoid the poop storms :-)].

in Emm Labs / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Reviews 0 comments
 by Michael

Digital Cable Shootout

A digital cable shootout without any digital cables… but we won’t let THAT stop us…


The room showing the listening couch (I sat in the sweet spot behind the couch on a chair that puts my ears on a good level].

Neli, Kevin (thanks! Kevin) and I shot out 7 (SEVEN!) cables last night in a marathon listening session.

The cables were each substituted, some of them twice, between the Audio Note CDT Three transport and DAC 4.1x Balanced. The signal then ran through a Valhalla interconnect into a Lamm L2 Reference line stage. From there through 10 meters of Valhalla to the Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeaker’s crossover box. Then through Nordost ODIN into the Lamm ML2.1 amps. Finally, that nice old signal completed its mission through Jorma Design PRIME speaker cables.

We played, over and over again till we was about to die, three cuts: Mark Knophler’s Sailing to Philadelphia track #2, Rachmaninoff track #6, and Radiohead Amnesiac track #2. Neli and I know these cuts REAL well, and Kevin knew one of them [and now all of them :-)] really well, so these particular cuts helped us focus more on learning about how the songs sounded versus on learning the songs themselves. We played CD 1, then 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 in this pattern so that we would here some of the tracks back to back on different cables.


The PALLAS is still on the system this morning.

Neli did all the cable swapping, about 10 swaps in all. It took about 6+ hours. They went and got Vietnamese take out at about 2/3 of the way through. Yes, there WERE complaints about chewing sounds getting in the way of the listening. For my part, I just could not IMAGINE what Neli was chewing that would make such a noise. But, to rapidly continue on…. 😉

The cables finished the shootout in this order. Note the 3-way tie *(which we can help break for you based on your individual preferences, perhaps) and how the SOOTTO seemed to do better as a low-signal turntable cable compared to this one (that may be because this system, the Coltrane Supremes specifically, really likes to show off top-to-bottom detail and clarity – the SOOTTO being more about solidity and dynamics and color. As mentioned below, after some thought, it is perhaps the Kharmas love of dynamics that boosted the SOOTTO into a tie for first in that system]:

[[[Nordost Odin, Jorma Design PRIME, Audio Note PALLAS]]], Audio Note SOOTTO, Nordost Valhalla, Stealth INDRA, Audio Note SOGON.

Hopefully I will add some photos here… but… oh, I am!

*** Nordost ODIN. ***

Both the Odin and the PALLAS were doing things that we all found a little hard to get our ears around. I think that is both because they are relatively new here and that they are both breaking new ground in terms of what they can do.

The Odin was the clearly the overall audiophile performance winner. Front to back depth and separation was so good it took some time to get used to. The clarity was other worldly. The even-handedness up and down the frequency spectrum. The precise imaging. Precise harmonics. This is the only ‘competent’ interconnect, just like the Coltrane Supremes are the only competent loudspeaker – they just do the things they should be doing – nothing less, nothing more.

So why the 3-way tie then?

Was it just because we were tired of getting dry-mouth, forgetting to close them during all the ooohs and ahhhhs as we listened to the ODIN?

Yes.

But it was also because we really liked the intense color and apparent humanity of the human voice when using the PRIME (Kevin called it ‘Vivid’), and the ‘rightness’ and cohesiveness of the PALLAS.

We are very familiar with the PRIME, and the sound was therefore more accessible to all of us – it sounded like our system was sounding REALLY EXCELLENT with these cables. With the PALLAS it was like being there (especially the Rachmaninoff) and communicated much more of what I thought the musicians were trying to communicate – their interplay, the threads of melody, the stage – much more like REALLY being there than I have ever heard.

The Odin was more like… WTF! So THIS is what this recording sounds like. Seems like we need to reposition the speakers because we are getting some soundstage fuzziness… there… and THERE! [True.We do. The bass towers between the main towers is just not working out so well where we have them. We either need to to move the bass towers back or to the outside of the main towers].

We would be happy with any three of these cables. They all sounded excellent. The 10th time we played each song was as entrancing as the first – even though my brain was melting and it was hard to analyze what I was hearing at the very end anynore [but the last few songs were just a confirmation pass – yes we DID hear what we heard during the first pass, and yes, it is still quite nice thank you].

The Odin would, however, push us to optimize the rest of the system a little sooner – it being such a good window on what is actually on the source media. Just like the Supremes have forced us to continually improve our system. These definitely are pushing the audiophile envelope – raising the bar of what CAN be done with a high-end audio system.

*** The Jorma Design PRIME ***

Neli says there is chocolate on the Prime, and then she looks at ME(!) Now I ask the world, who is the chocolate addict in our house? No it is not me 🙂 [But I guess I do eat protein bars that have a chocolate coating… Oh no! Banished to the audiophile penalty box!]

