June 29, 2012

  • Simaudio CD3.3X, Part 11

    I don't know when in 1991 did Lanny Cordola come out with Electric Warrior Acoustic Saint.  I did not get it until 4Q91.  And when I did, who could have known that the former Giuffria and House Of Lords guitarist was so talented?  There's great variety on this album, though it does (a) seem like a vast collection of sound effects, and (b) drag on for about 10 minutes too long (it clocks in at over 71 minutes long).  Because of the wide variety of music and the quality of the recording, I would, by summer of '92, bring EWAS with me to Bay Area stores to audition gear.  Hell, I used it at home to evaluate my own audio stuff. 

    So when I play EWAS, I am reminded that, 20 years ago, I popped it into my NAD 5000 and Sony CDP-520ESII home CD players.  But I lusted after digital separates, in particular, the Audio Alchemy DDS [I think that's what the original 2-chassis model was called, but I could be wrong] CD transport and Theta DS Pro Prime DAC.

    I used a short 0.5-meter AudioQuest Lapis on whichever CD player was in use.  While the Lapis was very good, I lusted after XLO's original Reference Type 1.

    Well, I still have that original XLO Ref Type 1.  Plus, it's been properly treated on the audiodharma Cable Cooker.  So let's start off by using it on the Simaudio CD3.3X.  Not bad.  There's enough neutrality, to show that the CD3.3X errs more towards the full-bodied and warm side.  Some air, transparency, and sparkle are missing, but these are subtractive errors, not gross colorations.

    The XLO Signature 1.1 has a quiet background, which helps bring out the little details in music.  But the lean-sounding interconnect seems to fight the full-bodied nature of the CD3.3X.  Square peg, round hole.  Limp dick and a woman in heat.  Oil and water.  You get the idea.

    My friends and I threw a wide variety of interconnects at the CD3.3X.  I know you're not supposed to use cables as tone controls.  Nevertheless, there's a certain synergy with the CD3.3X and XLO S3-1 [and S3-2 balanced interconnect, as well].  While the S3-1 reveals that the CD3.3X is a full-sounding player, it isn't big-hipped and bloated, as are other modern-day CD players.  The S3-1 shows that the CD3.3X does a good job with transients, sounding neither zippy, stilted, choppy, nor lazy.  The S3-1 maintains image focus, without drilling the images into your ears.  The S3-1 has enough control over the "sssss" sounds on EWAS, that, for one brief moment, I was transported back to June 29, 1992.  I recall that Ross Perot's campaign had hit a snag.  But most of all, for perhaps the only time in recorded history for that date, San Francisco got some rain.  Remnants from a tropical storm/hurricane made their way up the California coast.  Little did we know that that would portend the end of the Bay Area's 7-year drought...