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Wednesday 20 February 2013

SOUNDBOXES II - The Classic Roksan Attessa CD Player

SOUNDBOXES II
ROKSAN ATTESSA
The Most Analogue-Like CD Player . A Classic.
The Roksan Attessa - A fine piece of Hi Fi kit to play your favourite easy instrumentals and vocals on. A quick introduction first – from a dated website:
  Roksan has introduced its Attessa DP3 (US$2,795), a top-loading CD Transport with a centrally housed drive chamber covered by a powered lid. The inner drive chamber is painted matt black to absorb spurious light while a low inertia magnetic centering puck clamps the disk from above. A laser sled drive system is said to give finer resolution than other mechanisms. The actual drive mechanism is isolated via a four-tiered suspension to decouple it from the plinth and the main chassis. The main circuit boards are also further isolated to eliminate the effects of microphony on delicate signals. 10-stage regulation divides servo mechanism and circuit board for optimum performance. A full-function remote control is standard.
I acquired this player off eBay (UK) after a local second hand dealer demonstrated a sold unit in his shop using a power and pre-amplifier set-up. The sound was exceptionally refined despite the somewhat less than sleek design of the player. The version that I am commenting on here is the full CD PLAYER version, and not the CD TRANSPORT which requires an outboard Digital-Analogue-Converter (DAC). It was in fact a very bulky disc player that could not have appealed at first sight. It could have been invented in the 1980s when STAR WARS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA consoles were the rage on the movie screen. According to the instruction manual this player was manufactured in June 1993.
In keeping with the genre on this website, I tested it with tracks from the DECCA Phase 4 instrumental remasters from Duttonvocalion, and a selection from the 1991 EMI ‘Compacts for Pleasure’ two disc collection featuring Franck Pourcel, Geoff Love, Ron Goodwin and Manuel and the Music of the Mountains. The strings were full bodied and sounded as though they were playing in a thickly wood paneled concert hall or studio. You could almost hear the ‘sound of wood’. The slower the piece, the sweeter and more precise the reproduction.
I had also tried out the ‘faster attack’ tempo of smooth jazz tracks, but the player came up slightly short in this regard. The excitement of the studio atmospherics was missing even if every note and bass line was right on cue. Sung Opera did far better, especially of the likes of Lesley Garrett, the Celtic Tenors, Mario Frangoulis, Sarah Brightman and Helmut Lotti. The soundstages were quite expansive and the voices reverberated as one would expect – off the wooded panels of a good recording venue!

For the faster paced EZ instrumentals, such as the album FESTIVAL TROPICAL by Gunter Norris, his Big Band and Orchestra, the satisfaction of listening was also evident – tempo, drums, loud opulent brass – all came across naturally. Maybe it’s because they were all recorded ‘live’ in a studio, instead of having the sounds mixed from separate recording tracks and venues!
As you can see from the pictures, this is a bulky player whose engineering marvel lies in its so-called four-level suspended CD mounting bay. The idea of a top loading system, complete with a magnetic puck, is thus far, an evergreen design imitated even by newer high-end players from Raysonic, Naim, Shanling, and Goldmund.

A final note: I had partnered this player for trial runs with an AUDIO ANALOGUE PRIMO SETTANTA (70W) Integrated Amplifier, then with a SONUS FABER MUSICA (50W) Integrated Amplifier. Both brought out the best in the Attessa. In both runs, the amplifiers were matched with Focus Audio FS78 speakers, equipped with Straightwire interconnects (Symphony II) and Nordost Blue Heaven (Speaker cables)
 Some specifications:
Sampling frequency: 44.1kHz
Analogue Output: 2.0 Vrms
Dynamic Range: 97 dB
Optical pick-up: 3-beam laser
D/A Conversion: Crystal Delta-Sigma
Power consumption: 10W
Weight: 9kg
Email me at orchestraljoy@yahoo.com.sg if you would like to correspond further on this fine player. Alan.

POSTSCRIPT (April 2015): for those of you intending to acquire the Attessa, please be aware that it will NOT play CD-Rs or CD-RWs. All normal 'Red Book' CDs (i.e. bought from record stores online and offline) will paly normally, so will HDCD and DSD-encoded discs. I have not tried SACDs though.

Saturday 9 February 2013

CYRIL STAPLETON AND EDMUNDO ROS THEMES OF BRASS AND SAMBA! TWO GEMS FROM RECENT SALE BY DUTTONVOCALION COMPANY

I choose to twin the reviews of these two orchestras simply because they were bought together and bring out the old world charm of that classic era of mood music characterized by large sedan cars decked in dual colour schemes accompanied by the sounds of the ‘jazz age’. Edmundo Ros was beginning to turn up the heat of the Latin music hype with his bold percussion-and-brass-centred arrangements. At the same time, Cyril Stapleton was attempting to match the ‘now sound’ of the late 1950s and early 1960s by transcribing some of the most popular hits of the Hollywood movie screen for a large big band accompanied by a string section. These two discs are on sale through the website duttonvocalion.com at the time of this review – get them before they are gone!
   