This will be the hardest to write, I think, because we are SO familiar with the sound – I will have a tendency to skip over some of its attributes. On the other hand, Kevin was there, and he brought up things about this sound that was a reminder to me… Oh yeah, they DO do that don’t they.

That said, each time these cables were put on was a joy. We have NOT grown tired of what they do. In fact, it was still a WOW experience.

First off, the voices. The voices on Radiohead, for example – but the Knopler too, were clearly better than the voices with any other cable. The HUMANITY of the voice stood out. This sounds like a real person! Somehow the balance of the frequencies and resolution just works. The throat and chest and gutturalness was just perfect.

There was also a lot of color to the harmonics. Not overly much – in fact just the amount that I want to hear. For example: A lot of notes in music are just plain ‘fun notes’. If you had a button and it made this sound when you pushed it – you’d be sitting there all day pushing it over and over and over because it sounded so cool. Knopler ‘s guitar, a lot of the sounds [but not all :-)] on Radiohead, some of the violins on Rachmaninoff. Just like a kid we would be. Pushing that button over and over. But a lot of our systems leave out the ‘fun stuff’ in notes. This cable emphasizes the fun stuff.

This cable also had excellent separation, side-to-side and front-to-back. details were sufficiently plentiful that it kept us engaged as we continued to find new ones – new depth and characteristics of the performance – after the 10th [1000th] time we heard the track, etc. etc. [See, I TOLD you this is hard to write down everything we know].

Not as delicate sounding, not as much finesse, as the other two top contenders [something we thought we’d never hear ourselves say about the PRIME, which has details out the wazoo compared to most anything else on this planet here].

This was the most exuberant cable of the top three. Happy Happy. Enchanting. The PALLAS was joyous and romantic. The Odin was kind of like all emotions mixed together , being VERY emotional and engaging – but nothing stood out.

This cable is probably best, out of the ones we tested here – for people who love those audiophile-like performance characteristics, who want their system to sound really, really good – but don’t want to, or aren’t ready to, push the envelope and re-evaluate what they know about system setup and configuration and just what can… be… done… with the ODIN. [The ODIN *WILL* show you what your system sounds like – not in a harsh way, unless you have a bright system and are upgrading from something like CARDAS – but in a Oh! That is the contribution of my amp! Oh! That is my CD player. Hmmm… needs some vibration control to tighten THAT up a little bit. OK let’s do that. Oooooooooh. That sounds awesome. OK, sounds like the speakers need to be moved a wee bit to starboard… Yeah. Like that. OMG!].

*** Audio Note U.K. PALLAS ***

Confusing this one is, Luke.

In some ways that I did not understand, this one had a sound-stage stability and a lack of compression and a separation that equaled or bettered the Odin – but with an entirely different kind of presentation.

Lots of delicacy, so detail and micro-dynamics were there almost as extreme as with the Odin.

The solidity though was not as impressive as with the other two top contenders. This was definitely more of a light weight, in comparison, kind of presentation.

What I kept coming back to was the ‘Rightness’ about this sound. The soundstage was laid out in a realistic manner – but it was hard to care much. Each violin could be picked out [this was really quite fun], more or less right… THERE IT IS! But it was just like at a concert, where you can point at the musicians, but not know if they are wearing underwear or not. Or maybe this is another result of our non-optimal positioning of the speakers and we will hear more, like with the Odin, when we adjust this some.

Funny, the first few seconds of all these 3 cables was like an AAAAAAhhhhhhhh experience. “How pleasant it is to hear this sound after all the others. THIS is my favorite”.

Though this cable rivals or betters the other two cables in audiophile attribute checklisting, it seems to be more a music lover’s cable. It doesn’t ASTOUND one as much as the others.

The ODIN is for being Astounded and for helping make our system sound its very best – leaving others in the audiophile history bin. Do you want to build your system into a state-of-the-art WTF [e.g. a non-denominational OMG] system?

The PRIME is a plug-and-play conversion kit to make your system into a freaking-awesome-sounding system. Do you just want to make your system sound excellent?

The PALLAS is for listening to music on a system that matches or betters all others in audiophiledom, but doesn’t flaunt it. Do you just want to listen to and grok The Music?

*** Audio Note U.K. SOOTTO ***

Like with our previous shootout, this is a super-charged version of the SOGON. If you like SOGON, you HAVE to hear this.

After the second pass through the other cables, it was evident that this had greater macro-dynamics and more solidity of any of the other cables, which is saying something. Knoffler’s guitar sounded EXACTLY the way one would want it to sound. Made me want to put on Pink Floyd which is chock full of soulful and very colorful guitar. So, yes, this is also a very colorful / harmonically available cable. Not as much color as perhaps the PRIME, but the PRIME is almost psychedelic.

But the solidity, it is like the amp is taking more control of the speakers – each note is forcefully placed into the air. The musicians sound like they are in perfect control of their instruments.

