June 27, 2012

  • Simaudio CD3.3X, Part 10

    Ah, summer of 1987.  Before leaving for Hawaii, I had received the Sony D-10 Discman.  That slim thing could fit into the "double-CD" section of my Case Logic case.  Since CDs and their jewel cases were heavy, I opted to leave most of my CDs (true, I didn't have many in June '87) at home in San Francisco. 

    Like all summers in Hawaii, 1987's was hot.  The Sony MDR-CD6 headphones rested on the ears, and made me sweat.  Because of the heat, I often opted for the headband-and-in-ear headphones.  But these sounded thin, tinny, and irascible.  Regardless of headphones, the D-10 did not have a tuner.  Thus, without CDs, the D-10 was useless.  I needed more CDs!  So I spent a lot of time at the Keeaumoku Tower Records.  There, I bought the Breakfast Club's eponymous debut album.  Yep, this is the actual CD I bought 25 years ago.

    The Breakfast Club were Madonna's old band.  They had been around before the movie.  But people didn't know that, so they erroneously accused the band of copying the movie!  Breakfast Club shows promise, but ends too quickly.  Had the band recorded, say, two more good songs, I think it would have been a success, selling much more than it ultimately did.

    In 1987, we did not know about digital separates.  Analog cable TV usually provided better reception than over-the-air rabbit ears.  As for video, the rich could dabble in Laser Video, massive 12" things. 

    The Simaudio CD3.3X is a one-box CD player.  But, great mother of pearl, it sports a digital input and output.  Thus, it can be used as a DAC or transport.

    Interestingly, when the Oppo BDP-83 universal player is used as a transport, the CD3.3X recognizes it as a DVD player, what with the 48.0 kHz sampling rate.  With the above XLO Reference Type 4 digital cable [especially if it has not been properly treated on a cable burn-in machine], the CD3.3X has slightly forgiving tonal balance.  There's less emphasis on "sssssss" sounds, making harsh-sounding recordings a little more tolerable.  The downside is that vocal intelligibility suffers a little.  Nevertheless, when fed by DVD players, the CD3.3X's internal DAC shows promise.