I bought one of the 9100es Dan had brought to RMAF. I liked what I heard in his room and figured the new tubed PSU on the Sony would allow me a preview of what a tube rectified SWL would sound like without having to send mine out to Dan for the upgrade. I really didn't need a new CDP but I trust Dan's taste and figured if it wasn't to my liking I could have him swap out the tubed PSU for a diode based one. Dan also mentioned the PSU had been improved beyond just the 5ar4 so I would be hearing a unit much upgraded from my SWL in any case.
I have been playing the Sony for the past week. The tubes Dan had in the unit were two very nice mid '50s GE Tung Sol 5687 black plates. I have had a set of these in my SWL but have gone back and forth with a cryoed version of the same tubes that have eventually become my favorite tubes for the SWL. The cryoed version have deeper bass and slightly extended highs but have tended to be pretty microphonic.
I have been comparing the Sony to two other CDPs I have here, a Parts Connexion "Ultimate" Denon 3910 with Amperex 6922 PQ white label tubes and a modded Jolida JD100 with a pair of GE 5 star 5751 tubes.
The Denon is a very clean, detailed and tight sounding player. The JD100 is dead quiet and has a bit more fullness/ bloom than the Denon but its soundstage is less deep and less wide. The Denon is not dead quiet, in fact it has a noticeable PS hum that can be heard on quiet passages and this, I would say, is its greatest weakness.
The Denon has become my favorite player for acoustic and jazz. The Jolida seems to play rock and roll better. The Denon has great detail but it can be a bit harsh with rock.
Dan and I had spoken about the new tubed PSU and he had explained why he felt it was better than the SS version. He mentioned a deeper, wider more 3d soundstage from the 5ar4 and a greater musicality with only a slight compromise in the very top end. But I hate compromises, especially compromises that hit the top end. I love my cymbals...
As I played my first CD on the Sony all three points Dan had made to me at RMAF were audible. The SS was wider, it was deeper, the highs were ever so slightly laid back and attacks were less in your face. But the unit still sounded 99% like my SWL. The tight very deep bass was there and the dynamics, which I cannot live without, were even better than with my SWL.
But the rolled off highs bothered me so after about 5 hours and several CDs I swapped out Dan's tubes for my Cryoed ones. The accessibility of the tubes on the Sony makes swapping tubes so easy. I love that.
The cryoed tubes sounded just as I expected. The highs were back to my liking and the bass was even deeper - maybe too deep? The soundstage was crazy wide - on some CDs it wrapped all the way around to the back of the room so I added some Herbies tube dampers. This brought the SS back to only fantastic rather than silly proportions.
The Sony is dead quiet. It has detail equal to the Denon. Its SS is bigger and more 3d and it is more musical. It plays R and R without compression and acoustic jazz and vocals are as clear and as accurate as I have heard.
For example, the vocals on Alison Krauss' "New Favorite" has a substantial amount of reverb added. The reverb on the Denon makes for a nice room ambiance around the speakers but with the Sony the room is in the room -the reverb fills the whole listening room and the vocal sits, 3 feet in front of my speakers in a pin point image. Awesome. The bass on this track adds to this effect and the Sony just puts it perfectly in the SS and still manages to fill the room too. The Jolida just played the music...nice music but...
The other track that really had the Sony winning the compo was Vienna Teng's "The Atheist Christmas Carol". In the opening bars a triangle is paired with piano. This triangle is, at least to my ears, very, very subtle. The Sony reproduced both instruments in a very balanced and clear way. The brushed snare on this cut sounds just right too.
As for playing the rock and roll stuff, Dan's Sony nails it. Loud, complex nasty Cds sound great. Examples? Bob Mould's "Body of Song" sounds great on it. This CD is a piece of mix art. There are so many layers to the tracks on this album that I can hardly listen to it without finding myself concentrating on the way deep tracks rather than the music. Well the Sony pulls everything out but still manages to sound musical and not clinical.
Switching between the Sony and the Jolida was pretty interesting. The Jolida is a very nice CDP but when compared to the Sony there just is no denying its limitations. The JD100's sound stage is 40% the Sony's. It's depth - maybe 20%. The JD100's images aren't sitting in space but back along the plane of the speakers - along with most everything else. The music is all there but there is no room ambiance, no realness.
I am going to swap Dan's non cryoed tubes back into the Sony. The cryoed tubes might have too much bass and I am not sure the more forward highs these have make for the best balance. The non cryoed tubes put the cymbals back in the SS where they rightly belong. The cryoed tubes have the cymbals outside and up front for a not so accurate image.
That's all the changes I will try with the Sony. It's doing everything better or as well as any CDP I have heard recently.
Oh, I forgot. This unit lacks the clock upgrade. I guess I will have Dan add it. It can't hurt, right? Except for the units time away from its new home.
