Life has been a little chaotic of late with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring, and then being infected with it and getting sick myself.
The good news is that over the last two days my temperature has dropped down into the normal range, and this morning as well. According to the health care professionals treating me, three full days of not having an elevated temperature is when I can consider myself recovered.
Now after being sick with COVID-19 for just over 3 weeks, the goal is to get my strength back, which I'm told can take up to five weeks. I'm hoping to do a little walking outdoors when the coast is clear, and getting on my bicycle, either indoors or outdoors.
Stay safe & well my friends, you don't want to get the COVID-19 virus, it is nasty!
I've missed a few beats in my audio writing rhythm due to COVID-19, and am well behind where I'd like to be in my reviewing schedule as a result.
The Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player (left) and the Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier (right).
One ball I dropped is that I haven't done a really great job on keeping track of the run-in hours that have accumulated on the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player that Peter Qvortrup sent me to listen to.
I've had the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player here for just over a month now (see my "Today's Fresh Catch" post of 3/9/2020 HERE), and it has been powered up and playing music since it got here.
So I'm estimating I'm getting about 2 - 3 hours a day on it playing music (and I've left it powered up since it arrived 41 days ago), so that's in the range of 82 - 123 hours of playing time on it now, and about 984 hours of "powered-up" time on it.
The rule of thumb for run-in on audio components is often cited as 100 - 150 hours of playing time, but honestly, it seems that in my experience some components take from 300 - 600 hours of run-in time to hit their full stride, and with some rare components - like the Duelund CAST crossovers in my "Stokowski" Altec's and my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers - my impression is that they continue to gradually improve over a period of years.
So by any of those run-in benchmarks the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player is only part-way through its run-in process with regards to its playing time.
However, it does seem like I get two categories of components regarding run-in time, those that sound a little ragged or discombobulated until they get an adequate amount of run-in time on them (about 2/3 of components), and those that sound good right out of the box and then to continue to improve gradually as run-in time goes on.
The Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player is one of the latter, as it has sounded good from the time I first plugged it in cold out of the box, and has continued to gradually improve in its performance as it has accumulated playing time on it.
The Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier.
If you read my feature review of the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier (HERE), you already know I think it is an incredibly high-performer.
Even though the Oto is an entry level product in the Audio Note (UK) integrated amplifier product line, you'd never know it was entry level by listening to it, as it is the best sounding amplifier I've tried yet with my "Stokowski" Altec's and their über Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers, that I wrote about back in the feature review for Positive Feedback in October of 2019 (HERE).
I'm even more smitten with the Duelund-ized "Stokowski" Altec's than I was when I wrote that article, and I can say the same for the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier as well, as it continues to impress me more with the passage of time.
Audio reviewers, in particular, with all the review equipment that comes and goes through their homes, know that long-term love affairs that grow over time with a particular piece of audio equipment is a rare occurrence indeed.
When that happens it tends to put me back on my heels a bit and into a state of surprise and glee.
I expect that a "long term affair" reaction from me may very well be true for the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player, as I have enjoyed the way the CD 2.1x/II played music cold out of the box, and I've continued to be impressed by its musicality and sonic performance as I've listened to more and more Red Book CDs with it as it is accumulating run-in time.
My fondness for the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player has continued to grow over the last month - which is a really good sign.
I'm thinking its been around a decade or a bit more since I've really done much listening to my sizable Red Book CD collection, and there's a lot of albums that I have on CD that I don't have on vinyl, or have never even been issued on vinyl.
You hear audio writers and enthusiasts talking about what the highest performing software format is, comparing reel-to-reel tapes, vinyl, FM broadcasts, high-resolution digital formats, digital streaming, and CDs.
I suppose for me, that the order of performance of formats is in pretty much the order that I cited above, with the exception of the high-rez digital formats, which I haven't tried.
Personally though, that hierarchy of performance doesn't matter to me as much as does the ability of a source component to get the best out of a given format as possible, providing performance that sounds & feels credibly like a musical performance does in life, and for me that's primarily my album collections on LP and CD.
