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| When Taylor Dayne debuted, some critics likened her to sheep, just another interchangable dance/pop singer. The 80s came to a close with Taylor Dayne's Can't Fight Fate. It kicks off with the outstanding dance track, "With Every Beat Of My Heart." But then Dayne leaves the dance floor, and makes it into adult contemporary territory with the Diane Warren-penned "I'll Be Your Shelter" and "Love Will Lead You Back."
Sigh, well you know that the audiophiles too often act like sheep, especially when it comes to doing impractical things. They use uninteresting music which no one likes. Whether or not they find Taylor Dayne interesting, Can't Fight Fate easily shows if the system is distorting the music or not. In the mid-90s, I remember hearing songs from this album at San Francisco's Ultimate Sound. At the time, I was using MIT Z-Cord IIs in one system. I used it with a variety of powerline conditioners, not just MIT's Z-Center and Iso-Duo. The Z-Cord II was consistent, and did not vary with PLC.
As the 2000s decade comes to an end, why can't the audiophiles herd together, when doing something correctly?
That is, why can't they get over their fear, laziness, and ignorance, and just get the friggin' Cable Cooker? Unlike other cable burn-in devices, the Cable Cooker does indeed treat powercords. And, as any Cooker user knows, a powercord, no matter how old and used it is, does not come close to hitting its potential, unless it has been properly Cooked. For the MIT Z-Cord II, optimal Cook time is 4 days.
The original Z-Cord II (above, right) is good, if you like the tonal balance provided by stock/throwaway powercords. Well, the current-production version (above, left) still leaves tonal balance untouched. But it goes one step further than the original. It seems that the Leviton plug maintains image integrity a little better. Whether listening to Dayne's up-tempo numbers, or her ballads, I find the original Z-Cord II to sound like the music has been melted at the edges. It's just fuzzier, all the way around. The current-production Leviton-equipped Z-Cord II allows you to listen deeper into a recording. It's kind of like finding out that Can't Fight Fate also includes the obscure "Heart Of Stone," written by Elliot Wolff, who had done work for Paula Abdul.
The problem I have with the MIT Z-Cord II is its price. If you are going to spend this much, you're better off stretching your budget a little, and getting the vastly superior Acrolink 6N-P4030, with your choice of connectors.
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| 15 years ago, Geoff Downes soldiered on with a new lineup for Asia. He took Alice Cooper's guitarist and music director, Al Pitrelli. Pitrelli would later go on to Savatage, TSO, and Megadeth. But for Asia's 1994 album, Aria, the first half is like bad heavy metal. Like the reviews say, it takes a little while for the album to get cooking.
It has taken a while, but the Presidio is also getting going. Some of the derelict buildings are gone, replaced by new ones and new landscaping.
In 1994, MIT's top-of-the-line powercord was actually the $199 Z-Cord II. MIT saw the competition come up with powercords in the thousands of dollars. So, they tried to think of ways to catch up.
MIT added a Leviton IEC wall plug to the Z-Cord II, and jacked up the price to a ridiculous $299.
You can see the original molded plug on the left. On the right is the current-production Leviton.
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| In late 1994, Gloria Estefan decided to saturate the adult contemporary market by releasing an album of covers, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me. Of the 12 songs on the U.S. version, "It's Too Late" is really the only one I hear on the radio. But anyway, when Estefan was in her covers mode, audiophiles were going head-first into digital separates. For many good reasons, the California Audio Labs Delta was a runaway success.
Naturally, as audiophiles have read my posts about the Audio Note CDT-Zero, they want to know how it compares to the CAL Delta.
The CDT-Zero and Delta have the same 8.5" width. The CDT-Zero is available in both black and silver, but the silver is infinitely better-looking than the black. The Delta only came in black, but it is a beautiful black.
The CDT-Zero and Delta have pretty much the same height. As the CDT-Zero has no buttons, you better not lose the remote! The Delta only has 4 buttons, but at least you can use them to load and unload CDs.
The Delta is about half an inch deeper than the CDT-Zero. The CDT-Zero has just one S/PDIF output. The Delta has both S/PDIF and AES/EBU. When the Delta was in production it did have an option for AT&T optical.
