Scandinavian Cool

This is the second posting on my system components. This time round I’d like to talk about my Copland CDA822 cd player….

There are 2 schools of thought on which component is the most important in a hifi chain, one says it is the source, another says it is the loudspeakers. Both have their proponents.

In my early hifi years, I was more inclined to the latter. With the system I had, it was true that a change in loudspeakers gave me the greatest magnitude of change in sound (for better or worse), not to mention that when I auditioned a system, at a dealer or a friend’s place, the loudspeakers were usually the most visible component. Changing CD players or amps usually did not create the same level of impact on the system’s sound.

As the years went by, I was not so sure any more. As the resolution of my system increased over time (ahem! :-) ), I realized that any change in the hifi chain could create a significant shift in the sound quality. A change may tip the system from excellent to unlistenable and vice versa.

So now I am a fence-sitter on this issue (or to sound better, I’m now the whole-system-synergy-is-important kind of guy :-) ).

What has this got to do with the CDA822? Well, it is the component that illustrates to me in the strongest manner that the source equipment does matter a lot. The Copland contributes tremendously to my emotional connection with my music. With it, I constantly want to bob my head, wave my hands and tap my feet in time to the music. It does not allow me to do easy listening, every piece of music comes off with such conviction from the artist that it forces me to pay attention.

The Copland’s sound is bold, dynamic, and has excellent timing, yet it also retains a high degree of delicacy and details. It can convey the sultriness of a saxophone and the rhythmic throb of a double bass on a jazz piece. It can convey the scale of an orchestra at full tilt and yet resolve a solo violinist’s delicate touches.

In contrast, some higher end digital replay gear that I auditioned in my system might better the Copland in the some audiophile parameters such as resolution and soundstaging, but I was sometimes left cold with the portrayal of the music.

Well, people say digital technology advances at lightning speed, digital gear that is a few years old may be superseded by the latest and cheaper implementation. However, the CDA822 took my latest model, mid-range universal player (albeit at less than half the price of the Copland) to the proverbial cleaner on cd replay. The CDA822 is beaten comparing the cd layer to the sacd layer on a hybrid disc (and only in the treble region mostly), however I put this down to the superiority of the sacd format instead (but that is story for another day).

If I look for an upgrade to my digital front end, the first priority would be to retain the musical emotion that the Copland so ably displayed. I hope I would have greater exposure to high performance digital gear working with av xpress, and find a worthy successor to the CDA822 when the time comes.

But I have a feeling that it may not be such a straightforward task….