For when you have to listen to CDs ... mini review of Rega Apollo

Vinyl Asylum

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I posted about this on the digital forum, but I believe that this might be of interest to vinyl lovers ...
It's an unfortunate fact that a lot of new releases are not available on vinyl or are too expensive (I want to make sure I REALLY like an album before I spend $30-50+ for an audiophile vinyl version).
After hearing many people mention that the new Rega Apollo CD player "sounds analog", I decided to give it a try. My in-store audition was quite impressive, but I wanted to see how it sounded in my system (PrimaLuna Prologue One amp --> Quad 22L speakers). I got a loaner for the week-end and I was impressed. So I put an order for a unit ... and waited a couple of months since the black Apollo was back-ordered.
I finally got it last week, put it in through a few days of burn-in and sat down for some critical/comparative listening.
As a re-born vinyl lover and owner of six turntables, with a history of not being able to listen to CD for more than a few minutes before feeling fatigued/annoyed by the sound, I am not easy to please. But this unit is a great addition to my system.
The best way I can describe the sound is ... analog - yes, for once the hype seems justified. I would add, using non-audiophile terms, "liquid" and "oily".
The Apollo does not offer the greatest resolution or, more accurately, it does not bring attention to itself through resolution. Acoustic guitar music, for example, has a lot of buzzing, harmonics, accidental "noises", that come through loud and clear on system with very high resolution. This resolution adds to the realism, no doubt, but it's also fatiguing (at least to me). It's the first CDP I have listened to where the highs sound like they are coming from a high-end MM cartridge.
I read some criticism of the Apollo being weak in the bottom end. I found no such weakness and one of my test tracks for bass ("All or Nothing at All" the opening track on Diana Krall's "Love Scenes") was beautifully rendered with the bass very tight and focused.
I did several A/B comparisons between CDs and LPs (using my TD124/SME 3009II with Shure M97XE as well as Rega P3/Clearaudio Aurum Beta Wood) with music from Neil Young, Dire Straits, and Diana Krall. The CDs had an edge on base, soundstage, and top octave. The vinyl had a definite edge in the midrange/vocals - they sounded smoother and more "captivating"/realistic.
The sounds were, for the first time in several of these CD/LP tests, so similar that I often lost my place in the A/B, thinking I was listening to vinyl while it was the CD and vice-versa.
Listening to "Kind of Blue", the latest non-SACD re-issue (with the pitch problems corrected) was a real revelation. I had never heard such a wide soundstage on KoB (and I own several CD and LP versions).
As a matter of fact, if I had to pick one definite advantage of CDs vs LPs is the width, depth, and consistency/stability of the sound stage.
The bottom line is that with the Apollo I finally found a CDP in my budget ($1K) that does not make me want to get up after 5 minutes and turn on the turntable.
Alberto

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Topic - For when you have to listen to CDs ... mini review of Rega Apollo - albertoderoma 08:01:05 07/16/06 (4)

great comments... - docw 09:31:53 07/16/06 (2)

Re: great comments... - albertoderoma 15:32:27 07/16/06 (1)

I always learn from your posts, and ... - docw 16:24:16 07/16/06 (0)

You should try Naim players too, start with CDX2 (nt) - Tawe 08:20:53 07/16/06 (0)

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