Dear High-End Dealer,
I want to tell you about the one that got away. Diane X is a perky, health-conscious, tennis-playing woman of 52. She lives in a huge house nestled into three acres of wooded hillside. Her home is notable for its architectural excellence and meticulous craftsmanship, for its lovely antiques and rare artworks. A four-year-old but showroom-new luxury sport/utility vehicle sits unused in her garage: she prefers the Lexus. She also loves to sing: Diane is the president of her local Choral Music Society.
Until recently she was the loyal wife of a successful…
Every two or three years my family and I travel to Disney World in Orlando, Florida—one of those places I used to think I'd hate, but which I always enjoy in spite of myself. No such trip would be complete without visiting the Mitsukoshi department store at Epcot Center, which represents the pinnacle of Japanese consumer culture. At the Epcot Mitsukoshi store—the 430-year-old company's only US location—one can buy the finest of everything, including the rarest and most expensive writing papers and inks, the most exquisitely crafted pottery, and the loveliest freshwater pearls on Earth. Young…
Once the Koetsu Black had acclimated to its new surroundings, its sound was lovely: smooth, textured, exceptionally colorful, and just a little rolled off in its treble range. A warning bell may go off in the minds of some readers on seeing a reviewer ascribe a "dark" sound to a product that's been painted black, let alone named Black. Fair enough: Let's just say the Black isn't bright. It may well be timbrally correct in some systems and to certain ears; in mine and to mine, it came off as just a mite huskier than neutral—which I enjoyed. It gave the horns in Tippett's ingenious Sonata for…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Low-output moving-coil cartridge. Output: 0.6mV. Compliance: 10–12cu (compliance units). Channel separation: >30dB (1kHz). Cantilever: one-piece boron rod. Stylus profile: proprietary (see text). Recommended load: 5–47k ohms. Recommended downforce: 1.8–2.0gm.
Dimensions: 25/64" W by 36/64" D by 56/64" L. Weight: 11gm.
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: 1287.
Price: $1600. Approximate number of dealers: 30.
Manufacturer: Koetsu, Japan. Koetsu USA, P.O. Box 1909, Carolina, PR 00984. Tel: (787) 752-1083. Web: www.koetsusa.com.
Sidebar: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn LP12 turntable with Naim Armageddon power supply; Naim Aro tonearm; Miyabi 47, Lyra Helikon Mono cartridges.
Digital Sources: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player, Naim CDS555 CD player.
Preamplification: Tamura TKS-83, VAS MC-One, Auditorium 23 step-up transformers; Fi, Lamm LL2, Shindo Aurieges, Shindo Masseto preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm ML2.1, Fi 2A3 Stereo, Quad II (all monoblocks); Shindo Montille & Cortese.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E Lexus Signature, Quad ESL.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Nordost…
At $2295, the CD31 is the most expensive integrated CD player from Swedish manufacturer Primare, and an evolution of their D30.2, which I reviewed in the June 2004 Stereophile. I knew that the CD31 wasn't a clean-sheet design, but my first look suggested that it wasn't even much of an evolution—a comparison of its and the D30.2's spec sheets matched almost line for line. When I asked Terry Medalen of Sumiko, Primare's US distributor, about the similarity, and if the CD31 was just a mild tweaking of the D30.2, he said, "Well, yes and no. You really need to listen to it."
So what'…
The impression I had from early, casual listening was that the Primare lacked focus, but after listening to a series of natural recordings made in venues of different size, I concluded that its focus was just fine. Individual instruments in an orchestra, or images of a vocalist on a stage, weren't at all blurred or indistinct. What I was hearing was the absence of the razor-sharp edge definition and stark spaces that can be so spectacular in small doses. One great example of how the CD31 combined detail and coherence occurs at the opening of "Pancho and Lefty." Townes Van Zandt's guitar…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Integrated CD player. D/A conversion: 8x-oversampling, 4 Burr-Brown PCM1704 K 24-bit/96kHz D/A converter chips. Digital filter: Burr-Brown DF1704 24-bit/96kHz. Output level: fixed, 2.0V unbalanced, 4.0V balanced. THD+noise: 0.01%, 20Hz–20kHz. Output impedance: 100 ohms. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.5dB. Signal/noise: 105dB, A-weighted. Outputs, analog: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Outputs, digital: 75 ohm S/PDIF (RCA), 110 ohm AES/EBU (XLR), optical. Inputs: RS-232, Primare intercomponent data link. Power consumption: 34W…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm, Lyra Titan cartridge.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono stage; Sutherland Direct, Placette Active, VTL TL-7.5 Series 2 line stages.
Power Amplifiers: VTL Ichiban & S-400, Halcro dm58 & dm88.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia 2.
Cables: Interconnects & speaker: Stereovox, Shunyata Research, Nordost. AC: Audience, Shunyata Research.
Accessories: Audience AdeptResponse, Shunyata Research Hydra power conditioners; Finite Elemente Reference equipment stand, Cera-ball…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
From its unbalanced jacks, the Primare CD31's maximum output level at 1kHz was 2.086V, just 0.37dB higher than the CD standard's 2V. As expected, the balanced output was exactly twice the unbalanced value, at 4.173V. Both outputs were absolute-polarity correct; ie, non-inverting (the XLRs are wired with pin 2 hot, the AES standard). The output impedance was a low 100 ohms across the audioband from the unbalanced jacks and, again as expected, exactly twice that figure from the balanced jacks. Error correction was superb, the CD31 suffering no audible glitches in…
