Super, Super Audio CDs

I now have in my hot big hands, a Diana Krall SACD, a the Diana Krall CD in redbook, a Doge 6 CD player and a Shanling SCD300

You know what I am going to do, don't you?

I let each one warm up sufficiently and then took it for a spin. What a difference! Talk about two different personalities!

The Shanling's tubes did what they were supposed to do, provide warmth on the background. To date, this is the most detail I have ever heard from spinning plastic and its rendition was breath taking, to the point where I felt like going up to her (Diana Krall) and asking her where the vending machine was.

Whenever I wanted detail, I always had to give something up: warmth, goose bumps etc. What I got in return was detail, but also fret with irritation. Such is the problem with all NOS DACS that I heard. I like their detail, their dynamics - but, put a bad CD in one of those and look out - you are in for a harsh lesson. The Shanling is the first CD player, first CD player ever, to cut through the muck and give you correct semblance on a cymbal, the sound of the skin on the drum, the pluck of the bass without the background tin.... etc. All of this was truly startling. I never liked any other SACD player because the detail was colored with the solid state gunk that I never liked. Now, all of that was gone.

Enter the Doge 6.

Playing the same cut through the DOGE 6 finally told me what it was all about. The Doge 6 pushed Diana in front of the instruments, gave her air around her voice, let me hear the concert hall. This, this, is what I listen to tubes for. If the Shanling was a new high definition TV. It was clear, crisp clean - it brought you into the music because its cut through all the fog. But, the Doge 6 is a romantic - it just might bring in some fog it feels that the room is smoky. The Doge 6 will do things to music that will really startle you and cause you to sit back in your chair, close your eyes and just listen.

So which one? I have both. When I want to listen clean and through, its an SACD on the Shanling, when I want romance, the Doge.

But it is never, never an SACD on a Japanese label player or a redux Marance. Too solid state for me. I just don't like my SACDs any other way.

All the Best,

Vic