Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 1.33GHz iBook (2GB RAM) with 250GB LaCie external hard drive & 3TB Infrant Technologies NAS drive; Ayre QB-9, Bel Canto e.One DAC3 D/A converters; Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 USB-S/PDIF converter.
Preamplifiers: Aesthetix Calypso, Ayre K-1xe.
Power Amplifiers: Aesthetix Atlas, Balanced Audio Technologies VK-55SE, Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Special Twenty-Five, Klipsch Palladium P-39F, Thiel CS3.7.
Cables: USB: USB: EntreQ Discover. Interconnects: Shunyata Research…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Other than the in-room and nearfield measurements, for which I used an Earthworks QTC-40, the quasi-anechoic measurements of Vienna Acoustics' Klimt The Kiss were all performed using DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. The Kiss's voltage sensitivity is specified as 89.0dB/2.83V/m; my estimate of this was significantly lower, at 86.5dB(B)/2.83V/m. This was not unexpected, as the speaker didn't play appreciably louder (at the same drive level) as the Denon SC-CX303, which has a measured sensitivity of 85.6dB (and which I write about…
Playback Designs was founded less than three years ago. However, with the release in 2008 of its MPS-5 Music Playback System—a slim, full-featured SACD/CD player and DAC that costs $15,000 and is built in the US—the company has since established itself as a significant player in high-performance digital audio.
It's probably a prejudice, but in audio, we tend to associate individual design achievement with analog equipment (phono cartridges, loudspeakers), and anonymous group effort with digital gear. How many enthusiasts of SACD are familiar with Playback Designs' Andreas Koch…
The upper one of the MPS-5's two well-lit, generously sized front-panel screens displays the sample-rate and input status; the lower displays the disc track and time information. However, neither displays the track text information that is included on SACDs. The backlit remote control of milled aluminum is equally ergonomic. From it you can select among the various inputs, eject a disc, mute the output, invert absolute phase, dim the displays, switch between a hybrid disc's SACD and CD layers (after first pressing Stop), switch from two- to multichannel output, change the transport's time-…
Between the departure of the dCS and the arrival of the Playback Designs, I paired the Sooloos with the DAC section of the Musical Fidelity DM25 CD player. Not surprisingly, given the Scarlatti's stellar sound, this was a big disappointment. The sound was warmed-over, smooth, and somewhat distant: inoffensive, but bland and uninvolving.
The MPS-5 doesn't let you choose the upsampling rate: You're locked into double DSD. Would that produce an even more lush, less detailed sound than the dCS at DSD resolution? That was what I expected, and, right out of the box, that was generally how the…
While it's impossible to know for sure, I think the MPS-5's SACD playback is even more transparent and spacious than the Scarlatti's. Kenneth E. Wilkinson's recording of Artur Rubinstein, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and the New Symphony Orchestra performing Chopin's Piano Concertos 1 and 2 (SACD/CD, RCA Red Seal 67902-2; originally LP, RCA Living Stereo LSC-2575) sounded more spacious, and the piano seemed more solid and better focused than I remembered. The image of the piano projected farther forward in space in front of the orchestra through both the Vandersteen 7 (currently under review)…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box, fixed-output, two-channel (upgradable to multi-channel with an outboard DAC) SACD player with remote control. Formats played: SACD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW. D/A conversion: 1-bit/5.6448MHz DSD. Analog outputs: 1 pair each RCA (unbalanced), XLR (balanced), BNC (50 ohm). Digital outputs: AES/EBU, Proprietary Playlink Data/Clock (proprietary optical links). Digital inputs: AES/EBU (XLR), S/PDIF coax, S/PDIF TosLink, USB (limited to 48kHz). RS-232 and USB control ports. Maximum analog output levels: 4V RMS at 1kHz (XLR), 2V RMS at 1kHz full level (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, & Castellon turntable, tonearm, & stand; ">Graham Phantom II tonearm; Oracle Delphi Mk.VI turntable, Oracle/SME tonearm; Lyra Titan i, Transfiguration Orpheus, Ortofon A90 cartridges.
Digital Sources: Musical Fidelity DM25 CD player, Camelot Round Table DVD player with Anagram Technologies D/A converter section, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Sooloos music server, MacBook Pro laptop computer.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead Einstein Turntable's Choice, Sutherland…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Playback Designs MPS-5 using the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue), as well as, for some tests, my Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer. To examine the performance of the player's USB input, I drove it with the USB 2.0 output of a Shuttle PC running Windows Vista, playing WAV files using Foobar 2000 with the WASAPI plug-in to give bit-accurate playback. The MPS-5's AES/EBU data input successfully locked to datastreams with sample rates ranging…
Manufacturers' Comment
Editor: We would like to thank both Michael Fremer and John Atkinson for the time and work they put into reviewing and testing our Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player. We were very pleased that an analog lover like Michael would enjoy our digital player.
Most of the measurement results are generally to be expected from the way they were measured. What differentiates the D/A converter inside the MPS-5 from other, more conventional converters is that it uses all custom algorithms and discrete components that were not designed following classic theories and…