Sushi without wasabi!

The recent CDP comparisons have really opened my mind and enriched my knowledge, which I have never imagined gaining without years of bumpy rides!

I have been trying to replace my current CDP, tried Benchmark DAC1, no luck. Then I brought home the CEC TL51XR, the latest mid entry player from CEC. A belt driven transport with 24/192 DAC. Please be careful though, there are many players touting a 24/192 DAC, this only means that they are multibit players. They are not upsampling players, the players must explicitly state upsampling, or else, they are just 44.1 players.

Anyway, the CEC is no slouch a player. Giving instruments a complete harmonic texture with almost grainless presentation. Is this analogue sound? I'm not sure, but switching back to my Sony tells me surely that it is. The sound is rich and the mid is just smooth, tangible and densed. The Sony is a bit on the soft side, light weighted and grainy as compared to the CEC.

Technically, the CEC is very much more superior sounding than the Sony. There is no shortcoming in speed, drive and extensions. You want inner details? Plentiful. However, this player is neutral to a capital T! Well behaved and very much indifferent in presentation.

I once thought that the source should be as neutral as possible with almost no coloration at all. Hence, I normally stick to Jap players due to the cultural appreciation in freshness and rawness in food/seafood. And the CEC has got no problem in giving you this, everything is fresh from the CD with no additive at all!

However, when pitted against the behemoth Meridian G08, everything just paled down! The CEC lacked the extra zing, the quality to get you engaged in the music. Cheer track 11 seemed bland. Michelle's latest album brought no indulgence, too, she seemed like cold fish straight from track 1, which is not supposed to be!

With an entry level setup like mine, the CEC is able to give you well defined body, width and depth. But still, the cold fish nature is still very much apparent if you listen carefully. At sub 6K, I could be very much happy with it if my setup is on the bright side. Heck, with Stage III pure silver jumpers, I could bring more out from this player, but still a cold player it is.

TL51XR sure is sushi, just without wasabi!