I got my VDA-2 yesterday (no VAC-1 for now, but also got a Harmonic Tech Digital Copper cable). I'll write a full review after I've lived with it for a while, but here are some first impressions. I'm not really bothering to compare it with the Marantz CD67SE that I'm using as a transport, but I am comparing it to my other digital sources: a Cambridge Audio Azur 640c (that works when it feels like it) and a Classe CDP .3 (in my other system) and, most importantly, I'm comparing it to live music. No, I haven't had a chance to hear how well the other players work as transports.
Impressions:
- ooooooh, isn't it cute???
- it's solid too!
- very musical right out of the box
- treble was better integrated after maybe 30 mins, and again after over-night burn-in
- several recordings I had previously thought of as poor (mostly late 50s and early 60s orchestral) were greatly improved in clarity and tonal balance, in fact if anything the VDA-2 seemed to decrease the gap between good and bad recordings, improving the ones I thought of as bad even more than others (I'm thrilled that the sound of Klemperer's Beethoven recordings from the late 50s is no longer dismal)
- it tended to increase the differences between dry and over-ambient acoustics, without making the recordings less pleasant, just making characteristics more obvious (eg: London's Barbican is now really bone dry on the "LSO Live" recordings, but von Karajan's 1960s Beethoven recordings in the Jesus Christus Kirche show it up as obviously reverberant without being muddy)
- in fact, because recording venue ambiance is separated out clearly (but only in a natural way) recordings in reverberant venues actually ended up clearer than before
- Stevie Ray Vaughan's electric guitar sounded like an electric guitar, rather than just an imitation: sometimes sweeter than ever before, sometimes more brutal (amazing leading edges!)
- Stevie's live audience was more clearly separated from him and his band, again in a natural way
- instruments sounded more different and separate from each other: say when a kick drum and bass played at the same time, I could hear both, not a combined goo
- massed strings sounded like massed strings, not like the raspy goo of the digital age, or the artificially sweetened goo of some CD players
Most important of all, it was really hard to swap discs out and think about how things sounded: I got lost in the music no matter how hard I was trying to listen critically. IMO, that's the nicest thing I can say about a component, and it means that digital is finally coming of age. I'm looking forward to a weekend of being lost in the music (and thinking audiophile thoughts as little as possible)!
Thanks Dusty!!!
My system:
Marantz CD67SE (8 years old but mechanically rock solid) =>
Harmonic Tech Digital Copper I/C =>
CIAudio VDA-2 =>
Speltz Anti-I/Cs =>
Musical Fidelity X-CAN v3 (nope, not the upgraded transformer there either) =>
Moon Audio Blue Dragon headphone cable =>
Sennheiser HD-650
( Brick Wall audio grade surge protector )
