Gramophone Dreams

I am a lucky person. I've been writing monthly audio columns since 1992, and the chief benefit of that privilege has been that each month my mind is free to visit distant shores searching for exotic artifacts that readers might never encounter at their local audio emporium. This month, my raft drifted again onto Japan's metaphorical shores.

I was cordially greeted by an international cohort: Victor Kung (VK Music in Canada), Yoshi Segoshi (the American distributor for 47 Labs), Junji Kimura (47 Labs' founder and chief engineer), and Kazutoshi Tsukahara, formerly associated with 47 Labs (in Japan) and now founder and chief engineer of Sparkler Audio, which is also based in Japan. Sparkler Audio makes modestly priced components including the model S515t "ballade II" CD transport, which I am about to describe (footnote 1).

According to Kung, "Kazutoshi Tsukahara cooperated with 47 Labs' Kimura san for a while, where they co-developed the 47 Treasure line. In 2013, they parted ways, and Sparkler Audio was formed. Sparkler's products are fully in the vein of 47 Labs, but the prices are much more friendly."

I was an early fan of 47 Labs. I reviewed all their products for Listener, bought their Flatfish transport, and fell under the spell of Kimura, whose taste in sound and approach to engineering match my own (footnote 2).

In Junji's words, "When I was asked what I expect most from high-end audio, the answer always seemed to contradict what I find in those brand-name, pricey components. It seems that the current high-end market grew up by chasing the purity of the sound. In the process, by selecting and eliminating all impurities as much as possible, it reached the point where the resulting sound lost all the infinite tentacles it originally had and became a very static presentation in an unrealistic virtual space.

"I must say that those lost tentacles were the binding agents between each sound to make it into music and communicate it to the listener. I call these tentacles that make the sound into music the activity of the sound. Without this activity, the sound will never be able to communicate with anybody, and, I am afraid, high-end audio's last stop will be an assassination of music by purity of sound, totally isolating the listener from the music.

"I am not a pessimist nor a type who just reminisces good old days, but this is exactly how the state of current high-end audio appears to me. We need a paradigm shift from this sound purism to sound activism, to revitalize our beloved world of audio.

"What we consider most important in musical reproduction is the liveliness—activity—and freshness of the sound that dwells in the point of contact between the musician and their instrument. To preserve the freshness of the sound—the liveliness and the activity of music—we have to preserve this very first note of contact."

I am quoting Junji Kimura at length because he describes what I am looking for, too—better than I've been able to.

Kimura continues: "This note at the point of contact has great strength and a complicated waveform. To trace [these complexities] exactly, audio components must have the ability to catch up with the rise and fall of fast, complicated signals at all the audible frequencies. In other words, the component has to be fast—ultrafast—and coherent.

"For this reason, we try to minimize any storage of energy, either mechanical or electrical. We need a very good power supply that is powerful enough to cover a sudden demand of energy. We minimize the number of parts in the circuitry as much as possible."

My decades-long friendship with Yoshi Segoshi of Sakura Systems, 47 Labs' US importer, led to my friendship with Victor Kung, of Vancouver, Canada, who I regard as an astute, kindly man whose ear for natural sound led him to import products from AER, Cossor, Lundahl, Sunvalley, Elekit, and Sparkler Audio. Kung is the sole worldwide dealer for Sparkler Audio products. His markup is ridiculously low. His vibe is humble. His customer service is unsurpassed. And his cat Toby and dog Koda are supreme beings.

Sparkler Audio's S515t "ballade II" CD transport
According to Kung, Sparkler Audio's Model S515t "ballade II" CD transport uses a TEAC CD-5020B-AT mechanism. It is priced at only $1575.

The ballade II is a petite, spike-footed, top-loading CD transport that sports a gray, powder-coated steel lid that covers the top of a brushed, angular, stainless steel chassis with no curved lines. It looks a little like a cybertruck. Its artful form projects durability and intelligence. Users may combine the S515t with Sparkler's matching $775 S512 "perceive" DAC to make a tidy two-box CD player.

When lifted open, the S515t's steel dustcover-lid must be secured in its up position by tightening the knurled washer-faced thumbscrews that serve as its pivots. Removing those screws allows the top to be removed, exposing a sleek stainless steel disc spinner that makes CD decks with drawers seem hopelessly retro.

The ballade II has three digital outputs: S/PDIF on RCA, TosLink, and AES3. The AES3 output puts out 2.5V peak-to-peak with a 75 ohm output impedance and an isolated ground. The AES3 output configured automatically with my reference Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC.

The S515t measures 10.4" (264mm) wide × 2.4" (62mm) high × 6.8" (172mm) deep and weighs only 5lb (2.3kg).

