July 1, 2012

  • Simaudio CD3.3X, Part 12

    Ah, July 1992.  In the morning, I had my first job, Instructional Aide at Golden Gate Elementary school's summer program.  And then in the early evening, I covered for my brother, on his Hokubei Mainichi newspaper route around Japantown.

    The July 1992 issue of Stereophile is excellent.  Within it, most audiophiles used it for Jack English's review of the California Audio Labs Icon Mk.2 CD player.  You see, most of the "advanced" audiophiles were into digital separates.  These guys went head-first into DACs.  But what would they use as transports?  And even if they had a dedicated CD transport, how about a one-box CD player for a bedroom or secondary system?  Enter the CAL Icon Mk.2.  And then there were the Stone Age audiophiles, stuck with their shelves full of vinyl.  What "affordable" CD player would suffice for them?  Enter the CAL Icon Mk.2  

    "Hey, it's a new Pet Shop Boys song," exclaimed one of my friends.  I do not recall whose house I was at, or which friends were there.  But we had heard Neil Tennant's unmistakable voice on the radio.  It had been a while [October 1990's Behaviour], since PSB had released an album, so this new song was a welcome sight.

    Except that, it turned out that this song wasn't a PSB song.  Rather, it was a collaboration with Electronic, the partnership of Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and Bernard Sumner (New Order).  And just like Electronic's debut single ("Getting Away With It"), this song, "Disappointed," featured Neil Tennant as the lead vocalist.

    Speaking of PSB, the July '92 Stereophile also features Jack English's review of the PSB Alpha minimonitor.  But more importantly, that issue contains my letter to the editor which Stereophile dubbed, "No Accounting For Taste."

    The real PSB, the Pet Shop Boys, wouldn't come out with another album until late 1993's Very.  But in the meantime, we enjoyed Electronic's "Disappointed," which garnered attention, by being included in Songs From The Cool World.  That soundtrack's other standout is Ministry's "N.W.O."  While I went home to wallow in my Stereophile, some of my friends went to the movies.  Among the films they saw was Cool World, which featured Kim Basinger as a cartoon character.

    Interestingly, that letter to the editor lists me as being from Santa Cruz.  I had written that letter during the Spring '92 quarter, while I was student at UC Santa Cruz.  Interestingly, "Disappointed" appeared as a single on 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, cassette, and CD.  But it did not appear on any Electronic album.  You can now find "Disappointed" on Electronic's Get The Message - The Best Of Electronic (above).

    In the summer of '92, I used AudioQuest interconnects throughout.  But I was feeling the itch, kind of like having one good girlfriend, but still looking at other girls.  My crush was the XLO Reference Type 1, appealing to my modern and urban side.  But Cardas' interconnects also intrigued me, appealing to my sylvan Santa Cruz side.

    Oh this is rich!  In some ways, the Simaudio CD3.3X coughs up the most realistic music, when lashed up with Cardas Clear interconnects.  Unlike with other interconnects I've tried, the Cardas Clear allows the images to be beautifully formed and exquisitely finished.  They simply appear in the proper recorded size and scale.  That makes the music so much more "visual."  The Clear then does an excellent job of preserving the textures which make reproduced music sound plausible.  The Clear then preserves that sense of air, environment, or atmosphere surrounding each image.  The "stereotypical" audiophile will probably end his interconnect quest for the Simaudio CD3.3X with the Cardas Clear IC.  And even if you are not a stereotypical audiophile, you'll find that, while utilizing the Cardas Clear IC, the CD3.3X conjures up some of its most magical moments.

    If you are rich, you can try to find the U.K.'s double-CD, NOW 22, which featured songs from the first half of 1992.  It was one of the few places you could find Electronic's "Disappointed," which was/is track 14 on the first CD.