July 11, 2012

  • Simaudio CD3.3X, Part 17

    Happy birthday, Aiden!

    Now let's go back 20 years to the summer of 1992.  Joe Satriani released the power rock instrumental album, The Extremist.  My friends had long been Satriani fans, and we listened to The Extremist a lot that summer.  To our surprise, Satriani's "Summer Song" would be used and featured prominently in Sony's Discman commercials.

    At the time, Satriani was living in Berkeley.  Perhaps appropriately, I took Satriani's The Extremist with me, as I went over to Berkeley.  I had lunch with ACS, and in the late afternoon, got to dB Audio, located on Shattuck, about half a mile south of the Downtown Berkeley BART station.  dB Audio carried brands like Cardas, Jeff Rowland, and Thiel, none of which I could afford.  I went there to check out Creek gear, specifically an integrated amp.  They also had a Creek tuner.  I think they also had a Creek CD player (the $1295 CD-60?), as well.  I do not recall what the model numbers were.

    One of dB Audio's "middle range" high-end audio systems was playing some hokey-ass lounge-chick singer, who was singing some song containing the line, "I was born in EEE-tuh-lee."  God, that was awful.  ACS remarked, "Why would anyone born in Italy sing in English?"

    An ethnically Japanese salesman wearing a sweater greeted me and ACS.  He graciously let us play with the Creek stack.  What the hell were the speakers?  Some little Mordaunt Shorts, perhaps?  Anyway, I made the tuner play KOIT.  ACS and I felt kind of lame and inadequate, playing with the little Creeks.  The rest of the store rather impressively was filled with big-ticket, heavy-hitting He-Man gear.  But when I popped The Extremist into the CD player, dB Audio had, by a large margin, the best music it would ever have.  Moreover, ACS and I agreed that, in the same space of an audio/video receiver, the Creek stack was much better.  Its small size was perfect for (a) our little college dorm rooms and apartments, and (b) the Bay Area's dinky homes.

    Did that Creek stack have sonic synergy?  Beats me.  But with the uniform compact chassis, it sure looked cool.  Granted, had it been available in silver instead of black, the Creek stack would have looked even better.  But it did have visual synergy.

    The Simaudio CD3.3X and 600i have completely different sizes and shapes.  Even with the same silver-colored faceplates, they do not have visual synergy.  But do they have sonic synergy?  Not really.  The 600i performs at a much higher level; i.e., it is far more neutral and self-effacing.  For better or for worse, the 600i will tell us about the CD3.3X's merits and shortcomings.  And when we use higher-caliber CD players, the 600i does indeed show what the CD3.3X's faults and errors are.  Those higher-performing CD players will often have more filigreed imaging; softer rendition of low-level details; better contrast of silence and music; and just a general sense of effortlessness and ease.  In regards to the latter, they make your brain work less in "believing" that the recording has come to life.

    As much as I liked that Creek stack, I did not end up buying any of it.  I really warmed to the cute integrated amp.  But I think it was around $800.  And that, of course, did not include the tuner.  The Creek tuner was probably $500, too rich for my blood and budget.  Even if I had gone with a different brand of tuner (e.g., the Adcom GFT-555II), it would have cost $400.  Radio was important to me, but I just could not justify spending $400-$500 on a tuner.

    At home, I had the Sony TAE-1000ESD and Muse Model One Hundred.  The Adcom GFA-535 was a spare.  I was thinking about saving up for a "real" preamp, such as the Conrad-Johnson PF-1.  That could be found at the local CJ dealer, Berkeley's Music Lovers.  But I'll save that for another day.

    Can you believe that I've used The Extremist as an audiophile reference for 20 years?  See the color of the album cover?  That is very close to what the golden late afternoon/early evening sun looked like, as it blasted the west-facing front of dB Audio.  As ACS and I walked out of the store, I sort of felt bummed that I wasn't bringing any Creek gear home.  But I did bring ACS home (well, to her college apartment), so it wasn't a total loss