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Long addendum: my impressions of a very enjoyable visit to Mike's

Posted by Ted Smith (M) on June 1, 2008 at 19:34:52

In Reply to: REVIEW: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD Player posted by mikel on May 31, 2008 at 16:44:54:

Howdy

I’ve known Jonathan Tinn almost as long as I’ve known Mike (i.e. since about SACD’s start)

I met Andreas Koch in another life years ago and talk to the phone with him now and then (especially recently.)

So I knew that there was something potentially noteworthy coming along and was anxious to hear it and as you might have surmised reading this thread I wanted to listen for myself.

I liked technically each of the things Jonathan and Andreas mentioned as we talked about the player during its development (tho I claim no specific knowledge about what they finally ended up with on any given point.)

I also put in my bid to Jonathan that it be a MC player, but I understand marketing realities (or at least how he and Andreas feel about the possibilities of recouping their investment in design and building a MC player.) Never the less I’m hoping…

I saw Mike’s post last night when I got back from a birthday party and saw that I’d missed a call from him, so I emailed him that I’d like to visit… Then I proceeded to work until 6:30 this morning and then slept till 11:30 :)

I pulled my Meitner stack out of my system, grabbed a spare set of ST glass interconnects, my pair of TGAudio HRS unbalanced interconnects and the stack of CDs/SACDs that I’ve listened to recently (including my normal auditioning discs) and hit the road.

Things I explicitly won’t talk about (because there were plenty of other things to pay attention to, not that they aren’t important, etc.):

Tho the MPS-5 has many inputs/and outputs we were only listening to the stereo analog output.

Similarly we only listened to CDs and SACDs. I have no idea how the transport reacts to CDRs, DVD-V, etc. Conversely we didn’t spin any vinyl, this is only comparing digital to digital.

I’m used to a different sound field laterally than Mike’s system has, so I was not paying as much attention to any changes there. (Mostly this is because I’m a MC kind of guy.)

I’m going to compare everything to the EMM CDSD/DAC6e since that’s my reference system and it’s what we had there. Anything I point out as a positive of the MPS-5 shouldn’t be taken as a failing of the DAC6e, except in a relative sense. I’m still happy with my DAC6e and won’t be selling it for a MPS-5 unless and until there is a MC version. For my ears MC makes up for many of the differences I heard which shouldn’t be a surprise since (as I’ve stated in the past) for me MC at my house is more enjoyable than even vinyl at Mike’s…

Some comments about the mechanics:

Esthetically the unit is … well look at Mike’s pictures and judge for yourself.

The remote was functional, easy to use, had clearly marked buttons with a nice gentle green back light so you could read the labels in the dark, etc.

The transport looks and feels nice and worked robustly while I was there. It inspires confidence. The transport responds to the same codes as the EMM CDSA and other Philips gear. I think it had some noticeable improvements from at least the CDSA, but since I’ve been using Sony and Harmony remotes most recently I’ll not confuse things by trying to rely on my memory.

We listened to the MPS-5 player for about an hour as the Meitner gear warmed up again.

Mike’s preamp sounds best single ended (that’s how he ran his DAC6e SE, etc.) and he only had one pair of Opus interconnects. I normally run my Meitner gear balanced, but I do have a single pair of unbalanced cables that is very close to my normal balanced cables. We did a quick swap of cables between the players with the same disc playing to see if any cable differences were confounding anything we were hearing. We both came to the conclusion that the differences (if any) were very small compared to the differences in the players and/or that they were along dimensions that we weren’t paying attention to.

Some impressions of specific discs

“Take Five” on “Time Out” (Sony SACD): Even before the first note sounds the background venue stands out, it’s not so much tape hiss that you hear in the original recording as the sound of set. When the sax first plays the emphasized higher notes they sound more natural and less honky than they can on some systems. On the other hand they come across as more dynamic and have a more nuanced contrast to the rest of the melodic line. On the MPS-5 the venue seems deeper and more reverberant than on the DAC6e. Tho “Take Five” is a great recording of a great performance it’s still a little left channel, middle channel, right channel (I guess no surprise since it was a three channel recording that got mixed to stereo.) Still more of the details of the layout come to mind (drum kit left front to left rear, etc.) I’ve heard all of this detail before, but at times I think it was because I was listening very critically (perhaps at loud volumes) and here it just comes across naturally.

“Ubi Caritas” on “Sacred Feast” by Gaudeamus (DMP SACD): This track was my first exposure to SACD and has remained a reference/favorite ever since. I’ve sung the Tenor part in a choir in a similar venue and I’m always transported to another place when I listen to this disc. One feature/problem with this cut is that it’s recorded at a low level (the level isn’t adjusted from track to track and the choir performs some other pieces at a much higher volume.) This makes comparing the SACD layer to the CD layer interesting: some say that it’s not fair to CD since it’s so quiet that there isn’t a lot of S/N ratio, others say that having to boost some tracks compared to other tracks on a disc to get them to all sound good on a CD is not a good idea and that it’s nice that SACD (or DVD-A/vinyl) can do justice to quiet material. My digression was only to high light that once again even before the first words the venue jumps out much more clearly, even in quiet material. Sounds that I might have assumed were fairly white background noise at the church now sound like specific things going on at the church, there is a lot more detail that helps the ear/brain to effortlessly separate performance from venue, from tape hiss (tho there’s none of that here), etc. As my wife says about this recording “I could just float away in a prayer.”

