April 2015 SAC Meeting
For our April meeting we had a CD player shootout. We had 4 disc players to compare;
Given that the AMR CD-777 played only CDs, we limited our comparison session to the CD layer to ensure a level playing field. The winner of the comparison was later used for our BYO session.
Details of the system…
AMR CD-777 CD player – Courtesy of Cameron Keating of MaxMedia in Melbourne. Refer to http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/AMR_777_SERIES.html. To quote Cameron… “Exclusively using the Philips UDA1305AT Multibit chipset, a bespoke transport and premium quality valves, backed with cherry-picked components, the CD-777’s atypical approach surpasses digital source machines costing several times more …. The CD-777 is the first type of what AMR’s refers to as a “music hub”. Using the absolute highest quality design and execution, the CD-777 is first, a high-end CD processor. Second, able to receive a digital signal in from a PC or transport either through USB or S/P-DIF without the usual increase in jitter, it can be used as an accomplished DAC. Third, able to send out a digital signal through S/P-DIF to an external DAC or computer, it can function as an exceptionally well-designed transport source.” The RRP of the AMR is $6250 AUD.
Esoteric X-03SE CD/SACD player. Refer to http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/x03se/indexe.html and http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/esoteric14/x03se.html. Utilises Esoteric’s high precision VRDS-NEO transport mechanism. 6 Moons gave a Blue Moon recommendation … “the X03-SE gets another strong vote of confidence and an unconditional confirmation of its prior Blue Moon status”. The X-03SE is now discontinued, but had a RRP of approx. $13,000 AUD.
Marantz UD7007 universal player – This is a player that has been heavily modified by club member Bill Louey. For detail about the player in its original spec, refer to http://www.audioholics.com/blu-ray-and-dvd-player-reviews/marantz-ud7007-blu-ray-player and a Five-Star review from What HiFi http://www.whathifi.com/marantz/ud7007/review. To quote What HiFi .. “It has a powerful and bold presentation that makes most alternatives sound insubstantial. There’s also lots of sonic detail and a huge sense of scale.“. The UD7007 has a RRP of approx. $1500 AUD. When asked about the upgrades he did to his player, Bill said he thought they may have totalled a further $2000 AUD.
Oppo BDP-105 universal player – We included the Oppo as a late addition to the player line up because we realized it would be a player that many would be familiar with it. This provided them the opportunity to establish a yardstick so to speak, a reference point. The RRP of the Oppo is around $1800 AUD.
Classe CP800 pre – connected to the power amp via Vertere XLR. Refer to http://www.classeaudio.com/products/cp-800.php and http://www.stereophile.com/content/class233-cp-800-da-preamplifier.
Plinius SA250 Mk4 amp – connected to speakers with Nordost Frey. Refer to http://www.pliniusaudio.com/Plinius_Range/Power_Amplifiers/SA_Reference.html and http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/506plinius/index.html.
Energy Veritas 1.8 Floorstander speakers – Refer to http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/energy-speaker-systems/veritas-v1-8/prd_122534_1594crx.aspx and http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/551/
A couple of days before our meeting, I’d selected 4 tracks that were short in length and diverse in genre and vocals and instrumentation. The CD layer of each was burned to a single CD-R disc. All 4 tracks totalled less than 10 minutes. The tracks were:
To avoid too many cables swaps, we played all four tracks on each player in turn.
After we finished playing each player (but before we voted), we pitted the Oppo and Marantz against each other by playing the same track on both, back to back. Bill selected a track for this. There were differences but apparently nothing that people thought significant as no opinions were voiced.
We then took a vote on which player people thought was best. For the first time in recent memory, we had a tie for first place – the AMR and the Esoteric both garnered 8 votes each. The Marantz won 3 votes and the Oppo just 1. That totalled only 19 votes, so obviously many people chose to not vote at all. We then used the two winners of the comparison for our BYO session (we swapped cables according to the preference of the person whose music we played).
Long-time member Ian Reid took note of which winning player scored the most number of plays in our BYO session: the Esoteric had 7 plays whereas the AMR had 5 plays. In terms of comments on the feedback forms: 5 people said they preferred the Esoteric, 2 people said they preferred the AMR.
We had one person suggest (on their feedback form) that we hold a blind test of components. I did consider this for the CD player comparison, it is a valid suggestion. However, in this instance I decided against it. I have however, suggested to the Committee that we do have a blind test meeting in the future. As you probably know, many consider blind tests to be unreliable and inconclusive (Stereophile included). Nevertheless, it could be a bit of fun.
In closing, I’d like to thank Bill Louey (Marantz), Andrew Baldwin (Oppo), Stephanos Eliades (Esoteric), Cameron Keating (AMR) and Steven Polley (all the rest!) for bring in all the gear. It’s great to see the members working together to provide us all such a successful club meeting.
Tom Waters
- AMR CD-777 CD player (with recent upgrades)
- Esoteric X-03SE CD/SACD player
- Marantz UD7007 universal player
- Oppo BDP-105 universal player
Given that the AMR CD-777 played only CDs, we limited our comparison session to the CD layer to ensure a level playing field. The winner of the comparison was later used for our BYO session.
Details of the system…
AMR CD-777 CD player – Courtesy of Cameron Keating of MaxMedia in Melbourne. Refer to http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/AMR_777_SERIES.html. To quote Cameron… “Exclusively using the Philips UDA1305AT Multibit chipset, a bespoke transport and premium quality valves, backed with cherry-picked components, the CD-777’s atypical approach surpasses digital source machines costing several times more …. The CD-777 is the first type of what AMR’s refers to as a “music hub”. Using the absolute highest quality design and execution, the CD-777 is first, a high-end CD processor. Second, able to receive a digital signal in from a PC or transport either through USB or S/P-DIF without the usual increase in jitter, it can be used as an accomplished DAC. Third, able to send out a digital signal through S/P-DIF to an external DAC or computer, it can function as an exceptionally well-designed transport source.” The RRP of the AMR is $6250 AUD.
