Paul wasn't talking about the Yamaha, and it would be unfair to single out this excellent machine for special criticism when the same comment might be made about many, if not most, other CD players. But I did find this sense of something "going on," and I can't help but wonder whether or not it has something to do with bit-shifting. It especially makes me nervous when Yamaha talks about the bit-shifting scheme operating like a dynamic noise reducer. Noise reduction is probably one reason why I so passionately hate cassettes—it takes away from the certainty and the solidity of the music.
All this may be moot, of course, if Yamaha goes to true 18-bit DACs in their next generation of players. Meanwhile, this does not take away from what Yamaha has achieved right now. This is one fine-sounding player. It might even be the best I have heard to date at any price.
Tracking, if you are keeping track, is excellent. The CDX1110 tracked through track 35 of Disc 2 of the Pierre Verany test set with nary a glitch, hiccup, or warble.
And the CDX1110 has one unusual feature I must mention: the analog outputs are not fixed, they are variable. And the volume control, conveniently adjustable from the remote control, is said to operate in the digital domain—a benefit, says Yamaha, of all this shifting bit business. So maybe it is a boon rather than a bane.
Incidentally, I preferred the Yamaha with my discs naked—no rings. I felt the rings were rolling off the exquisite highs (footnote 2).
Onkyo DX-G10: $2500
"This is a CD player?" asked my UPS delivery man. "I thought it was a Threshold or a Krell or something."
The Onkyo DX-G10 weighs 60 pounds! And lists for $2500.
It is by far the biggest, heaviest CD player I have had in my system. And it's beautifully made, too. Elegant, uncluttered design—Yamaha could certainly take some lessons. Piano-black side panels—beautiful. Welcome features include a large knob for variable forward and reverse—why didn't someone else think of that? The Onkyo DX-G10 has another terrific feature: you can dim or turn off the display with a push of a button on the remote. What a blessing to those of us who often listen in the dark.
Sonically, this player—which has true 18-bit DACs with 8x oversampling—is most impressive. Dynamics are particularly rewarding. This player can really open up and let it rip on passages like the final movement of the Manfred. The bass is firm and tight. Instruments are precisely localized, and, unlike the Yamaha, emerge from a background of silence.
The DX-G10 strikes me as having the creamy-textured smoothness I have come to associate with Onkyo products. The sound is unfatiguing, quite lovely at times, and yet it can become uninvolving. Never irritable, just bland. I just wish there were more air and sparkle, more life.
There were times when I really loved this player's solidity in reproducing the dynamics of a piano. But even there I missed a satisfying sense of the acoustical environment in which that piano was located. Have we got some phase shift going on here?
Features on this player include a polarity switch to change absolute phase (useful), and the aforementioned display dimmer. All the controls functioned flawlessly except for one glitch. Sometimes, unpredictably, a disc would not load—the display gave a reading of zeros and the machine would not play. I had to shut off the machine, clearing the microprocessor. This worked every time—I was then able to play the disc. A minor glitch, but still not a problem I should have encountered in a $2500 machine. The DX-G10 tracked up to Track 31 of Disc 2 of the Pierre Verany test disc set, started to hiccup on Tracks 32 and 33, and faltered badly on Track 34. The Magnavox CDB582 did much better at one-tenth the price.
This is a good player—beautifully built and exquisitely designed. I wish I had found it less lacking in life, light, and sparkle. As it is, I must tell you that I preferred the Yamaha at less than half the price.
Conclusions
Each of these four players is attractive in some ways—the price of the Magnavox, the clarity of the Adcom, the sweetness and spaciousness of the Yamaha, the authority and dynamics of the Onkyo. But none of them completely blows me away, although the Yamaha did pass my ultimate test: I was never once tempted during a listening session to turn the player off and listen to LPs! All the other machines ultimately had me fleeing to my turntable. On the other hand, I still like my turntable set-up better than the Yamaha CDX-1110. I don't think you will go wrong with the Yamaha, assuming that its DACs are properly trimmed. (I would try to find a dealer who could verify for me that they are—that way he will have earned his 40 points.) But if you already have a CD player and don't have to buy a new one, you might just sit tight.
You might wait for interesting CD transports and black boxes (outboard decoder units) to come on the market. Wait, too, for manufacturers to provide individual calibration charts showing that each player's DACs are linear. Wait for the whole shifty bit business to settle down. Wait and see what Dan D'Agostino and John Bicht come up with. Or Stan Warren, Paul McGowan, or John Beyer. If 1988 was the year of the kludge, then 1989 could be the year of the black box—CD separates.
Or you could be like my friend Frank. He imagines that he's purchased certain products—right now he's imagining that he bought a pair of hard-to-get English speakers which he has read a review of but hasn't heard. This is ideal, since the speakers can sound better and better as Frank imagines more and more. When he tires of these speakers and gets excited about something else, he doesn't have to trade them in. He only needs to start imagining the next product. (Sometimes he actually gets to hear a product, which spoils everything. He then has to read the reviews to latch on to something else. You can see why Frank likes products which are unavailable. He's "owned" a Finial turntable now for several years.)
Why not take a cue from Frank? Imagine that you own one of these four CD players—take your choice. Cut out a picture of it and place it next to your present player. Then, several months from now, when the imagined player has been superseded by another model, cut out that player and pretend you own it, too.
Footnote 2: If you decide to de-ring your discs, use a razor blade to gently pry up the ring along the outer circumference of the disc—enough so you can slide scissors underneath and cut. Now, holding the disc firmly in its jewel box with a handkerchief, slowly peel off the ring. Remove any residue adhesive with the gentle masking tape sold in paint departments. Do not use solvents. De-ringing is not always successful. If you like the way CD Rings sound with your present player, leave them on.
"This is a CD player?" asked my UPS delivery man. "I thought it was a Threshold or a Krell or something."
Each of these four players is attractive in some ways—the price of the Magnavox, the clarity of the Adcom, the sweetness and spaciousness of the Yamaha, the authority and dynamics of the Onkyo. But none of them completely blows me away, although the Yamaha did pass my ultimate test: I was never once tempted during a listening session to turn the player off and listen to LPs! All the other machines ultimately had me fleeing to my turntable. On the other hand, I still like my turntable set-up better than the Yamaha CDX-1110. I don't think you will go wrong with the Yamaha, assuming that its DACs are properly trimmed. (I would try to find a dealer who could verify for me that they are—that way he will have earned his 40 points.) But if you already have a CD player and don't have to buy a new one, you might just sit tight.
Footnote 2: If you decide to de-ring your discs, use a razor blade to gently pry up the ring along the outer circumference of the disc—enough so you can slide scissors underneath and cut. Now, holding the disc firmly in its jewel box with a handkerchief, slowly peel off the ring. Remove any residue adhesive with the gentle masking tape sold in paint departments. Do not use solvents. De-ringing is not always successful. If you like the way CD Rings sound with your present player, leave them on.
