September 12, 2015

  • Simaudio 750D, Part 8

    On our summer 1992 trip down the central California coast, Ken, Roy, Patricia, and I stayed at a hotel in Monterey. After we came back to the room from dinner, Ken and Roy removed their jackets, shoes, and socks; brushed teeth; and basically crashed. Patricia and I showered that night. The hotel provided just one small bar of bath soap. In the morning, Ken and Roy complained that Patricia and I had used all the soap. So they had to use the little square soap from the sink.
    IMG_2506
    When I took receipt of the Simaudio 750D, its previous owners had already been using it since late 2012. The manual says:

    The performance of your 750D will continue to improve during the first 400 hours of listening. This is the result of a "break-in" period required for the numerous high quality electronic parts used throughout this preamplifier.

    Yes, the 750D's manual really does say, "preamplifier." Perhaps newer units come with a revised and corrected manual.

    Because I do not have experience with brand-new units, I cannot tell you how a new unit sounds, as it burns-in. After I hooked it up, my unit sounded fine. After 2 months of my use and music, this 750D does not sound radically different from when I first hooked it up. If anything, it is a tad more focused, clean, and definitive, with a slightly more open and expansive soundstage.
    IMG_2430
    If you read the published reviews, despite outstanding test bench measurements, the 750D's tonal balance as a one-box CD player is a tad down-tuned. Certainly, if you use the stock [Cooked or not] OEM powercord, that is what you'll get. Just like the hotel not providing enough soap, the 750D does not have enough treble.

    But ah, if we investigate further, we find that the 750D's internal CD drive is to blame for the mild top-end curtailment. Note that this roll-off or buffering is nowhere near as severe, as in Simaudio's own CD-3.3X and Neo 260D. The digital inputs have ruler-flat frequency response, favoring or short-changing no part of the spectrum. In terms of tonal balance, the digital inputs will simply mirror what you feed them.

    Before embarking on our road trip, Patricia anticipated not liking the hotel shampoos. Thus, she smartly brought her own relatively small (13 oz.?) bottle of Herbal Essences shampoo, which, at the beginning of the trip, was maybe 2/3 full. The idea was that that amount was not too heavy, but more than enough for an extended trip. Ken, Roy, and I ended up using Patricia's shampoo, instead of the hotel's. After it got the salt out of his hair, Ken remarked, "Hey, this stuff is pretty good!"

    Likewise, you are going to want to ditch the OEM powercord, and bring your own. In future posts, I will show some of the after-market powercords we have used on the 750D. My only advice is to avoid powercords which roll off the treble.