[Drglenn]

Eera Tentation CD Player Review—Best CD Player in the World?

Associated Equipment:

Preamplifier/Linestage: Purity Audio Design GT Ultra ($25,000.00)
Amplifiers:  Vincent Audio SP-331 and Hephaestus HMA-Monaural Amplifiers (Class D), Keledones Edition ($6,150.00/pair), Edge G8+ ($8,000.00), and Pass Labs Aleph 2’s ($6,500.00/pair).
Speakers:  Von Schweikert VR-35’s.
Interconnects/Power Cords/Speaker Cables:  Personal design from 3-years of research.  Very expensive to make, even at wholesale prices.
Power: All plugged directly into the wall with dedicated lines and Oyaide white R1 Outlets.

Who am I and why should you listen to me?: I am Beta Tester #1.  I am very late in getting this review out due to all manner of personal and professional responsibilities that delayed this review.  From 1988 to 1993, I owned my own Speaker Company called Conzertmeister Audio.  Albert Von Schweikert was my Speaker Designer.  We collaborated and spent 5 years in R & D and created a world reference speaker with 4 towers that weighed 1-ton in total and retailed for $65,000.00, which was brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in 1993 at Las Vegas (and later to the Waldord Astoria, NYC).  All known Hi-End Magazine Reviewers of the time that came into the room to hear it at that time declared to me personally that it was the best speaker system they had ever heard and that there was in the world.  Due to the economy still in a severe recession at that time, I elected to later close the company and allowed Albert Von Schweikert the rights to make it or a similar model in the future and another version of it later became his VR11, SE’s a $175,000.00 speaker system.  I have continued to research different wire/cable design and have owned many audio electronics since.

I currently offer my services to Von Schweikert Audio as a Chief Beta Tester and have my own Listening Panels composed of musicians and music lovers first, and audiophiles second. 

Other CD Players or Transports/DAC’s I have owned, or listened to extensively in my own system from borrowing from Local Dealers, or have spent extensive time at Dealers auditioning include, but are not limited to:  Boulder 1020 CD Player, Meridian 808.3 Signature Reference CD Player, All Current Burmester CD Players, DCS Scarlatti and Puccini Digital Systems, EMM Labs XDS1 CD/SACD Player, PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC & Transport, Resolution Audio Cantata Music Center, Spectral Audio SDR 4000 Reference CD Player, MBL 1621A CD Transport & 1611F DAC, Playback Designs MPS-5 Reference, Sony SCD-XA5400 ES Modwright Version, Abbingdon Music Research (AMR) CD-77, Linn CD12, and Esoteric/TEAC P-03 CD/SACD Transport and D-03 DAC.  The purpose of all the above information is to let the Reader have some idea of the quality of other digital products I am personally familiar with in order to properly assess how the Eera Tentation CD Player compares with many of the world’s best.  To begin with, I congratulate and applaud all of the above Products and their Manufactures for the quality and excellence of their work!!

I will be discussing various aspects of the sound from the Eera Tentation CD Player including a very general description, the most immediate and remarkable qualities I and my Listening Panel noted and commented upon and finally discuss other important music and audiophile features the Player also possesses.  I will occasionally interject examples of this which in order to simplify the review and also make it more relevant, these examples will all come from the Burmester CD-3 Sampler disc.  Why?  To begin with, the recordings are all of at least a decent quality, there is excellent variety of music offered, and most importantly, there may be some others reading this review that may actually have this disc and may find my comments more relevant therefore.

General Comments:  I will just make a brief comment about the general appearance and inputs/outputs of the Eera Tentation CD Player.  Others have previously gone over this in detail, so I’ll make my comments in this paragraph very brief.  My Player was all black in color with a nice sheen and general build quality noted.  The transport inside is remarkable and contains what appears to be a rather thick brass dampening ring which I understand is one of the reasons for its great sound.  From the outside, the CD Player appears, from a pure cosmetic standpoint to cost in the range of $2,000 to $4,000.00, but not $12,000.00 retail (such as on the Esoteric or Boulder Products noted for their incredible chassis appearance and build quality).  The remote was plastic, but well-laid out and functional and worked well. There are only single ended outputs and only one digital output (BNC).  There are no digital inputs.  As far as I am aware, only red book CD’s can be played back on this CD Player, not SACD or DVD-Audio. 

