Wayne, we had a shootout of sorts last Friday. It was originally planned as a head to head between the Elite BDP-09FD and a Theta Carmen II to see which fared best as a Redbook Transport. Both units were connected to my Theta CB III with Extreme DACs with Audioquest Eagle Eye DBS Coax.
We used two channel only. We listened to Joni Michell "Both Sides Now," Diana Krall "Live In Paris," Mark Knopfler - Dire Straits "Best Of," and Bill Evans "Waltz For Debbie" - JVC XRCD.
The Carmen clearly bested the Elite 09FD as a CD Transport. It was smoother in the upper midrange (particularly evident on the Mitchell - LSO) and had a larger deeper sound-stage with more air.
That being done I decided to throw my Server at my friends to see what they thought of it against the Carmen. Here's where it got interesting. The Carmen and the Server both had a similar smooth FR, very musical. The image of the Carmen was somewhat triangular with a very deep center sound-stage while the Server had a more rectangular depth. It was not as deep in the center of the stage, but had more depth on the left /right extremes. Actually somewhat outside and behind the speakers. The Carmen had a somewhat laid back center image if you will, while the Server was more front and center, row 6-7 vs row 15 for the Carmen. These differences were mostly a matter of taste, both being excellent, musical, and three dimensional. One area of difference was that the server had more bass with greater impact in the bottom end.
Now, what is this server?
It is an HP computer with a separate Hard Drive dedicated to 26,000 WAV Files, a highly modified, by Bolder Cable, Squeezebox Duet, with a Bolder Ultimate Linear Power Supply having 60,000 micro F of capacitance, and Bolder AC and DC Power Cables, all hard wired to the network, and also connected to the CB III with Eagle Eye. I have had this Server clearly best a high four figure Touch Screen Server so it seems to be a synergistic combo. Now it's held its own against an acclaimed Redbook transport. One that Mary Cardas, when she was with Theta, said "was the best Redbook Trans Theta ever made. Once again so much for Bits is Bits. Good Listening, Norm
