The concluding Allegro and album's last track features a marvelous one-minute bass/percussion solo between Charbonnier and Andre Arpino working out his circularly spaced drum kit. The difference? Via the Odeon, it was far easier to hear how the lower harmonics of the struck triangle faded out consecutively one after the other until only the very highest ones remained. The Marantz portrayed the endless decay trails every bit as long. Jacques Loussier's Bach Book, on the Andante of the harpsichord D major Concerto, opens with extremely lucidly recorded triangle accents. The Odeon's HF energy is like that - a kind of pressure or presence, an aural MSG contrast agent. The dust particles act like dither - subliminal noise of sorts but definitely enhancing the "visibility" of the light. You can see the actual light beams rather than just observe their brightness effect. You can't hear it but definitely sense a tactile hat's-off presence."Īn image now comes to mind - angled sunlight filtered through air dancing with dust motes. There's also a distinct impression of taking off one's hat, replacing the confined space around the scalp for communion with the sky above.
"Enhanced resolution in this instance equals more excitement, not more relaxation. An all-around sensation of heightened juiciness, denser colors, increased drive and urgency. Now that bass energy was present, it was definitely lower, stronger, more powerful. Same differences, but significantly compounded. The PRe1's slick remote now allowed endless A/B toggles from my seat. With the analog outs of the Marantz on input 1, I connected the Odeon to my PRe1 on input 2 and set its attenuator slightly above the recommended 1500 hour position for perfect level matching. Would it validate itself in such stark contrast? To find out, I contacted Wireworld, Audioquest and The Cable Company with a request for short-term loaners and started my listening using Acoustic Zen's finest S/PDIF digital IC. Naturally I knew all the hearsay on the S/PDIF (RCA or BNC) superiority over plastic/fiber. As for me, I was the unwashed heathen and had no allegiance either way.
In their rigs, some actually obtained better results with the right fiber cable than with the ubiquitous RCA interface. Quite a few of the correspondents had experimented extensively between both formats. A quick query on Audio Asylum generated three solid Toslink cable recommendations: Wireworld Supernova III+, Audioquest OptiLink 4 and Van den Hul Optocoupler II. But there's evidence this could be a misspelled hence ineffective mantra by now. Common Knowledge insists that by comparison, Toslink sucks like an Oreck vac. Seeing that the Odeon-Ag allocates two of its four input options to Toslink, I thought it prudent to explore the fiber versus S/PDIF debate.