UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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Listening Room T h a t i s o f course the case with the Unidisk, but setting up initial preferences also requires a video display. Our solution: a tiny monochrome TV with a video input, C$14.97 at Wal-Mart. Visitors look quizzically at the tiny set, and we tell them they’re looking at our new home theatre setup. Long silences! Because the Unidisk is so many players in one, the test turned, inevitably, into several tests. The Unidisk as CD player We began with a disc that is new to us, a collection of wind band music by contemporary composer Norman Dello Joio (Klavier K11138), specifi cally his Fantasia on a Theme of Haydn. It opens with considerable percussive action, which shook the Alpha room when we heard it with our reference player. With the Linn, to our surprise, it was even more solid and powerful. “That tympani sure gets the job done!” remarked Albert. But there’s much more to this fascinating music than percussion, and the Linn made it all glow. The woodwinds were smooth and realistic, the bassoons particularly enthralling. The brass was bright in the right way, without a trace of annoying shrillness. All of the instruments were easier to identify within a space that seemed to acquire an extra dimension. Our favorite choral recording, Now the Green Blade Riseth, can sound superb, but we have heard certain players — not to mention some amplifi ers and speakers — 32 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine turn it into an ear-shattering mess. Of course we knew the Unidisk wouldn’t do that, but it delivered rather more than we had expected. The challenge in reproducing choral voices is to keep them separately identifiable, and at the same time to meld them together into a whole as the conductor intends. The Linn handled the voices perfectly, and the music was so well served that we didn’t fi nd ourselves writing much. This is how the piece should sound. We continued with a Gospel blues piece, Ain’t No Grave from Doug McLeod’s Come to Find (Audioquest AQCD1027). Before McLeod begins to sing, there is an introduction by his guitar and various percussion instruments, and we were surprised to discover how much more we could hear with the Linn player. This wasn’t a matter of hearing some of the percussion more clearly, but of hearing it at all. “Come to fi nd” indeed! The rest of the song? It seemed to go by rather quickly, an impression we’d had with the previous two pieces as well. “McLeod’s voice seemed a little hoarse with our old player,” commented Gerard, “but not with the Unidisk.” The voices of the choral backup singers were clear but nicely velvety. We wound up this part of the test with Margie Gibson singing Soft Lights and Sweet Music, from her Irving Berlin album Say It With Music (Sheffield CD-36). The song exudes such magic you’d think no player could possibly get it wrong, but we have enough experience to know better. The Linn Unidisk made it sound better than we had ever heard it before, and indeed this had been the CD that had convinced us to clear all the other candidates off our shopping list. What adjectives to use? Magical? Sensuous? Voluptuous? “Listening to it made me wish I were a man,” said Reine, “if it would mean being sung to by a woman like that.” If Gibson’s voice was perfect, with no trace of the hardness it sometimes acquires, we were equally impressed with the eerily realistic sound of the piano, cello and double bass that accompany her. Is this the world’s best CD player? In any case, it can do much, much more than whatever is in second place. SACD takes on the CD We live in an age of conspiracy theories. Not only are there dark theories about the JFK assassination and the Apollo moon landings, but there is a current belief that companies making hybrid SACDs deliberately sabotage the CD Red Book layer to make the SACD layer sound better by comparison. Fortunately, it’s possible to compare an SACD with the same release on a conventional Compact Disc. And that was how we began our comparison. One of our favorite test pieces is Eric Bibb’s Needed Time Gospel song, found on his Spirit and the Blues album. We played the CD version (Opus 3 CD19401) and then the SACD version (CD19411). The CD sounds excellent, as we have long known. What could SACD add? Lots, it turned out. The guitar licks in the opening fi lled a three-dimensional space most effectively. Bibb’s voice had a certain softness, and even a sweetness, that it lacked on the CD version, but the player certainly didn’t hide anything from us. The harmonica solo was gorgeous, and the second guitar, a bottleneck, was downright spectacular. “Musicians work so hard to give us these pleasing effects,” said Reine, “and I’ll bet they don’t suspect that it’s actually possible for us to hear them.” The Unidisk can be set to play the Red Book layer of an SACD, as can some other players. We pulled out Opus 3’s Showcase SACD (CD21000), and ran a comparison on the jazz number Comes Love. We should mention that this piece is also available on conventional CD, but that CD is processed in HDCD; unlike