Esoteric X-03SE CD/SACD player. Refer to http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/x03se/indexe.html and http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/esoteric14/x03se.html. Utilises Esoteric’s high precision VRDS-NEO transport mechanism. 6 Moons gave a Blue Moon recommendation … “the X03-SE gets another strong vote of confidence and an unconditional confirmation of its prior Blue Moon status”. The X-03SE is now discontinued, but had a RRP of approx. $13,000 AUD.
Marantz UD7007 universal player – This is a player that has been heavily modified by club member Bill Louey. For detail about the player in its original spec, refer to http://www.audioholics.com/blu-ray-and-dvd-player-reviews/marantz-ud7007-blu-ray-player and a Five-Star review from What HiFi http://www.whathifi.com/marantz/ud7007/review. To quote What HiFi .. “It has a powerful and bold presentation that makes most alternatives sound insubstantial. There’s also lots of sonic detail and a huge sense of scale.“. The UD7007 has a RRP of approx. $1500 AUD. When asked about the upgrades he did to his player, Bill said he thought they may have totalled a further $2000 AUD.
Oppo BDP-105 universal player – We included the Oppo as a late addition to the player line up because we realized it would be a player that many would be familiar with it. This provided them the opportunity to establish a yardstick so to speak, a reference point. The RRP of the Oppo is around $1800 AUD.
Classe CP800 pre – connected to the power amp via Vertere XLR. Refer to http://www.classeaudio.com/products/cp-800.php and http://www.stereophile.com/content/class233-cp-800-da-preamplifier.
Plinius SA250 Mk4 amp – connected to speakers with Nordost Frey. Refer to http://www.pliniusaudio.com/Plinius_Range/Power_Amplifiers/SA_Reference.html and http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/506plinius/index.html.
Energy Veritas 1.8 Floorstander speakers – Refer to http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/energy-speaker-systems/veritas-v1-8/prd_122534_1594crx.aspx and http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/551/
A couple of days before our meeting, I’d selected 4 tracks that were short in length and diverse in genre and vocals and instrumentation. The CD layer of each was burned to a single CD-R disc. All 4 tracks totalled less than 10 minutes. The tracks were:
- “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra and Count Basie from the album “It Might As Well Be Spring”.
- “You And Me” by Zakir Hussain from the album “Making Music”.
- “Somewhere, Somebody” by Jennifer Warnes from the album “The Hunter”. My apologies to those that quite disliked the Jennifer Warnes track (as noted on the feedback forms). However, some quite liked it. Of course, you can’t please everyone.
- “Suite No 2 for orchestra in D major HWV 349 Prélude” by Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations from the album “Handel Water Music; Music for the Royal Fireworks”.
To avoid too many cables swaps, we played all four tracks on each player in turn.
- First up, we listened to the Marantz UD7007. It sounded smooth and a bit polite – it had good bass, good tonality and the proper shimmer of cymbals and triangles.
- Next we listened to the AMR CD-777. It was smoother still with slightly rounded bass, great vocals and softness in the highs. It was quite detailed and gorgeous sounding, and stayed well away from what people might label as digital. The magic was possibly due to it being valve driven in the output stage.
- Next we listened to the Esoteric X-03SE. It was quite incisive, direct, detailed. But it wasn’t harsh sounding or bright. It was quite faithful to the recording – if the recording was bad it let you know.
- Lastly was the Oppo BDP-105. I own the older Oppo BDP-95 at home. I find it quite unsatisfactory to listen to music discs through the 95. To my ears, it lacks transparency and is hard/whitish sounding especially in the highs. (Great for Blu-ray movies though!) So I was pleasantly surprized to hear the immense improvement in the BDP-105. Its sound was considerably more transparent with less grain. Very good tonality with tighter bass than I remember from the 95.
After we finished playing each player (but before we voted), we pitted the Oppo and Marantz against each other by playing the same track on both, back to back. Bill selected a track for this. There were differences but apparently nothing that people thought significant as no opinions were voiced.
We then took a vote on which player people thought was best. For the first time in recent memory, we had a tie for first place – the AMR and the Esoteric both garnered 8 votes each. The Marantz won 3 votes and the Oppo just 1. That totalled only 19 votes, so obviously many people chose to not vote at all. We then used the two winners of the comparison for our BYO session (we swapped cables according to the preference of the person whose music we played).
Long-time member Ian Reid took note of which winning player scored the most number of plays in our BYO session: the Esoteric had 7 plays whereas the AMR had 5 plays. In terms of comments on the feedback forms: 5 people said they preferred the Esoteric, 2 people said they preferred the AMR.
We had one person suggest (on their feedback form) that we hold a blind test of components. I did consider this for the CD player comparison, it is a valid suggestion. However, in this instance I decided against it. I have however, suggested to the Committee that we do have a blind test meeting in the future. As you probably know, many consider blind tests to be unreliable and inconclusive (Stereophile included). Nevertheless, it could be a bit of fun.
In closing, I’d like to thank Bill Louey (Marantz), Andrew Baldwin (Oppo), Stephanos Eliades (Esoteric), Cameron Keating (AMR) and Steven Polley (all the rest!) for bring in all the gear. It’s great to see the members working together to provide us all such a successful club meeting.
Tom Waters