Edge Of The Art!

Audio ads often claim their products are “state of the art.” That’s a pretty bold claim and lots of barely cut above gear makes that claim. We see it so much that we pay no attention. I won’t repeat that mistake.

However… I’m quite willing to call Atoll’s second from the top CD player VERY CLOSE to the best source there is. I’m not out of line in calling “Edge of the Art.’

Compact Discs

CD is my favorite format. That’s heresy in today’s world of guys who love analog. I’ve heard thousands of vinyl lovers proclaim, “I hate digital.” Oh?

Did you know that almost every LP out there was cut from a digital file?

Whether the music was recorded in digital or analog, it has to be preserved to stand the test of time and be used REPEATEDLY to make LPs or CDs. Digital storage is the only way to save that music file and create copies without degradation.

Music from the early 80s and before was recorded on analog tape. But ALMOST ALWAYS that tape was saved to a digital file.

I would rather take that specific file in the form of a CD and play it on a great CD player like an Atoll CD200- than pump it through many steps to create a plastic LP and play it back, warts and all.

Digital Files

Did you know that the best LPs in the world, the MoFi One Steps, are cut from digital files?

Yes, they are. When you play one of those LPs, which sound fabulous by the way, you’re listening to a digital file than has been converted into a plastic LP. More steps are in the road- BEFORE we even discuss the turntable/arm/cartridge contraption you have. And don’t forget… you have an ever important phono preamp that’s in the road. You’re listening to a plethora of problems AFTER starting with the same digital file that a CD has.

I say, just take that same digital file, in the form of a CD, and PLAY IT. Atoll’s CD200 is ideal for the task of playing these digital files very competitively with price no object competitors.

For openers, most audiophiles have never heard a top flight CD player. I have been in biz 50 years and can tell you the vast majority of high end system owners have modestly priced or downright cheap CD players from Sony, Denon etc.

These are the guys that say they “hate digital.” I contend… if they heard their CDs through a wonderful CD player, like Atoll’s CD200 from France, their musical horizons would be enlightened. Further, if they knew their beloved LPs came from digital files, they wouldn’t say that.

Streaming

CDs sound better than streaming- when played through a marvelous player like the CD200. Why?

Qobuz and Tidal use public clouds for storing digital files = music.

Spotify uses its own core infrastructure, not public clouds.

None of these companies will reveal physically WHERE the files reside.

Further, the computers on which these files are stored introduce some character of sound on their own.

For the best possible sound, I want my music in hand, in the form of a CD, to play through a great player like an Atoll CD200. The file is RIGHT HERE, play it without more debris in the road.

If you stream, you’re starting with that same digital file, and having it sent to you through zillions of miles of wires, connecting blocks, amplifiers, filters, switchers etc. AND… there is that pesky issue of, just what kind of device is it actually stored on? It influences the sound too.

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t stream music. I enjoy a wide variety of music and don’t always listen with rapt attention. For those times, I’m fine streaming through one of these good services. I don’t have to buy a CD or LP for each piece of music I listen to.

But for music I LOVE, and listen to many times to unfurl each layer of the onion, THAT’S where only the CD (or SACD) will do for me. For me the red meat is classical and romantic piano music ranging from Haydn, Mozart, LVB, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. You can add some Rachmaninoff, Satie and even some jazz.

You can listen to a dozen Steinways and no two are the same. The same can be said for microphones, mixing boards and all the other links in the chain. I want to hear the best players on the planet through the best equipment possible. Every album is the result of hundreds of choices from the instrument, player and recording team. Let’s hear those choice down to the last drop.

Playing this music through a fine stereo system at your house is the next best thing to having Beethoven stop by.

Records

I enjoy LPs for pop and jazz music where wow and flutter limitations are not evident. Please don’t download Rega’s app and check out the W&F of your turntable. It will disappoint you.

W&F and rumble, are downright annoying on quiet/transparent piano music. Try Schubert’s first Impromptu if you’d like to test me. Or.. how about movement #1 of LVB’s Moonlight sonata.

I love records for the album art and tactile feel. Ya can’t beat Carly Simon’s “No Secrets” which is a master work released just before Christmas in 1972. Records are also fun from the Pablo, CTI and Blue Note labels where the jackets enhance the ownership experience.

Yet for the core music of my life, records are disqualified for the endemic speed variances and noises of the medium.

More On Silver Discs

Reviewers are starting to discover that their silver discs are a lot better than what they thought. I’m reading issue after issue by writers who have taken the format seriously recently and are shocked at how good it is. When you read below the surface, you’ll see virtually all of them had a generic Chinese CD player with a transformer the size of a thimble, a lousy tracking laser reader and a boatload of wire running around the player, usually plugged in with car stereo Molex style connectors. Honestly, this shocks me. It would be like judging how good records are by listening to a cheap, rumbly Chinese table/cart.

Atoll CD players are a huge cut above. We have customers who have had Sonys, Denons, NADs etc- buy Atolls and then make a point of calling in to say they had no idea CDs could sound this good.

Atoll CD200

Have a look inside the Atoll CD200. Big transformers with lots of filter capacitance. No spaghetti. The transport is an outstanding tracking Teac. The DACs are Burr Browns. The line stage is discrete, not part of the DAC chip. Atoll takes great pride in VOICING its CD players and the parts that comprise CD200 are all chosen for that particular resolving flavor. The piano sounds big, rich and the speed is deal on, not wobbly.

If you contrast Atoll to almost anything else, you’ll see a cheesy Sanyo transport, tiny transformer, small caps- along loads of wires and chips.

Atoll players sound clear, warm and dynamic. A piano sounds in tune without W&F and has a taut/impactful lower register (LVB’s sonata #8 anyone?!). The experience of listening through an Atoll CD200 will win you over to what the silver disc has hiding within the pits.