most other Linn players, the Unidisk has no HDCD decoder. Indeed, because we are used to hearing the properly-decoded HDCD version, we thought the CD layer of the hybrid disc sounded a touch fl at, and Reine found the usually humorous sousaphone raspy and incoherent. Changing to the SACD layer brought a spectacular improvement, with the instruments moving apart in space. Despite the separation, the counterpoints — especially that between the clarinet and the saxophone — were considerably enhanced. The sound was warm, lyrical and detailed, and indeed the piece sounded better than we had ever heard it before. We continued with a classical recording, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Pentatone 5186 114). This 1974 Philips recording was copied directly from one of the original analog recorders into the Digital Sound Stream encoder. Even the CD layer was excellent, with none of the all-too-frequent Compact Disc nasties. The SACD layer, on the other hand, was… Well, here we go lapsing into impenetrable Latin again. But the entire report is available in the print issue. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la consequisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor perciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vullute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil dunt ipit, quisi. Ud tetum venis aut aut ad tem eugait iniat nulputatet, consequis ad ea feugueraessi exer ing etum duisit lumsandreet pratiscing esto eu faccccummod magnim zzrit lore eum zzrilla faccumm odigna feugiam, vel er sit autpat. Dui bla faccum do euismodolore magna faciduisl utat wis autpat, quat el dit wisit, sequat am iusci tionsequi tat, si. Ut wiscin henis eum irit, velessis adit ad et in exerilis augue modoloboreet wisi. Irit lum nulla feugiamcore minis alit lorerci llaore doleniam, vercilit il ut luptat la consed dipisi tio odionsequis exeraesed magna feuis adiam, conulla metuer inis dit velit, cor il utet, commy nosto coreet lor sustrud duissismod tatetummy nulla facin etum verosto odignis acipsusto odolorper si. Mincillandre vel ipismod min eugiam volestis nos nim esto dit laor sim ad tat, cor in ut irit adit in vulla feummod olorem aut at. Putat nis augiat. Ugait nos augait velestie faciduis nummy nonsed del il enisisi sciduipsum alit atumsandit vullaor eratummy nim volessectet num el ut dolorero conullaore diatum iurem alit lumsan exerci blam, vercipisi blamet nummy nullut venis numsan henim doloreet nos ea adio ea aut ilis elit, sed erit praesto od tatinci tio eliqui tat. Aci elenim zzrit lorperat. Wis accummod doloreriure tat. Borem zzriuscipsum dionsenim zzriliq uamconulla consed dolor sendreros nostrud tet alis augiam dolummy nostrud mod modo exerius cillut vel duismod ming eros nullupt atismoleniam iusto consenisl dunt ullandre tat prat, quat. Henissi smoloboreet, sequatet lore core facilla ndiatum quatie vullutpatum alit ea corem doloreet laor sed tat in velit la core verat niam vulla faccum eros ent autat. Adigna facidunt nullamet, se delesti ncidunt prat, veliquis at. Ute digna augue delis nim volore tat. Ure corem velis adiam, sequisl euis augiam, quat non henim vel ullaorem er am nos nonsenis at aliquatuero. Mincidui tem quis dolutpate min veliquate tat nibh essecte dui tin venit iniatue voloree tumsan vendre tisci ex ercilit praesto dolore dit nim euguer sequipit nostin ut ero enibh eugiametue min ver sisit, sit alit irilism odolore feum dunt aut nis alit dunt autat. Duisci esequat nonsequ ipsuscidunt la consequisim vel erit praesent inis augiat, quam, commodit adipiscilisl diam acilluptatio enit utpate feu feu faci tem nos dolenis niat la alisim volobor incip et wisi blaore estrud dolore feugait ute feum duis aliqui blan ute minissi tet vullam veliquipit nostio odit dit ero od el eugiam, consecte magna commy nostrud eugait ad tem init, volore feugue do dolore vullaor perciniamet veraesed tat wis nulla faci eugue min ex ex ex eu feu faciliquat. Ex eugiam, quat alisim er susci tat nonse doloreetue facilit essecte molor accum dolore dipit ut am, consecte tat. Met pratie dit il dionsequis nulput aliquat acing ex et lore duisi blaor am vullandre dolorting ex exerat, cor init iriureet vel et, suscil dip et nim ilit lam, quis aut vel esed dolor sit nit del il dunt am am zzrillandre ent alisim veniam quis do doloreetue vullute magna feugait ad doloreet, con erit aliqui tem inim dolorti onullam coreros do conse min utat ad te faciliquipit autem alit autem ip ex ea facipit volenit ad magniate exer susto dipsustio eugait utpat, volore consequat. Del iurem vel incing eu feugait, quipsusto et, quisl ilit dunt do eugait aci tem dolore consecte tat, volorem zzriliquam, summodiam, consenit lortion hendio odolupt atetuer si. Nullam diat. Ipit pratet, sed tat vercin hent dolor iriustrud magnit prat. Gue mod tie eu facincil ent ad et wisis at alis alit wis ex eummod esto el eum quiscil ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 33 Listening Room
Page 1 and 2: No. 70 $4.99 ISSN 0847-1851 Canadia
Page 3 and 4: Issue No. 70 Cover story: The ultim
Page 5 and 6: DOG-EARS ARE FOR DOGS! Some audioph
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