Sidebar 2: The Nature of Improvisation
"Nothing happens purposefully in our improvisations," Bob Reina declared, post-concert in a five-way conference call with the band. "What you hear is how we all feel collectively about the direction of the piece. Given all our musical backgrounds, I think it's amazing how underivative our music is. It doesn't remind you of another band, or another type of music that we're copying from."
"I really enjoy taking an instrument, seizing the improvisational nature of sound, and playing off it as though I were painting," Don Fiorino…
Should an audio component accurately reproduce the signal it's fed, or should it evoke the sound and feel of live music? Accuracy or musicality? This question has been at the heart of high-end audio since its inception. Back then, the question often took the form of the tubes-vs-transistors debate. Proponents of solid-state pointed to the far superior measured performance of transistor designs, and claim that they thus more accurately reproduced the input signal. Tube lovers steadfastly maintained that their gear sounded better, more natural—more like music. Since then, both camps have…
The Vincent's superb resolution of low-level detail was a big part of how it re-created this live feel, and one way that it distinguished itself from most other CD players I've heard. Many CD players, even some of the very best, struggle at the very softest end of the volume spectrum, losing the finest, lowest level of detail in a digital silence that feels a bit electromechanical. With the Vincent, those tiny details were there, distinctly drawn yet coherent, with a realistic surrounding ambience, just as they are with a top-flight analog front end—or a live performance.
Even more…
This isn't to imply that the C-60's soundstage was smaller than those of other source components. To the contrary, the Vincent's soundstage was consistently large, extending well outside the speakers, projecting slightly in front of them, and creating whatever depth had been coded into the bits and bytes. Images were always appropriately sized, and I never felt that the Vincent was expanding or limiting the scale of the players or stage. In fact, the C-60's knack for reproducing fine detail behind louder, more prominent lines worked well with recordings of a soloist and orchestra. Listening…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-chassis, top-loading CD player. Fully balanced, hybrid circuitry with 8x oversampling and 24-bit/192kHz D/A conversion, tubed power supply, and user-selectable tubed or solid-state analog output stages. Tube complement: two 6922EH, one 6Z4. Inputs: none. Digital outputs: S/PDIF, 1 coaxial, 1 optical (TosLink). Analog outputs: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Analog voltage output: variable, 2.5V maximum. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, +0/–0.5dB. Signal/noise ratio: >90dB. THD: <0.003%. Dynamic range: >100dB. Channel…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Spiral Groove SG-2 turntable & Centroid tonearm; VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm; TriPlanar Precision Mk.VII tonearm; Lyra Titan i, Grado Signature Reference cartridges.
Digital Source: Simaudio Moon Evolution Andromeda, Primare CD 31 CD players.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono preamplifier; Sutherland Direct Line Stage, Placette Active Line Stage preamplifiers.
Power Amplifiers: VTL MB750 Signature, Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Sophia II.
Cables: Audience Au-24e,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system to measure the Vincent C-60 (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). For some tests, I also used my Audio Precision System One Dual Domain and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer.
The Vincent's output preserved absolute polarity (ie, was non-inverting) from both its balanced and unbalanced jacks, with and without the FET buffer. The XLR jacks are thus wired with pin 2 hot. The remote control offers volume up and down buttons, with the maximum level…
The two-way, biwirable, rear-ported Dreamcatcher is designed and manufactured in Canada; its drive-units are designed by Totem, but made and assembled in Europe. The 1" titanium-dome tweeter, manufactured by German Acoustik, is mated to a 4" Scan-Speak woofer. Totem founder Vince Bruzzese feels very strongly about sourcing his drivers in the West. In the past, he got his small woofers from Peerless in Denmark, but switched to Scan-Speak when Peerless started manufacturing in China. Bruzzese also pointed out that the tweeter used in the Dreamcatcher costs him 16, more than 15 times as much as…
The Dreamcatcher's magical combination of these attributes let me hear into recordings in a way I've rarely been able to with any component I've reviewed. It's one thing for a speaker to let me hear, in a familiar recording, new things for the first time; it's another if that recording is the Beatles' Abbey Road (CD, Apple 3 82468 2), and yet another if I hear something new in every track (footnote 1). Using my Creek Destiny combination of CD player and integrated amplifier, I played the entire disc, marveling at all my new discoveries. The resolution increased further when I substituted my…
Working from home one day during yet another snowstorm, I was on the computer, two rooms away from my large listening room, where I'd cued up Louis Thiry's solo pipe-organ performance of Messiaen's La nativité du Seigneur (CD, Calliope CAL 9928). This complex work, which I've heard performed live, puts the organ through a wide range of textures—from subtle to bombastic, dissonant to consonant, delicate to complex—throughout the instrument's entire frequency range. Even heard as background music, the realism of the Totem's reproduction of the organ was so arresting that it was difficult for…
