SOUND BOXES – the weird & wonderful equipment we listen to music on…

My Hi Fi listening set up...mostly purchased second hand in Singapore.

My starting point…the NAD Family in 2010.

NAD C355BEE

I had owned this integrated amp for a year and a half, and it never ceased to amaze me how it 'reinvents' old recordings while also plumbing the finer qualities of Digital recordings made in the 1990s and 2000s. There is accurate stage presence, depth to each instrument and it reveals colours in vocal sets. I used the following for 'tests of revelation' - not your usual listening staple - but they prove this amplifier to be a winner in every way. Not at all laid-back but a highly refined sound that puts you right in the recording studio or concert hall.

Paul Mauriat - Love Sound Hits (Philips, Japan 1969/1987)
Barbra Streisand - A Love Like Ours (Columbia, USA, 1999)
Masashi Abe - Playing Love (Pacific Garden, Japan, 2000)
Ronnie Aldrich - Reflections/With Love and Understanding (Decca/Dutton-Vocalion, UK, 1976/1977/2005)
Carpenters - The Singles 1969-73 (A&M, USA, 1991)
Paul Mauriat - Yesterday Once More (Philips, Japan, 1973/2004)

80 Watts of power has been done justice - helped in no small part by a US$150 interconnect and 'Sound Physician' speaker wires hooked up to vintage Sherwood S1800 pinewood speakers. Musical heaven is within reach here - thanks to NAD's focus on that familiar warm Hi-Fi sound that attracted me to their products at first listen. The NAD C545 CD player (upper deck) was characteristic for its ‘slow’ and ‘normal’ digital filter options. The slow filter options produced a sweet sound to virtually all recordings – but only if they were remastered to exacting standards. This slow filter worked well for HDCD recordings that were mostly light jazz in my collection, but produced no wonders for the sound of DECCA Phase Four from the 1960s and 1970s.

Stage Two :

The NAD C375 promised to send 135 Watts into 8 ohm speakers (rather standard). In contrast, the C355 maximised the potential of the Sherwoods with its 80 Watts – yet after upgrading to the C565 CD player, and better, the M5 in NAD’s Masters range, something seemed missing from the sound quality. My upgrade was intended to boost sound quality with more power. Moreover the C375 was touted to be a ‘trickle-down’ Masters level M3 which I am told could match the M5 most perfectly. The C375 ‘sang’ sweetly with the M5 SACD player.

The Totem Sttaf floorstanding speakers – light, walnut brown, shorter towers – were an attempt to experiment with the arrival of the NAD C375 which featured biwiring capabilities for a ‘speaker B’ set-up. My Sherwood initially remained ‘Speaker A’. The Sttafs proved impressive on stereo imaging, tightening up the bass somewhat and the treble saw an almost 100% improvement over the Sherwoods. Nonetheless, the Sttafs seemed to produce no difference whether on spikes or on pure carpet. I opted for the latter to avoid damage to the parquet flooring.

The Focus Audio FS78s (in Piano Black finish) were a chance acquisition - they sounded better than the Zu Audio that the second hand dealer had on hand. The selling point for me was the sound stage imaging. They were a little slower than the Totems (the shorter walnut brown coloured floor standers in the picture above) but in terms of putting every piece of music on a figurative and holographic stage, the FS78s were supreme. One just needed to space them sufficiently apart even against a corner and they sounded simply magical! Some of the denser recordings by the Caravelli Grand Orchestra on the SONY/CBS label in the 1980s were revealed in layers of glorious detail. Could hear everything and now one can fully appreciate why Caravelli's arrangements were a class unto themselves.

For the updated range of Focus Audio high-end speakers, look up: http://www.focusaudio.com/index1.htm

Now, some of you will be wondering what that shoebox-size CD player on the lowest rack was all about? The oddness of the size and the ill-matching lines in contrast to the NAD family are striking. Well, that was a target of opportunity. This was a player I had admired in its early incarnations (e.g. Mission Cyrus products) some 15 years ago when I was still working my way through university. It was exorbitantly priced back then (hence I couldn’t acquire it) but I remember its sound ‘blowing away’ the competition in the early 1990s. CYRUS (UK) is renowned for their trademark shoebox sized designs for Hi-Fi. Amplifiers, tuners, CD players and now digital streamers are all configured in the same shape for a flushed look to their audio stacking. The CD6S, which is on display here, is a warm sounding player whose potential is best maximized with good power cable and higher end audio interconnect cables. Although it was premiered in 2005-2006, and won a WHAT HI-FI Award for that year, it sound remarkably competitive in sound quality to the higher end NAD players I have owned, except for the M5! It plays virtually all CDs printed and remastered from the 1990s onwards with tremendous vitality and detail. Earlier CDs produced from 1982 till about 1987 fared just about OK – until I changed the interconnects to the STRAIGHTWIRE SYMPHONY II which accentuated the sparkle of the mid-range in all recordings. The DECCA/London Phase 4 recordings sounded gloriously analogue on the Vocalion releases! Most interestingly, it partnered the NAD C375 very well. Here are the CD6S’s technical details from the www.cyrusaudio.co.uk site:

Power Supply - Toroidal power transformer feeding 8 regulated power supplies
D/A Converter  - 24 bit current output with integrated digital filter
Outputs - Dual Stereo audio, SPDIF optical
Transport - Integral Isolated Loader Mechanism with monolithic glass LASER assembly
Disc Compatibility - CD, CD-R (closed session)
Display - Custom LCD with subtle green back lighting
Remote Control - Full function Cyrus system remote control facility
Communications - MC-BUS™ System BUS

What CYRUS does best is to control for what their technicians call jitter and timing on music reproduction from the discs, plus a very meticulous approach to regulating the power supply within the player. NAD in turn mostly pays attention to the power supply conditioning.

Wait for my next installment when I separate the CYRUS from the NAD-Focus Audio set-up, and reconfigure the CYRUS around its own amplifier from the same manufacturer. J