Most Remarkable Qualities: The following comments are the most amazing qualities of this CD Player that I feel surpass all other digital units I have so far heard (see a partial list above of what some of those units are).  1) The first striking attribute of this CD Player is its unsurpassed quietness.  It has the quietest background I have ever heard from any CD Player or Digital Separates.  Listening to Track 6:  “The Planet” by Hans Theessink the background is so quiet, you can hear every minute detail of the acoustic guitar strings reverberation and decay to an uncanny degree.  Likewise, on Track 7:  “Allegro Molto” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov one can hear unbelievable details from the solo violin portions of this movement and decay that goes on an on.  That is the huge benefit of so quiet a background is that all the subtle low level details are so much more transparent, vivid, and alive.  2) Resolution is the best I have ever heard from CD Playback.  I have computer audio file downloads I play from my MacBook Pro through an M2-Tech Hi-Face Evo USB to SPDIF Converter and then on in to various DAC’s up to 24-bit/192 kHz.  They sound remarkable, and in general, much more resolved than CD on all other Players or Separates.  The Eera Tentations CD Player makes every Redbook CD sound like the best Hi-Rez recordings.  While that may seem like a bold statement, everyone who has heard it and compared agrees, including my entire Listening Panel.  This is not unlike when I first started to explore Hi-End Audio and brought over my B&O Turntable to a Local Dealer and heard it against a well set-up Linn LP12 with the most expensive Ittock Arm and a $2,000.00 Linn cartridge.  Like then, my mouth dropped open and a paradigm shift occurred within my mind.  I had no clue that there was so much information and musical detail on a Vinyl Disc limited only by how well the turntable, tonearm, and cartridge was at extracting that information.  On all CD’s, I can now literally heard details I had never heard on them before, despite having heard many of them 100 times or more.  3) Dynamics:  The dynamics both macro and micro are the best I have ever heard from digital playback and surpass all other Digital Rigs in this regard that I have heard.  The macrodynamics change so explosively that I found myself literally jumping off my couch.  This is in part, because of the contrast of the music emanating from such a preternaturally silent background.  For example, the crescendo’s on the end of Track 7:  “Allegro Molto” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov were so startling, I jumped several times and experience an acute outbreak of goose-bumps on the back of my neck (no kidding!).  What, in my opinion, is a major advantage of Analog (Vinyl) over CD Playback is actually the micro-dynamics.  Digital can often be superior on macrodynamic shifts and was one of the reasons along with superior signal to noise ratio that CD and Digital promised “perfect sound forever”.  However, the moment to moment shifts in more subtle dynamics that I think of as the breath and life of the music I believe is much better portrayed on Vinyl/Analog.  As an analogy, consider a computer monitor or TV screen with very course pixels where each pixel can be clearly seen.  Now picture a TV Screen (such as Plasma or LCD) in 1080p HD where the pixels have become so small they can no longer be seen.  The microdynamic changes in Digital playback are like the course pixels and on Vinyl/Analog playback, whereas the microdynamics from Vinyl/Analog flow from an infinite continuum.  The Eera Tentation CD Player comes the closest to this infinite continuum of microdynamic shades and changes of Vinyl/Analog by a remarkable margin over any other Digital System I have heard.  This feature is among its most, if not the most, of its mesmerizing attributes and drew me deeply, intensely, and enthusiastically into each piece of music, moment by moment.

Other Musical and “Audiophile” Qualities:  The following description are of other qualities the Eera Tentation CD Player possesses that are among the very best I have heard as measured against the list of other Digital Rigs mentioned earlier in this Review.  Bass is explosive, extremely deep, and lightening fast with no overhang and very natural sounding.  There is natural bass propagation and decay, such as can be heard in real life from a bass, kettledrum, or tympani (such as on Burmester Disc 3:  Track 10:  “Poem of the Chinese Drums” by Yim Hok-Man).  Bass is equal to the best Digital that I have heard.  The midrange is very neutral in character letting you know exactly what is the recording and has excellent fullness and vividness, dimensionality, correct tone and textural saturation, and proper bloom.  I would liken it unto 2.8-2.9-D as I have yet to hear a Digital System that gives me full 3-D instruments and vocals compared to the best Analog, but neither do any of the other Digital Rigs mentioned above have full 3-D instrument and vocalist sound (IMO) and I would rate this as aspect as among the best I have heard from Digital.  The soundstage itself is huge to voluminous in all dimensions (width, depth, and even height) and one can easily hear all the minute details of the hall and space up to the limit of the recording.  There is no shrinking or narrowing wedge effect to the rear of the soundstage.  Again, the unbelievable quietness allows all the reverberations, reflections, and sustained decay to be easily heard.  The highs are full, very natural, and extremely extended and, like the midrange, utterly neutral with no early roll-off that I or any on my Listening Panel were able to detect.  The delicate details in the highs allow ever more airiness and soundstage enhancement.

