THE CD PLAYER PLUS - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

favorite violin recordings, the Dvorak
Romantic Pieces with violinist James
Ehnes (Analekta FL 2 3191). The violin
is a challenge for any digital system,
because its sound is so rich in upper
harmonics, which digital doesn’t always
handle well.
The Airport Express didn’t handle it
as well as the Eximus player itself had, of
course, but it sinned more by omission
than by commission. The melody flowed
with great transparency and fluidity.
So did the piano accompaniment. It
sounded very good, and unless you heard
better you might not realize you were
missing something.
But some aspects of the music were
missing nonetheless. “There’s less of the
violin’s woody resonance,” said Albert,
“and you lose some of Ehnes’ subtle
bow work.” There were several signs of
diminished resolution, but the liquid
character of the sound kept it from ever
being disturbing. Not perfect, but not
bad.
We had another voice recording
on tap: soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian
singing Pauline Viardot-Garcia’s Haï
Luli (Analekta AN 2 9903). We have
toured shows with this one too, and it is
common for other visitors to ask us for
the record number.
Once again we were impressed by the
sense of flow to the music transmitted by
the Airport Express. Albert proclaimed
this the most successful recording yet,
and he noted that, as in the violin piece,
the accompanying piano flowed like a
mountain stream. Bayrakdarian’s voice
was clear and touching, the words satisfyingly
audible.
And yet, despite the fact we were
using the same converter (that of the
Eximus) for both sides of the comparison,
there were notable losses. Louder
passages did not sound quite right, and
we were less mesmerized by the illusion
that the singer was really present before
us. “It’s a bit like listening to the CD on
FM radio,” said Toby, “but with a notbad
tuner.”
Our fourth recording was of another
solo instrument, acoustic guitar. We
played the romantic ballad Rosa from
the album Seresta Brasileira (Milestone
MCD-9212-2), by Baden Powell (the
guitarist, not the founder of the Scout
as they are for loudspeakers, but the
Airport Express did well with the song,
perhaps better than it had with any of
the previous selections.
“At the very beginning,” said Albert,
“you can sense her eagerness to get into
the song. The emotion of the song comes
through.” Indeed, even the shortcomings
were turned into advantages. “There’s
less resolution, and the lower register is
less rich,” said Toby, “but that means it’s
a little less ‘zippy’ too. I got a better sense
of the sort of song this is, and I enjoyed
it.”
A first conclusion: getting music from
hard disc in this way results in sound that
is always pleasant and — this is perhaps
even more important — never annoying.
Could we make it a little better yet?
Some variations
The optical cable we had used might
movement). This recording is a delight, have a famous (or infamous some would
at least it is when it is played properly. say) name on it, but it looks like the
Not just hardware…
And the Airport Express did well sort of product you’d pick up in a dollar
with it. The melody came through fine, store. Of course lots of companies make
What long-time readers tell us they most like about UHF is that it
and in every way we found the experi- optical cables, but few have the minidoes
more than review amplifiers and speakers.
ence pleasant. Of course we did notice TOSLINK connector that will fit the
In every issue, we discuss ideas.
the somewhat thicker sound, which Airport Express. We found another, with
We try to tell you what you need to know, besides what CD player to
kept us from hearing how terrific this no brand name but a fit and finish that
buy.
guitarist truly is. “There’s more string put the Monster to shame (the two are
It’s one of the features that makes UHF Magazine unlike any other
noise,” said Toby, “and it stands in for shown below). We added an inexpensive
audio magazine.
the missing detail. There is a lot to like, mini-TOSLINK adapter, and we were
though when we played the CD there good to go.
was just more of it.”
We played the Margie Gibson song
We ended with a song by Margie once more, and the difference between
Gibson, not from her famous Sheffield the two optical links was evident for all
recording Say It With Music, but from her three of us.
self-produced album All We Need to Know There was simply more detail for
(Gibson Girl Music GG-1). We played A one thing. The sibilance (Margie was
Song For You, familiar from versions by quite close to the microphone for this
Karen Carpenter and Leon Russell, but recording) was a little more evident, but
which Gibson sings particularly well. so were lots of musical cues. There was
Of course female singers are a lots more to the solo cello that opens the
challenge for digital playback systems, song, and we could hear Margie’s breathing.
“There’s much more energy in the
double bass,” said Toby, and the ‘liquidity’
is back too.” The softly-brushed
snare drum was a delight.
This was getting pretty good, and
Gerard thought it was good enough to
compete with many a CD player with
audiophile pretensions.
We’ve already mentioned that some
computers have the same hybrid output
jack as the Airport Express. We copied
Margie Gibson’s song to the hard drive
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 53
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