The crabapple trees in the Presidio are bigger (i.e., have more branches) than mine. However, they are still skimpy. I dunno; if this is the future, then my crabapple tree is not going to provide much shade.
Sonically, the CDT-Zero and Delta represent interesting differences. The CDT-Zero has the more layered soundstage. But with the Delta, you can "see" the images more clearly. The Delta has better-scaled and better-filled images. But the Delta has more razor-sharp image outlines. The CDT-Zero does not mess up rhythms, but the Delta has more punch and pop. I have no idea which transport the audiophiles would prefer. I mean hey, some people like Carole King's "It's Too Late." Others like Gloria Estefan's "It's Too Late." And maybe the rest want Rod Stewart to do his take.
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| Nobody writes better anthems than Survivor. It's sort of hard to top "Eye Of The Tiger," but if you listen to Survivor's other recordings, you'll find that they have other, equally compelling anthems. When I was in 8th grade (1984-5), Vital Signs kept the hits a-comin'. The album sprints out of the gate with "I Can't Hold Back." But it reaches a peak with "High On You." 'Til then, I had always felt that the girls from Hawaii were nicer, healthier, and better-looking than my San Francisco classmates. But when I heard "High On You," it was as though I had found a San Francisco girl who was just as good as anyone from Hawaii.
Hey! There's a new park near the Presidio's Lyon Street entrance. Along the path are some crabapple trees. They are a different breed than the malus robinson sample which sits on our front yard. I like both varieties, the one we have, and the one in that Presidio park.
Survivor then pulled a surprise, by turning it down for the ballad, "The Search Is Over."
Tessa says, "But it's no surprise that no one is going to use the $2600 Tara Labs ISM Onboard 0.8 Digital on the $895 Audio Note CDT-Zero."
Of course, in audio, the search is never over. But if you can live with a little graying-out of musical colors, the old MIT Digital Reference works well with the Audio Note CDT-Zero. The midrange is clear and stable. Drums retain their size and pop, so anthems are pumping. I like the way the transport provides some front-to-back separation of the images. It's like having the crabapple trees staggered, instead of planted in a row,
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| 10 years ago, Dennis Kamakahi came out with the excellent Ohana album. He was already a prolific songwriter, and this over-an-hour-long CD just adds to his repertoire. Though Kamakahi has been nominated for and won numerous awards, he still isn't as widely known as other Hawaiian musicians.
Oh well, after Audio Note came out with their budget-priced Zero stack, they still weren't as well-known as other hi-fi companies. Who knows? Maybe when Audio Note designed the Zero series, they listened to Ohana.
"Hey, let's go outside," pleads Tessa.
If you hadn't noticed, it's autumn.
And that means that our ginkgo tree's leaves are starting to turn "autumn gold."
When reviewers got a hold of Audio Note's Zero series, they observed that the gear initially sounded rather poor. In fact, one guy said it wasn't much better than a Sony receiver and CD player with Bose 101 speakers. Ouch! My sample of the CDT-Zero had been used for a few years. When I first got it, I thought it sounded okay. After two weeks of playing time, it seemed to reach a nice plateau. I do not know how this CDT-Zero sounded, when it was new.
In order to realize the CDT-Zero's potential, I used it with Tara Labs' ISM Onboard Digital 0.8. Regardless of DAC, the CDT-Zero is, for the price, remarkably free of haze, hash, grain, and gross distortion. If you only give it a quick lesson, you'll think that it also threw out musical details. That may be true in an absolute sense, but without all that distortion, there's no hype, no highlighting, no forceful pushing of details. The details are there; it's just that they aren't thrown at you. The CDT-Zero would prefer that the music speak for itself.
You have to allow Kamakahi's Ohana to grow on you. You have to allow the ginkgo leaves to turn yellow. You have to let the CDT-Zero invite, rather than push, you into the music. It sets up the stage at the plane of the speakers. There is excellent soundstage width. There is some depth. If you listen carefully, you'll hear that treble is pure, with a true metallic ring, not white noise. While the treble is extended in frequency, I still wish for more, especially since quality is quite good.
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