Cons:  Are there any cons to the Eera Tentation CD Player?  I would like to see some improved external cosmetics and perhaps a more elegant remote as would be befitting a $12,000.00 CD Player.  However, I cannot argue with the sonic masterpiece that was achieved with this Player—it really is an amazing and remarkable Player!!  Obviously, there are no digital inputs at present, so a Music Server or Computer Audio cannot be run through the Tentation.  It will not play back SACD or DVD-Audio discs.  Before the Tentation comes fully into its own, you will have to break it in 24/7 for a month.  Any less, and you will not be able to full appreciate what this Player is truly capable of.  The only other caveat I have is that the Tentation is exceedingly natural, but also neutral.  There are some less than stellar CD recordings that are recorded with both grain and overbearing brightness, as we all know--J. Gordon Holt’s Law:  “The better the performance, the worse the recording.”  The Tentation will not remove or lessen this—it will simply tell the truth.  The Tentation’s utter neutrality will tell you exactly what is on the recording, for better or worse.  For some who want a little more forgiving sound, some attention to cable matching and/or using at least some tube(s) in the electronics (preamp/linestage or amplifier) may be recommended according to each person’s personal listening preferences. 

So, is the Eera Tentation CD Player the best in the world? I will have to leave that final opinion to the Readers of this review.  However, the fact that the Eera Tentation CD Player is the equal of some of the best and most expensive Digital Systems on the Planet (some of which cost upwards of $80,000.00) and in some areas is unequalled, IMO, I will certainly personally say that it is worth every single penny of its $12,000.00 asking price and represents profound value for what it achieves.  If you have a large red book CD collection (or even more modest) and are looking for a final CD Player or you just want to hear, perhaps for the first time, all the information on your CD’s, you absolutely must audition this masterpiece!  Enthusiastically recommended!!

Dr. Glenn
(Glenn A. Thomas, M.D.)

[ceedee]

Hello Dr. Glenn,

Welcome here on the Circle.

How nice to meet you here.
Thanks for sharing your thougts and comments of the EERA Tentation.
I have the Tentation for more than three years now and enjoy every piece of music of it.

Regards,

Cor

[Drglenn]

Hi Cor,

Its great to hear from you!

The Tentation having been broken in for a month before I did my serious listening session over several days with my Listening Panel sounded fabulous as well at RMAF 2010 in your room--it was really coming into its own by then!

I hope to hear another newer Eera Tentation CD Player (still being broken in) with the Kron mono-blocks at Albert's factory soon!

Cheers!,

Dr. Glenn

[ceedee]

Hello Dr. Glenn,

The Tentation did sound great indeed at the RMAF last year.

You will be surprized to hear the latest EERA on the Kronzilla mono's at Albert's.
Enjoy the music.

Regards from Holland,

Cor

[Bill Baker]

Welcome to Audio Circle Dr Glenn.

 Very well written writeup. I look forward to hearing the EERA player in the future. Sounds like a winner.

[JackD201]

I'd like to hear the GT Ultra in the near future. I've heard it's a winner too.

By the way, I've had the Tentation for a couple of months now and it is the cat's meow.

Thanks to Cor and Albert for the find.

[Drglenn]

Thanks Bill!

It goes fabulously with your Ultra GT Linestage and I believe you will be very impressed when you hear the combination soon!

Dr. Glenn 

[Drglenn]

Hi Again Cor,

I will be helping Albert out with an audition at his Factory today with the VR-5's.  We will be using Jolida equipment, but I will see if we can also hook up the newest Tentation CD Player and the Kron Mono-Block Tube Amplifiers as well.  If we can, I'll let you know what I think about that combination!

All the best!,

Dr. Glenn
 

[ceedee]

OK Dr. Glenn,

This will be a nice set up.
You will be surprized.

Have fun and enjoy the music.

We will read all about it.