Listening: Every time I play Warming by the Devil's Fire, I stop multitasking, sit still, and stare between the speakers, listening attentively to every track on at least one of its two CDs. Devil's Fire is a blues anthology (B0000A1VEM) from Sony Legacy, with musical selections from the Martin Scorsese–produced, Charles Burnett–directed PBS film of the same name. The timeless acoustically and electrically recorded music on these discs is performed by immortal roots-of-blues masters including Jelly Roll Morton, Ma Rainey, Charley Patton, Bessie Smith, and Elmore James. It was the superbly "clarified" sound achieved by mastering engineer Joseph M. Palmaccio of Sony Music Studios in New York that, with the Sprinkler spinner, kept me locked on to each famous track and wanting more. Somehow, Palmaccio has managed to reduce the noise on these recordings without dulling the sound or distancing the performance. Bravo, Joe!

With the Sparkler's CD transport driving the Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC, the original tones from these ancient recordings came through crystalline, shimmering, and (don't laugh) sparkly. I swear to God, the sound pulsing out of my First Watt SIT-4–powered Falcons had a kind of sequined light that added (don't laugh) a measure of vibey eloquence to the presentation. My first impressions were of bright light, speed, and articulateness.

For the next part of this story, I replaced the SIT-4 amplifier with the VK Music–sourced Elekit TU-8900 fitted with Gold Aero PX300Bs.

I thought I heard that K.C. when she blowed
She sounded like she got a heavy load

On my shortlist of favorite 20th century songs is the Memphis Jug Band's 1929 rendition of "K.C. Moan," a simple stoner-blues dirge by charismatic singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player Will Shade. This song tattooed its lyrics on my braincells during my first semester in college, and I've never stopped digging it. With the Sparkler transport connected to the Denafrips DAC (with an AudioQuest Diamond AES3 cable), these Devil's Fire earworms felt like they were recorded yesterday: glowing, vividly detailed, and unprocessed clear but also bendy, twisty, jumpy, and naughty like the Memphis Jug Band's persona. All the tragicomic spirit of K.C. Moan's double entendre came through, forcing me to repeat-play these discs for three days!

I love to hear that K.C. when she moans

On the second day, I got curious to see how differently my reference TEAC VRDS 701T transport (Gramophone Dreams #88) would warm to the Devil's Fire recording. I connected the TEAC to the Denafrips DAC's S/PDIF connection via Kimber Kable's D65 coaxial cable. The TEAC confirmed my belief that Palmaccio did a masterful job remastering this recording and all the others on this disc. Played in the 701T, this Memphis Jug Band track sounded authentic, like a clean, quiet 78 on a Garrard 301.

Played on the Sparkler S515t, Will Shade's "Moan" exhibited a surprising vibed-up potency that I found quite appealing. The Sparkler was less reserved and inner-detailed than the TEAC, but Taj Mahal's epic "Celebrated Walkin' Blues" from 1967 (with Ry Cooder, Gary Gilmore, and Charles Blackwell) came out of the Sparkler transport sounding enriched in presence and immediacy.

The TEAC presented those Walkin' Blues in a more somber manner than the S515t did—not dull, slow, or transient-challenged, just darker in the lighting sense. With the 701T, the light surrounding images appeared as if viewed through a polarizing filter.

As always, the 701T recovered what felt like all the information on the disc and presented it like big-screen Panavision. Everything was there, including tone and texture. Will Shade's comic irony came through loud and clear. But the jump, glimmer, and sparkle—what Junji Kimura called "live action tentacles"—were less present when spun by the TEAC than they were with the ballade II. This made me wonder, which one was closest to the truth?

Pondering this prompted an obvious question: Was the TEAC VRDS 701T storing less stray energy than the Sparkler? Those Walkin' Blues felt more neutral-balanced and microdetailed through the 701T than through the S515t, but the S515t played the front and rear parts of notes with more flare and pizzazz.

During my hundred years, I've noticed that sometimes the most telling and compelling aspects of a component's character do not enter my awareness until after months of listening. So, I intend to continue my Sparkler auditions and see where they lead.

Already though it's certain that Sparkler's S515t ballade II CD transport demonstrates Junji Kimura's concept of "sound activism." Its sound is best described as alive with drive. It's a small, smart-looking, reasonably priced CD transport that I think brings digital a big step closer to analog.

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Footnote 1: Sparkler Audio. Web: sparkler-audio.jp. Worldwide dealer: VK Music. Tel: (604) 788-8821. Email: info@vkmusic.ca. Web: VKmusic.ca.

Footnote 2: See sakurasystems.com/about.html.