CYRIL STAPLETON & HIS ORCHESTRA
GREAT MOVIE HITS VOLUMES 1 & 2 CDLK 4383

GREAT MOVIE HITS – VOLUME 1
ORIGINAL LP ACL 1011 (1960) STEREO
GREAT MOVIE HITS – VOLUME 2
ORIGINAL LP ACL 1029 (1960) STEREO

April Love from ‘April Love’ (Fain; Webster)
Young at Heart ‘Young at Heart’ (Richards; Leigh)
September Song ‘Knickerbocker Holiday’ (Weill; Anderson)
A Certain Smile ‘A Certain Smile’ (Fain; Webster)
Unchained Melody ‘Unchained’ (North; Zaret)
Friendly Persuasion ‘Friendly Persuasion’ (Tiomkin; Webster)
Secret Love ‘Calamity Jane’ (Fain; Webster)
Hold My Hand ‘Susan Slept Here’ (Lawrence; Myers)
Love Me Tender ‘Love Me Tender’ (Presley; Matson)
The Harry Lime Theme ‘The Third Man’ (Karas)
Three Coins in the Fountain
‘Three Coins in the Fountain’ (Styne; Cahn)
I’ll Never Stop Loving You
‘Love Me or Leave Me’ (Cahn; Brodszky)
Around the World ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ (Young; Rouzaud; Adamson)
Anniversary Song ‘The Jolson Story’ (Jolson; Chaplin)
Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo ‘Lili’ (Kaper; Deutsch)
Theme from ‘Limelight’ (Chaplin)
Theme from ‘Moulin Rouge’ (Auric; Engvick)
The High and the Mighty
‘The High and the Mighty’ (Tiomkin; Washington)
True Love ‘High Society’ (Porter)
No One But You ‘The Flame and the Flesh’ (Lawrence; Brodszky)
The Loveliest Night of the Year
‘The Great Caruso’ (adpt. Aaronson; Webster; Rosa)
Tammy ‘Tammy and the Bachelor’ (Livingston; Evans; Skinner)
Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)
‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (Evans; Livingston)
Be My Love
‘The Toast of New Orleans’ (Cahn; Brodszky)

This Stapleton double album is now a favourite of mine because its arrangements are both nostalgic and timeless – this is thoroughly a ‘big band’ album, but the arrangements have produced a slow, consistent, charming rhythm to the two sequenced LPs that evoke a classic romance. The soundstage is opulent and gives your stereo a good test. Although I’m not a regular fan of Stapleton, hearing these two LPs for the first time is a true ‘ear opener’!
 
EDMUNDO ROS & HIS ORCHESTRA
DANCING WITH EDMUNDO & HEADING SOUTH OF THE BORDER

DANCING WITH EDMUNDO
ORIGINAL DECCA LP SKL 4100 (1960) STEREO
Cuban Love Song (Stothart; McHugh; Fields) Rumba
Toku (Lecuona) Rumba
Brasil (Barroso) Samba
Lua do Brasil (Rios) Samba
Spanish Gipsy Dance (Marquina) Paso Doble
Te Quiero Y Ole (Laredo) Paso Doble
Tony’s Cha Cha Cha (Osborne) Cha Cha Cha
Pao Pao Cha Cha Cha (Monchito) Cha Cha Cha
Te Quiero Dijiste (Grever) Rumba
Divina Mujer (Moral) Rumba
Copacabana (Ribeiro; De Barro) Samba
Rio Brasil (Carvalinho; Monteiro) Samba
La Morena de mi Copla (Catellanos; Villegas) Paso Doble
Que me Estas Queriendo (Guijarro) Paso Doble
Puerto Rican Peddler (Brandon) Cha Cha Cha
Fanfare Cha Cha Cha (White) Cha Cha Cha

HEADING SOUTH OF THE BORDER
ORIGINAL DECCA LP PFS 4193 (1970) STEREO
Heading South (Rios)
Mrs Robinson (Simon)
Light My Fire (Morrison; Manzarek; Krieger; Densmore)
What Now My Love (Becaud; Sigman; Delanoe)
Forbidden Games (Yepes; Stellman)
United We Stand (Hiller; Simons)
Up, Up and Away (Webb)
My Cherie Amour (Wonder; Moy; Cosby)
I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman (Greenaway; Cook)
The Skaters’ Waltz (Waldteufel arr Ros; Hanmer)
I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (Bacharach; David)
Hey Jude (Lennon; McCartney)
2 LPS ON 1 CD - CDLK 4334

This set from Ros can be listened to as a sampler of the maestro’s music or as a set of instrumental sambas. ‘Dancing with Edmundo’ captures many original Latin compositions not recorded by most easy listening orchestras, and makes use of an intimate ‘Latin big band’ setting to make out its dancing rhythms. 1970’s ‘Heading South of the Border’ showcases a different recipe altogether: Ros is trying to put the samba into contemporary pop hits of the 1968-70 period. ‘Light my Fire’, ‘United we Stand’, ’Up Up & Away’, ‘Mrs Robinson’ and ‘Forbidden Games’ adapt very well but the rest are somewhat mixed in terms of their Latin credentials. Perhaps a more relaxed arrangement with strings and piano might help. ‘My Cherie Amour’ dazzles because of its unexpectedly slow reflective piano led introduction and keeps the rest of the Latin rhythm in moderate tempo. Ros sings on ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ and that’s a show stealer in itself: his perfect semi-melancholic tone, coloured with a hint of playfulness beings out the subtlety in Bacharach-David’s classic song.