All this seems good in theory, but how does the Data sound as a CD transport in a demanding high-end audio system?
Music
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Finally, the videodisc medium is much more demanding on the playback system than the CD format. Unlike CD, the data stored on a videodisc result in an analog video signal, without the benefit of error correction. Slight changes in the signal reflected from the disc caused by player imperfections will show up as poor video quality. These factors force videodisc players to perform to a much higher standard than their CD-only cousins.
Sidebar 2: What I Listen for in Digital Components
The Clark Terry Live at the Village Gate CD (Chesky JD49) is particularly revealing of many aspects of a digital source component's performance. This recording of all acoustic instruments is remarkably transparent, tonally accurate, and has a stunning sense of instrument placement within a three-dimensional soundstage. Here's what I listen for on track 2:
The audience applause and laughter at the beginning should have a sense of immediacy and palpability. With the right components, the audience can seem to wrap around the…
Sidebar 2: Review System
The Theta Data has been my primary CD transport for the past two and a half months, replacing the Esoteric P-2 that had been returned to Esoteric. Although I never had the P-2 and Data for side-by-side comparisons, the Wadia WT-3200 and Meridian 602—both known in relation to the reference P-2—were still on hand.
Digital processors used with the Data included the Meridian 203, Theta's DS Pro Prime (also reviewed in this issue), a PS Audio SuperLink, a Wadia 2000, and an Audio Research DAC1-18. Digital interconnects were the Aural Symphonics Digital…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: Videodisc-based "universal" transport (CD audio, 8" and 12" Laservision videodiscs) with full-function infrared remote control. Outputs: One digital audio (S/PDIF), one video, one stereo analog audio pair, one S-video, one RF on F-type jack.
Dimensions: 19" W by 5½" H by 17½" D. Weight: heavy.
Price: $2400 ($2800 with optional AT&T glass fiber output), 1991; no longer available, 2015. Approximate number of dealers: 90.
Manufacturer: Theta Digital, Agoura Hills, CA 91301 (1991). Theta Digital/ATI, 1749 Chapin Road, Montebello, CA…
Perhaps it’s a form of cosmic justice, but it seems that just as a form of audio playback technology is perfected, it dies. But often, in its death throes, it also finds its finest expression and suddenly now that the CD is on the run, oodles of live material, some of which has never been heard before, have been digitized and released on CD. While some of it is bad-sounding nonsense meant to make a quick buck (until a weight of bad user reviews on Amazon blows their cover), some of it is important and worth hearing.
While there have always been lots of tempting rock CD and LP bootlegs (…
In the consumer audio show arena, the newly rebranded Audio Con (after Comic Con) from AXPONA Chicago seems on course to claim the crown as one of the three top high-end shows in North America. Taking place April 24–26 in the Westin O'Hare in Rosemont, the show is prepared to welcome a significantly larger number of visitors (pre-registration is up 30% 11 days before show opening) to 105 active exhibits (two-channel and multi-channel), plus an entire ballroom's full Ear Gear Expo (participation is up 50% from last year) and a sizable marketplace area (displays up at least 30%).
Given the…
As vinyl geeks know, the 2015 version of “The List,” the annual compilation of special items to be released for Record Store Day, had little this spring that was either super rare, super essential or super exciting. This would not be a year to stand in line at 4 am to score the killer single. The grumbling amongst pro record collectors, those willing to ransom loved ones or offer vital organs for a single by an obscure psychedelic band from Wales, was a constant undertone of discussion at SXSW 2015.
Yet this did not stop the masses from turning out, queuing up and over heatin’ their…
At home, I have two different ways of listening to music—just as I have two different ways of cooking and washing the car and making coffee and getting dressed to go out.
My first approach to listening is the one that takes the most time: It requires forethought and effort and, consciously or not, a certain amount of ritual—yet those things are enjoyable in and of themselves, and the end results are often more than merely satisfying.
My other approach is the one I take when there's a piece of music I'm intent on hearing right away, and I have a limited amount of time and no…
A final note: While tooling around the website of Eclipse's parent company, I stumbled on Fujitsu Ten's corporate "behavior declaration," which stresses the concept of makoto (sincerity), and which pledges respect for human rights, prohibition of forced or child labor, fair conditions, a safe work environment, and the realization of true job satisfaction. Just like corporations here in the US. (That's a joke, son.)
Raven Audio Spirit Mk2 monoblocks
You may recall a reference, in Stereophile's May 2014 issue, to the Raven Audio Spirit 300B Reference Mono amplifiers. Like the ghosts…
Transparency is a trait we all value in a hi-fi rig, and it's a concept I've long thought I understood. A system that tosses up the illusion of a clear, spacious soundstage, on which you can hear—almost see—all of the singers and/or instruments, from side to side and, especially, from front to way, way back: that's the ticket. Still, although such transparency is a sign that you've entered the realm of fine sound, it's not an absolute requirement. Tonal accuracy, dynamic range, a certain thereness that conveys the emotional heft or delicacy of music—those things come first. Without them,…