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General Asylum: REVIEW: Sony SCD-CE775 CD Player/Recorder by Till E.

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REVIEW: Sony SCD-CE775 CD Player/Recorder

12.87.141.42


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Model: SCD-CE775
Category: CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price: $199.95
Description: Modified by SACDmods.com
Manufacturer URL: Sony
Manufacturer URL: Sony

Review by Till E. ( A ) on April 25, 2002 at 16:05:49
IP Address: 12.87.141.42
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for the SCD-CE775


Speaking for the po' folks amongst us, I'm stunned! And I hate Sony!

I'm another former owner of a vinyl collection that has been de-polymerised and learned to like it.So much so that as I have weighed the 'get a TT, get a SACD' quandary I kept coming back to the $$$ I now have in CD's I really love to listen to. And I detest yard sales, Goodwill stores and used vinyl retailers with their middle-aged ponytails and 70's attitudes.

I found myself sneaking in the side door of the Hi-Rez Asylum late at night, quietly treading up to the dusty archives and sitting on a top step just barely overhearing the conversations taking place down below. Start hearing about a $200 machine and $15 discs.

From acquiring my Cambridge D500SE I know that the difference between a few hundred and a few thousand simoleans is in the nuances.It's not like analog where conquering vibration has much larger steps than making better 1's and 0's: the difference between a 12 and 24 step attenuator.

The Cambridge bettered the AR Complete in musicality and soundstage; trounced the '99 Planet in tonal truth (Rega has some idea of what music should sound like that I don't agree with and that's cool)and, dare I say it, TKO'd the Classe.3 . I've been an amateur classical and jazz music maker for 40 years and I know what I want to hear. A Meridian 508.24 was gorgeous but way beyond my means. The Link Dac III simply rounded off all the digits. You know, like you do on your tax return? I've been happily listening to the Cambridge for exactly a year.

It's a lovely day here at Circuit City as I step up to the 775 display and inquire if it really is $399. Or perhaps there is a sale price? There is! $200 off. Imagine!

I take it home, wire it up for a first impression and Eva Cassidy makes my ears bleed. The James Taylor DSD 'Hourglass' sounds, .....nice.

50 hours SACD, 50 hours CD go by: tick-tock, tick-tock.

I take out the Bottlehead Foreplay and insert the passive NOS (AR SP6-B) Noble pot to speed up switching and begin to A/B first Cambridge vs. Sony and then CD vs. SACD. The rest of the system remains, Paramours, wires, etc.

Eva Cassidy, 'Fields of Red and Gold': this oh-so-gorgeous cover no longer sounds shrill on the 775. It's brighter than the Cambridge, but no glare.Just a sunny day. Vivaldi Flute Concerto in D, Chesky CD78. One of my two benchmarks for auditioning equipment.You don't have it? You're kidding! Anyway, the treble is brighter but no glare. (What is digital glare, anyway? Is it what we used to call distortion when the needle couldn't ride the groove?)

Beyond that, in fact, way beyond that, there is greater separation between the players. Not just a wider stage, although it is, but the players are sitting apart from the speakers and each other. I swear I can hear the first violins chin attached to his instrument. How else can I say that this recording closely approximates people making music as opposed to bits making sounds?

More of the same on the new LSO Live Dvorak Eighth. I've played it a million times. No, not the CD, the Symphony. Colin takes some rather deliberate (SLOOW) tempos but overall the best recorded Eighth I've heard. Here is where the Sony goes nuts. All that detail extends into the deep bass where the 42 cycle low E string resides and real music is made.Wide, wide soundstage entirely separate from the speakers. Now that's a feat as these speakers are 24X36X18. You know, the Maytag Twins. And the Tympani is waaay back there.

So we have a $200 player that has a livelier, more detailed presentation with no audible distortions and a more highly realistic soundstage than several of the most popular sub-$1000 players. It sounds like music and saves $800 for Ferragamos for the S.O. And not a word about SACD, yet.

Okay, I find the difference very subtle. I should listen to a lot more SACD's. As I mentioned, I only have the James Taylor.

Back when high end meant Linn or Goldmund or VPI, I had an HW-19 III with an ET II arm and Talisman Virtuoso DTi. And a big income, really big. And a tic. I added the silicon damping trough to the ET and discovered a quieter backdrop to the music and better control of the bass. I suppose that translates to higher signal to noise and it is clearly what sets SACD apart from CD.

If like me, you belong to the Nouveau Poor, the 775 is as fine a front end as you can get. And did you know it plays these SACD's?




Product Weakness: The *$&%*@ thing defaults to multi-channel; why does it have to default to either? Press play and hear only ambience! Sheesh!
Product Strengths: Highly detailed but 'musical' presentation from bottom to top of all 88 keys. Just a pleasure to listen to.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Bottlehead Paramours/ C4S
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Passive/Bottlehead Foreplay
Sources (CDP/Turntable): As in review
Speakers: Pi Theatre 4
Cables/Interconnects: RS magnet wire/DIYCable Superlative
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Jazz, Classical, Pop
Room Size (LxWxH): 28 x 12 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: 2 rolls of R-13 in each rear corner
Time Period/Length of Audition: Most of today
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Monster HTS2000
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition): See the listing for Eye-gor




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Topic - REVIEW: Sony SCD-CE775 CD Player/Recorder - Till E. 16:05:49 04/25/02 ( 7)