And the interplay between musicians was also communicated better with these cables – which Kevin also independently mentioned – so the both of us noticed, on the Rachmoninoff, the back an forth and interplay between the musicians… something I was hard pressed to identify later on the other cables.

Why didn’t it score higher? There was some air missing, perhaps? Some slight lack of detail in the upper mids? A little bit of rounding? Last night we were just in the mood for something a little more copasetic with the Supremes – which really, really like Resolution. Downstairs on the Kharma Mini Exquisites a few weeks ago, in the other shootout, it was a slightly different story – the Kharmas really being partial to anything which makes them more dynamic.

*** Nordost Valhalla ***

The old champion. How technology has advanced. Still hanging in there though. A little rough sounding compared to the others, good midi-dynamics though. Separation is good in a macro sense, but details are smushed together compared to the others.

*** Stealth INDRA ***

A delicate sounding cable. Very pretty midi-dynamics, but not much macro dynamics. A little more congested than the others.

*** Audio Note U.K. SOGON 50 ***

A little more laid back than the others. If we hadn’t heard the others…. But not as exciting as the others on our system.

*** More Others ***

From previous shootouts, we know we like the Nordost Valhalla interconnect better than the Valhalla digital cable. We like the Valhalla digital very slightly better than the Jorma Design digital.

Getting the picture?

Digital cables are not performing as well as their siblings who are just ordinary interconnects.


I took 6 pages of large scribbley notes – most of which I still have to add to this post. So, stay tuned….!

————————————————–
Notes:

ODIN: A larger impact than expected perhaps 75% of the performance boost of putting it in as a regular interconnect? ENGAGING. Emotion. Pacing.

PALLAS: Not as forward. Great integration, image stability, presence, sound-staging. Less aggressive. Emphatic (Kevin). Balls [Neli]. Great sound-stage fill-in. Softer and more delicacy. Romance. Not quite as good PRaT. A little congested in the mids. Better sense of the music. “Rightness”.

SOOTTO: Not as clear. Very pleasant. More like a classic recording sound. Clearer view into interplay between instruments (Kevin aslso). Not as transparent. More solid. Awesome control over the speaker. Guitar is S-O-L-I-D. Not as engaging. Some of the instruments in the background are more forward (Kevin also).

PRIME: Solidty of voice! Not as delicate as Pallas or Odin. Separation alsmost as good as Pallas and Odin. Happy Happy. Almost as forward as Odin. Good PRaT, tonal color. Happy. Great transparency.

INDRA: Congestion on complex passages. Less midi-dynamics. More focused on speakers. In the delicate-sounding cable category. Constipated. [these do a lot better on stronger signal areas of the signal chain like between pre and amp]. Some emotion. A nice audiophile sound – but not great resolution [compared to the other uber resolution cables here!].

VALHALLA: Rougher than Indra, but more emotion, suspense. Less resolution. More separation, more midi-dynamics. Louder. Less finesse. Made Indra sound too polite. Less transparent. More compressive on macro dynamics. Focused on speakers and center stage. [This is the cable we usually use in this position – as it WAS better than all the other cables we had tried before – not wanting to know, perhaps, what these more expensive cables could do in this little corner of the system – until now of course].

ROUND TWO ——–

ODIN: Amazing separation and CLEAN. The incredible depth of the soundstage, more than we are used to, throwing off perception transparency a little? [I know, almost a complete sentence in my notes!]. Harder to integrate into a whole. A RELIEF [like Valhalla used to be for us – no B.S.]. Pretty, uncompressed. Not at all focused on speaker. Good PRaT.

PRIME: Singer more human. Better presence. Less separation. This amount of congestion / compression / constipation is comforting because we are so used to it? More like a stereo system [than real]? Very enchanting.

PALLAS: Beyond separation – more like spreaderation – an evenness to the spread of soundstaging, of the management of the distance between notes. Uncompressed. Rightness. Less digital. PRaT. Happy. Natural. Wide natural soundstage. Lighter weight on the guitar than the other two.

in Audio Note / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Jorma Design / Nordost / Reviews 5 comments
 by Michael

Shootout: Audio Note Interconnects: Sogon versus SOOTTO versis PALLAS

A shootout! A shootout!

OK, in this corner weighing in at, well, it is the heaviest cable, is the new top-of-the-line SOOTTO [SO Over The TOp].

In this other corner is the new 50 strand version of the legendary SOGON.

And in this other corner [a lot of corners, yes] is the new limited-quantity low-capacitance minimally shielded PALLAS.


A photo of a 1.5m SOOTTO and 1m SOGON cable. The PALLAS is still on the system (see below).


The SOOTTO is about 50% larger in thickness than this new SOGON50 which appears to be slightly larger than the old SOGON cable.