Cor

[jimdgoulding]

From what I've been able to read the Esoteric 05 has a disc damping system also and some serious build quality and reputedly sounds very good: $6000.00.  The Berkeley is a DAC only but it can drive your amp directly and reputedly sounds very good: $5000.00.  The latter has special appeal to me because it would drive my active speakers directly . .  not to save me the cost of a preamp (needed for vinyl) but because of the clarity and immediacy I've experienced in the past doing this with an old Sony.  Neither value nor good engineering must mean nothing to some persons with exorbitant amounts of money or obsession for the best.  I enjoy music nightly on my system.  It connects me emotionally and offers great detail about what's happening in my recordings.  My investment in my digital front end is around $900.00- bought my Bel Canto DAC used and use a DVD transport with a fine cable from an independent manufacturer.  Had I bought everything new, closer to 2k.  I don't think my ears are middle class but my values unmistakenly are.  Especially with what's happening in America today.  You can probably guess what I'm thinking.

[werd]

Too little too late, cd's are not going to hang on like vinyl did.  Its too much for a defunct medium. That ship is going down and the captain`s bailed - he`s playing files.

[jimdgoulding]

You funny, Werd.

[werd]

This is coming from a guy who thinks the source is the most important piece. If the cd is that good lets hear about a outboard dac or some type of file system from them. Hearing about a 12k cd player is just outdated. Bring that price down to $2k and make it interesting.  We don't have to spend oodles of cash on a digital front like that. There is nothing special about cd that drives the cost up anymore. Oh well, the good news is if the cd is great they will likely have an even better outboard dac lurking around.

[JackD201]

The CD is dying but it isn't dead yet. I've got a Tentation and in another thread bemoaned the lack of a digital input. I still have more than a thousand CDs though and downloads at full .wav or .aiff still lag behind CDs. Most of the people I know, actually all the people I know who are using servers still got their files off of their CDs and continue to do so in greater proportion. AAC through my Emm DCC2 doesn't sound as good to me as the CD through the Tentation. I am hoping Eera will come out with a stand alone DAC and I'm pretty sure they will.

By the way, I dig the new hot librarian avatar

Oh, a friend of mine has a BADA with a 47 labs Flatfish Transport. He just bought a Tentation today.

[BigSwede]

Yeah, I've been looking into music servers a bit lately, but every time I look at what is involved I just say "why not throw in a CD" since, like Jack, I have 1,000 CDs or more (haven't counted...)?

[Bill Baker]

While servers will continue to become popular, I beleive it will be some time before they become mainstream.
 I haven't even started to make the transition yet as the upper end music servers still cost more than most upper end CD players and you still need a quality DAC which can also cost some coin depending on what level of product you are looking at. Besides, who's going to throw away all their CD's?
 It will be many years before we have to worry about the audiophile CD player going away.

[scb]

Besides, who's going to throw away all their CD's?

me.  They're on a hard drive and play through the DACs on my ssp-800. 

cds take up too much shelf space

[es347]

I have a MAC MCD500 with its very good DACs and I have been ripping my cd collection into iTunes and streaming to an Apple Airport that shakes hands with the MCD500 via optical cable.  When I have A/B'd with the cd, they are virtually identical.  The MCD500 was expensive but I am confident that you can get very good DACs for less than $2K...couple that with the $100 Airport and a $300 iTouch for remote control and you've got very good sound for relatively cheap.

[werd]

While servers will continue to become popular, I beleive it will be some time before they become mainstream.
 I haven't even started to make the transition yet as the upper end music servers still cost more than most upper end CD players and you still need a quality DAC which can also cost some coin depending on what level of product you are looking at. Besides, who's going to throw away all their CD's?
 It will be many years before we have to worry about the audiophile CD player going away.

I would say we are very close right now. In about another year it will be like vhs....

[JackD201]

I think Servers are already mainstream. MP3 servers that is.

This is an important distinction IMO. The fact remains that audiophile server users are still using their CDs as the file sources ripping to the lossless formats of their choice and that the vast majority of download releases are lossy as they cater to the portable player market.

What I do fear most is that while we are closer to HD than ever before, the demand for it will be too small. We'd end up with a few thousand titles and for popular music be left with files lower in quality than what we used to be able to rip. This is another case where I am praying that history does not repeat itself. The HDTracks catalog looks like the SACD catalog for a good reason. That's where the files are taken from.

So servers are the way of the future, here today. Technically it is arguably a superior package but coming from someone who also believes the recording is the most important piece, the files themselves have some ways to go. Until downloads are at least at par in quality and catalog size, the pesky silver disc will still be hanging around and UPS, Fedex etc will be laughing their way to the bank because all the B&M stores are already gone and we don't have a choice. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Oh and scb, I'll pay you a buck per CD if you're gonna just throw them away anyway