Thorens TD-124
I have been very happy with my CTC Garrard 301 and Thorens TD-124 vinyl front ends of late, as I've got them exactly where I want them performance wise, but for my Red Book digital collection there has been a notable lack in my ability to extract a level of performance that makes me feel like I'm listening to a credible analog of a musical performance.
In fact, although I have kept my Red Book CD collection for many years, I had pretty much written off the Red Book standard as a credible high-performance music medium.
Fro example, my Oppo BDP-83 Blu-Ray player sounds pretty good on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, but has not provided satisfactory musical performance from Red Book CDs.
There's been a few exceptions like Anatoly's 78 transfers to CD that Peter Qvortrup gave me to listen to, which sound great, but overall, when I listen to CDs from my Red Book collection I have been underwhelmed by the musical experience, even when they are premium CDs like the Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc II or the JVC XRCDs.
It just seemed that a reasonable portrayal of musicality was missing from the Red Book CD versions of the LP's I knew well.
So, I have assumed for a long time now that Red Book digital is just a flawed medium, one that could never really reliably deliver musical performances at a level that sounds & feels credibly like a musical performance does to me in life.
A New Adventure in Music!
Well, I'm walking back my view that the performance potential of Red Book CDs are not worth considering as a high-performance music medium for music lovers, as my view on that topic has changed with the arrival of the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player.
My response to the CD 2.1x/II Level Two has been, "Where have you been all my life?".
I feel like I have entered into a new realm of audio adventure with the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player, and I am quite excited as it has made all the Red Book CDs I've listened to from my sizable collection sound & feel like credible musical performances.
I've even bought new CDs to listen to, something I have never envisioned doing again.
So today, I am going to share a few of those listening impressions with you, with more to come later.
My primary focus when listening to any component in a hifi system is to determine if it provides a credible performance with respect to musicality. To quote my "Listening" page:
"The musicality aspect of a component’s performance is related to its performance on the basic elements of music. I listen for how close a component comes to presenting recorded music realistically compared to live music, in terms of timbral realism (the unique ‘voices’ of instruments), the resolution of tone color (the ability to distinctly hear the chordal variations resulting from adding additional pitches to three tone triads), melody (the tune you ‘whistle while you work’), harmony (treble & bass accompaniments to the melody), rhythm (the steady beat that determines the tempo), tempo (speed), dynamics (variations in loudness), and loudness (the ability to play naturally at live-like levels appropriate to a piece of music)."
Let me start very generally. First of all, does the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player let me enjoy the music on Red Book CDs on a level comparable with my LP collection?
The answer is yes.
I'm not saying that the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player is at the same level of performance as my turntables, as I haven't yet done one of those listening comparisons where I listen to a Red Book CD album, and then get out the same album on vinyl and give it a listen on my turntable.
That type of listening session will come in future blog posts here at Jeff's Place, but that is not my focus today.
Just as an aside, typically at hifi shows I am put off by almost all digital of any kind when I listen in various rooms, as it almost always had an unnatural synthetic electronic "sheen" to it that just doesn't reconcile with my views on musicality.
That is to say, it doesn't sound like a reasonable analog of live music to me, but rather it sounds like something audiophiles who don't play a musical instrument or listen to much live music would like, where they focus more on sound artifacts from the recording process than they do the actual musical content.
That's even with über digital systems costing multiple tens of thousands of dollars, as they fail the musicality test.
I'm told there's good über expensive digital systems out there, but I haven't heard one yet, so I'm just telling you about what I've heard personally.
Really, the only time I've heard digital sound good at shows - by my criteria of musicality - is in the Audio Note (UK) rooms, where they were playing rather inexpensive systems based on Red Book CDs.
That's the opposite of what one would expect based on pricing and the media hype around high-rez digital, but now that I have the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player in my own home, I am experiencing that same sort of musicality from it that I heard in Audio Note (UK) rooms at shows.
The musicality of Audio Note (UK) digital is not a gimmick, it is for real, and I am very excited about it, because really, this is the first time in my own home that I've had something playing Red Book CDs that actually passes the test of musicality, and by doing so has both simultaneously upended what I thought about Red Book CDs, and made me happy while listening to the music on them.