The PALLAS low capacitance cable on the back of the TT3 Reference turntable. The current configuration is not shielded.

We tested the cables going from the step-up transformer to the Lamm LP2 phono stage and ultimately to the Kharma Mini Exquisites. So this was a test of the low-signal handling capability of the cables on a system that does not have a lot of capacity for detailed bass below 30 Hz or so [but has one of the highest capabilities of midrange resolution of any speaker on the planet].

We think of the AN SOGON cable as analogous to the Nordost Valhalla [which is familiar to many people] – and in general applications, one can be swapped for the other in a reasonably well-designed system with the overall performance remaining about the same.

What this means in practice, is that the upper mids and low treble are more or less the same – and this is the area of most information.

Where they vary, and become useful in customizing a particular system, is that the SOGON has more color in the mid and lower mids, and the Valhalla has more detail in the lows and some of the highs. At least, to a first approximation, this is how we use them.

The second order approximation [i.e. finer differences] come into play when looking at separation and transparency [Valhalla] and continuousness, soundstage consistency, midi-dynamics [SOGON].

The SOOTTO is like a nuclear-powered SOGON.

The [having a hard time thinking about how to describe this very basic attribute], the *power* of the notes are clearly unmatched by any cable we have heard here before. Kind of like a Mohammad Ali punch when he is just playing around – it doesn’t hurt you, but the fists are humongous and you can feel the strength in each note.

Similarly the naturalness of the color of the notes and the smoothness of the transition of the notes one into the other [so that riffs inside melodies were easier to follow] is also exceptional and unmatched [though the Jorma PRIME has a more *vivid* color spectrum].

It was agreed that this was definitely a WOW! and WHOA!!! kind of experience. Reminds me of those Strongman competitions. Other enhancements were the tactility of the notes [not so much the presence, nor solidity, though these were excellent, and related, to tactility but the feeling that one could go up and hug the notes, as opposed to the people or instruments making the notes].

We liked it and it was kind of hard to think about going back to SOGON after doing the shootout [funny, but before a shootout, swapping things here-there-and-everywhere, the differences aren’t so present in one’s mind, but after a shootout where you sit and explicitly listen for differences – you are screwed].

Finally the PALLAS.

First, let’s deal with the unshieldedness. In the position that you see it in in the photo, there is some hum. Not much, and only barely audible from the sweet spot. Compared to the oh so wonderful WBT RCA connectors, which generate hum in that position at about 60-70dB, and make the cables that use them worth less than lamp cord, the hum from the PALLAS is nothing.

The PALLAS is designed by AN for low signal strength connections, and we have not tried it anywhere else.

OK. It is hard to compare the PALLAS to anything we have here. Because of this it will require more listening. But…

It has separation as good or better than the Valhalla – but not as clear sounding – but more clear than the SOOTTO. It sounded more musical than anything we heard in this test. Great transparency, but not like that of, say, the ODIN – things are not outlined with that kind of preciseness – it is more like the center of things is more solid than the edges, but that the roll off of the solidity was exactly what one [me anyway] would expect when one thinks about analog [as opposed to digital].

So, for me, I liked the PALLAS the best and SOOTTO second best in this test. I would hate to live without either – they are so different and I love being able to switch back and forth sometimes. Over time this may change – maybe after we get over the WHOA! experience with the SOOTTO we will come to prefer it. But in general I like the slightly more clean sound of the PALLAS which still retains the harmonics and dynamics of its brethren, if not the impact and POWER.

Again, a reminder, this shootout was for small signal connections. These results are for interconnects between turntable to phono stage, and probably the same results would be achieved between a transport to DAC. Some cables do better than others at this: Stealth INDRA for example does not work nearly as well as Valhalla [and for some reason we have never tried the Jorma Design PRIME. Well, maybe Neli has…]. In fact, we liked and use the plain old Valhalla RCA interconnects almost exclusively in this low-signal capacity. The Odin is better than the Valhalla in low signal connections – and the resultant purity of the overall sound is what dreams are made of – but Odin kicks Valhalla butt all the way to the Moon in high-strength connections, and since our supply of Odin is, so far, uh, limited, you would see Valhalla serving in this capacity here most of the time.

But now we have a few more cables that have proven themselves to be better at the low-signal thang in at least one situation. So next time we move things around, we’ll have More Work to do figuring our which cable sounds best. Oh boy.

I mean, Oh BOY!!! [actually, I do enjoy these shootouts very much, though the turning on and off of equipment over and over is kind of stressful – on the equipment specifically, and making sure we don’t hook up something backwards, or the in to the out, takes some amount of, uh, hmmmmm…. paying attention to the physical world when I just want to focus on the sonic world].

Well, there you have it. There needs to be another shootout, specifically for normal connections, and hopefully in that shootout we will revisit this shootout with any updates, if necessary.

in Audio Note / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Reviews 1 comments