Beethoven Piano Sonatas 21 and 23 by Mari Kodama (Pentatone SACD): I often use track three of her discs as great piano material, they move a little and often are dynamic and the whole disc is well recorded and (IMO) well performed. On the MPS-5 the music comes across as more organic, it just flows a little better. You can hear more nuances of the performance as subtle emphases, etc. while the rest of the music is enveloping you. This time I also played track 6 which just reemphasizes this point more.

“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and “Prelude No. 1 in C Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier” on “The Best of Play Bach” by The Jacques Loussier Trio (Telarc SACD): The walking bass lines have a detail that almost makes other players sound like they have one-note bass. The fingering detail is there at the same time as a flow that is missing elsewhere. The piano, drums, cymbals, etc. all have an added degree of delicacy. The soundstage is deeper and better defined front to back.

“Hey Sexy Lady” on “Lucky Day” by Shaggy (MCA SACD): If this disc doesn’t make you want to dance there is something wrong with your system. In one listening session tho people had different expressed opinions about the players present I was watching their feet. On the Meitner they all were tapping, on the other players present they were still. That told me all I needed to know. Like I’ve mentioned above the Playback Designs MPS-5 Player just delivers this promise in spades. The bass is clearer the distinctions between the various voices are more apparent; the humor in the lyrics comes across more clearly.

“St. James Infirmary” on “Dr. Jazz” by Louis Armstrong and his All Stars (Blue Moon CD): This track stands out on this disc as far as I’m concerned. The other tracks at times are ragged, some have clicks or pops (mic problems?), and the group just doesn’t gel. But there’s a reason people like track 2. As I watched Mike’s face I think he was surprised at his own emotional involvement as he listened. He’s used to the vinyl version just grabbing you, but I don’t think he’s experienced it with this performance on digital before. The music just flowed, the players were there in front of you…

“Keith Don’t Go” on “Acoustic Live” by Nils Lofgren (Vision Music CD): This is one of Mike’s demo cuts: he plays it at some point in most gatherings at his place. I like the whole CD (which is getting rarer these days.) I feel like I’m repeating myself, but the delicacy of the acoustic guitar, the modulations of the voice, the deep deep enveloping sound stage, are all features of this disc on any reasonable system, but they are even more apparent on the Playback player.

“Planet Dada (Flamboyant)” on “the eye” by Yello (Radikal Records CD): I’m sure that Mike wonders why he invites me over when I play music like this :) But the electric zaps are more percussive than any drum kit, the flow of the “music” is organic and at times the shear density of “interesting” sound is near overwhelming. It’s strangely relaxing for me but I can see how others would call it noise. Still the blackness of background (since it’s all electronic) is astounding on the MPS-5: it serves to emphasize the dynamics and spareness of sections of the track. It’s definitely worth the experience in my opinion to hear this.

Something in a similar grove (in a broad sense) but more accessible is “Flight of the Cosmic Hippo” on the same titled disc by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Warner Bros CD): The bass is incredible the highs and air are perfect.

“The Hole”, “Swamp Thang” and … on “The Good Girl Blues” by The Soul of John Black (Yellow Dog Records, CD): Mike said he had to get a copy of the disc within moments of hitting play… Once again on the MPS-5 the walking bass lines are a thing to behold. There are modulations and tonal variations in the singing voice that I’ve never heard on any other player. The recording is excellent the lyrics quirky and fun, the (implicit) humor is great. But on the MPS-5, man it’s just a whole nother thang.

I guess it’s time for a summary:

Perhaps the biggest thing that struck me is a very black background. The kind you hope for with each power cord upgrade (or other power conditioning tweak.)

The dynamics of the MPS-5 are nice: exciting without being in-your-face. Punch with finesse.

There is a coherence across the spectrum that I’m sure comes from well designed minimalist filtering both in the DSP and analog circuitry.

The soundstage is deeper in the sense of less flat as well as having more depth.

Mike reports that the sound stage is wider (but I didn’t explicitly note this, nor did I listen for it.)

Everything seems more real, more present, more detailed, more involving, (anyone have some more overused audiophile superlatives? :) )

I’ve heard much smaller steps in performance and at this level perhaps most of the differences are small or purely a matter of taste. I don’t think this is the case here. The MPS-5 is just better and not in a small way.

One thing that strikes me as I write is that many of the things that I report the MPS-5 as doing better than the Meitner gear are precisely the things that I’ve heard others reporting as weaknesses in the Meitner gear. I (in general) didn’t lend them a lot of credence even as I respected the people who reported these things because it wasn’t my experience with the Meitner gear (or, I dare to say, the experience of many of them at my house with the Meitner gear.)

Perhaps part of this is the difference that MC makes: For example why do I care about the depth or width or whatever of the sound stage? In a good MC recording you are just there and the issue is moot. There isn’t a boundary on the soundstage. I can’t say without comparing apples to oranges if the bass of MC on the EMM equals the bass of stereo on the MPS-5, etc.

On the other hand there is no denying in my mind that there is more useful, but not in your face, detail on the MPS-5. The performance is outstanding and for stereo there is a new contender for the best CD or SACD player available.

-Ted

Edits: 06/01/08

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