"The Complete Recordings of the Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall" CD box set from Mosaic.
I'll start with the second-hand four-CD boxset of "The Complete Recordings of the Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall" from Mosaic that I purchased a short time ago from Discogs.
One of my favorite jazz guitarists is the late Jim Hall, who my friend and guitar teacher, David Gitlen, knew, and has listened to in live performances hundreds of times. David is an incredibly talented jazz guitarist in his own right, and I feel really fortunate to be able to take lessons from him.
So in addition to listening to Jim Hall for pleasure, I'm also listening very carefully to Jim Hall's technique as he plays his guitar to learn something that I hope I can apply to my own playing.
While I'll never be at Jim's or David's level in playing jazz guitar, I can still add in techniques as I am learning from David, and that I hear in Jim Hall's playing as I listen to these CDs, hopefully improving a little bit.
Listening to Disc 1 from the boxset, I am hearing an absence of the unnatural synthetic electronic "sheen" that I hear in most digital, that destroys musicality.
The musicality is intact. That is to say timbral character of instruments is in the believable range of live music, and importantly for my purposes, I can distinctly hear the chordal variations resulting from adding additional pitches to three tone triads that makes jazz what it is (the tone color).
Also, melodies flow with liquidity, and the harmony of treble & bass accompaniments sound natural, enhancing the listening experience.
Rhythm, that steady beat that determines the tempo, comes through to give life and forward momentum to the music. The variations in loudness (dynamics) sound effortless and natural, and the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player has the ability to play naturally at live-like levels appropriate to a piece of music.
From a musicality perspective, the CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player scores very well, and makes music a true pleasure to listen to.
The CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player also scores well on audiophile-style sonics like imaging, soundstaging, presence, and the like, but that is a discussion I'll delve into more in a future blog post.
Today's discussion is focused on musicality, something which most digital sources in my experience fail at, but that Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player gets right, distinctly separating its performance from "the herd".
One of the songs I am working on learning to play in jazz chord melody style on my guitar is the classic, "Black Orpheus".
So, as I write this I'm listening to the DCC Jazz gold CD that was remastered by Steve Hoffman in 1993 from the original two-track tapes the Vince Guaraldi Trio's Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus.
This is a phenomenal album, and the way the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player presents Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus is just superb.
Vince Guaraldi's piano tone is gorgeous, Monte Budwig's bass sounds natural and well defined as he plays, and Colin Bailey's drumming is superb, with cymbals and sticks sounding natural with good presence.
Well, I wish this album had Jim Hall, or Joe Pass, or Ed Bickert playing guitar on it, but alas, it doesn't. Still though, this album should be in every jazz lovers collection, and Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player makes it superbly musically satisfying to listen to.
Next up for a listen was the Stan Getz & João Gilberto Getz/Gilberto album, this one being one of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's Ultradisc II gold CD's.
The Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player makes Getz/Gilberto sound gorgeous just like it should. Both Astrud and João Gilberto's vocals sound natural and beautiful on "The Girl From Ipanema", the album's most famous song.
Antonio Carlos Jobim's piano tone is gorgeous and natural sounding, Stan Getz's sax playing is vivid and present, Tommy Williams bass sounds as it should in providing the beat, and Milton Banana's drums round everything out in fine fashion.
Well, that's all for now for my first impressions listening to the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player.
I'll be following up over time with some listening impressions of classical, rock & roll, folk, etc., some more discussion of audiophile-style sonics, and some CD vs. LP listening impressions.
Suffice it to say, even at this early point in my listening, I really like what I'm hearing from the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player, as it just sounds like music should for home playback.
Peter Qvortrup reminds me that this is an entry level product, and that his more expensive digital sources are commensurably better.
I have to say though, that if you didn't know the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player was an entry level product, you'd never know that by listening to it, as it is definitely high-performance in that it gets the music right in terms of musicality, something that even many super-expensive digital sources fail at.
Honestly, I've never been this excited about a digital source, as it has re-introduced into my life the ability to listen to my large collection of Red Book CDs and truly enjoy them, which is something that has been missing from my life for a very long time.
Ok, that's all for now, but with much more to come.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
