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REVIEW: Sony SCD-1 CD Player/Recorder

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We (audiophiles) live in exciting times, but our window of opportunity may not be open for long. Case in point: Sony's brand new SACD player, the SCD-1. It is a lovely machine. Sony spared no expense in its engineering. I recently had the opportunity to evaluate it.

Before switching the player on, I gave Sony plus poins for the inclusion of balanced (and unbalanced) stereo outputs. To keep the playing field level, I chose to conduct my testing using the unbalanced connections.

The SCD-1 was connected to a Thule pre and power amp, and a pair of Sonus Fabulous Electa Amator speakers, via MIT and Monster cabling. Sony's SACD demo disc, featuring remastered jazz and orchestral selections from Sony's Columbia back-catalog, provided the source material.

And the sound of the above...unusually accurate and sophisticated. The first thing I noticed, using the first test selection which featured Miles Davis playing his solo trumpet, was rock solid, powerful, unwavering imaging. The SCD-1 placed Miles with an unwavering, uncanny precision within an exceptionally wide and deep soundstage. The sense of "soundstage" was greatly, greatly enhanced, displaying none of the indistinctness (that I am used to). The SCD-1 recreated a distinct sense of acoustic space in a way that audiophiles will appreciate.

I was very interested in hearing how the SCD-1 would handle string tone, and this is where I really began to appreciate the Sony's sonic prowess. I listened to Yo Yo Ma playing his solo cello, the opening movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and a movement from Dvorak's 9th and Mahler's 1st Symphony (both with Leonard Bernstein conducting the NYPO).

The SCD-1 sounded beautiful, but not overlly romantic with bowing and string tone. I heard a well developed sense of string resin, which showed none of the synthetic "graininess" and "woodiness" that I am used to. String transients and leading edges were crisply defined and then followed by natural and delicate sounding note decay, which gave string notes a certain fullness and "wholeness" that I am unaccustomed to (on home electronics).

The strings (cellos, bass, violins, violas) sounded unusually accurate, and "musical," but were not softened, obscured, or romanticized in anyway. Moreoever, the SCD-1 demonstrated, time and time again, its super-sophisticated sense of orchestral "architecture." It is difficult to describe this phenomenon to those unfamiliar with the concert hall. Overall, the improvement with upper orchestral string tone can best be described as "evolutionary" rather than "revolutionary," and here in lies the crux of the problem with Sony's SCD-1 SACD player.

Though the player recreates a much more delicate and natural sense of the note decay of all musical instruments (and voices) and though the player presents a more subtle and sophisticated recreation of acoustic and ambience (from SACD material), only hardcore audiophiles will notice the improvements. In its current two-channel specification, the Sony SCD-1 player does not, in my opinion, present enough of a unique selling factor to justify its expense to a mass market. Only those who can appreciate subtlty and refinement will be tempted. So, it is really up to audiophiles whether or not this player and more importantly, this format, make it in the marketplace.

Based on my evaluation of SACD, it lacks the flash and "gee-whiz" factor to attract the average consumer. Only massive support from the audiophile world, will repay Sony's evidently enormous investment in this new format. Our window of opportunity may vanish in an instant, because the Sony SCD-1 was not being demonstrated alone. In another demo-room, and being sold for $4000 less, was Technics new DVD-Audio/Video player, which clearly has been designed to have a more mass-market appeal. My report on that player will follow soon....


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Topic - REVIEW: Sony SCD-1 CD Player/Recorder Review by Chris Wynn at Audio Asylum - Chris Wynn 06:42:44 10/29/99 (20)


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