For those of us with good but ageing CD players, Trichord's series of 'clock' updates have long been a useful and not too expensive way of keeping our machines up to date technically. But is further improvement possible? The remarkable accuracy of Clock 2 seemed to leave little if any scope for increased refinement, or so I thought. However, recent coresspondence in Hi-Fi News regarding the benefit obtained by powering Clock 2 from an external battery supply got Trichord's Graham Fowler thinking. Perhaps there was more to be had! The consequence is Clock 3...
Clock 3 became available in August 1997, but some months previously I visited Trichord to have my Pioneer PD-75/Clock 2 updated to what was jokingly described as Clock 2.5. This is the standard Clock 2 fitted with special Oscon capacitors which have a much lower impedance at very high frequencies. The audible result was sharper crisper sound, with better transient attack and greater immediacy. At that stage, Graham seemed unsure whether Clock 3 (still on the drawing board) would represent a significant improvement over Clock 2 updated with Oscons, though he felt it probably would be better.
Now I was entirely satisfied with Clock 2.5, and didn't feel the need to upgrade to Clock 3. So when I visited Trichord some weeks later with a friend who wanted Clock 3 fitted to his player, I kept my machine as it was. I should've known better! Once I heard my friend's Clock 3 player I knew mine was lacking; his had an extra sharpness and focus my player didn't quite have. When he brought his player over and compared it to mine, there seemed little doubt - though interestingly, he felt less confident about the rightness of the new upgrade than I did.
I had Clock 3 fitted in late August, and expected great things. Speaking personally, I always find first impressions pivotal, and hearing my player pre and post modification at Trichord's Malvern premises was highly encouraging; it sounded cleaner and more dynamic than before - just what I'd hoped for. Yet when I got back home and tried it in my own system things seemed less clear cut. I suppose I expected the sound to be brighter and sharper, but it wasn't. The presentation was crisp and articulate, yet it seemed much smoother than before. More seriously, there was a degree of midrange tonal hardness that hadn't been apparent previously.
Graham warned that the Oscons needed time to burn in, but despite leaving the player on overnight with one of those special burn-in/demagnetizing CDs, I couldn't detect much change next day. Nevertheless I kept listening, hoping the sound would suddenly open out. Not that it was all bad - far from it.. Playing an early DG CD of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique symphony with Guilini (itself an early digital recording) I was surprised and pleased by the clarity and separation of the sound, and how clean the treble was. When I first heard this performance on LP in 1981, it had sounded very congested and edgy - early digital at its worst.
When Guilini's Pathetique was finally issued on CD the congestion if anything seemed even worse than it had been on LP. So it was heartening to hear such a 'difficult' recording more clearly delineated than I'd ever heard it sound before. You could really hear instrumental doublings, and the individual timbre of specific instruments. Also, subtle details in the playing - slight changes of dymaics or tonal colour - were far more tellingly portrayed. I almost felt I was hearing the performance for the first time.
On the debit side there was still a lack of treble openness; the sound was focussed and articulate, but rather closed in, making climaxes feel cramped rather than expansive. However, this was at least partly due to the acoustic of DG's chosen recording venue, Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, which imparted a slightly 'boxy' feel to the sound. Clock 3 definitely seemed to reveal the specific acoustic timbre of different halls and studios, compared to Clock 2's rather generalised presentation. Clock 3 clearly highlighted important contrasts and changes - you could really hear what was going on. The sound seemed both sharper and more articulate, yet tonally smoother - a paradoxical combination.
All very positive and encouraging - things were definitely getting better. Nevertheless there was another aspect that worried me; Clock 3's extra presence and attack sometimes made the music sound less than comfortable. Climaxes could become slightly over-bearing and 'tight' tonally. Ironically, this subjective impression was partly down to Clock 3's extra treble cleanness, almost as though the presence of a little added high-frequency edge imparted a false (but not unpleasant) feeling of tonal openness. Not accurate of course, but having a slight edge to the upper frequencies seemed to liven-up the treble, making the music feel 'busier' than it actually was in reality. With this hf glare removed by Clock 3, you could hear far more clearly what voices and instruments were actually doing, and sometimes this rather stripped the music bare - especially with contrived multi-mono 'stereo' recordings that lacked spread and blend.
My friend with Clock 3 felt much the same way. His high efficiency Lowther speakers sound very dynamic and forceful, and he initially felt the Clock 3 modified CD player was pushing the system too hard. The results were impressive in hi-fi terms, but lacking a certain sweetness and ease that made listening comfortable and relaxing.
At such times it's useful to have a second music source, an alternative to CD. Listening to LP proved interesting, showing that the tonal hardness was at least in part down to the CD source, rather than something else in the system. Vinyl was definitely sweeter and more open, but it lacked the dynamics and solid weighty impact of the Clock 3 Pioneer - significant, since before Clock 3 I had felt my LP sound (helped greatly by the superb Transfiguration Spirit cartridge) was firmer and cleaner than CD.
Now CD had the advantage with a precision and firmness vinyl couldn't quite match, though the latter still sounded tonally more neutral and relaxed. So, even if CD wasn't totally perfect with Clock 3, it was clearly superior in a number of important areas, and I knew I'd never want to go back to Clock 2, or even Clock 2.5. I began to wonder if the problem might lie with my DAC, a Cambridge DAC-Magic-1, which does have a slightly hard sound. Perhaps the stronger cleaner signal from the Clock 3 Pioneer highlighted the DAC's tendancy towards tonal hardness... Significantly perhaps, my friend with doubts about Clock 3 also uses a Dac-Magic 1.
With extended running in, the tonal problems I originally experienced grew less apparent. Of course it could be I simply got used to a different sound, but I don't think so; comparisons between CD and LP are now much less polarised than they were originally. CD improved almost on a day to day basis as Clock 3 burnt itself in, and after about two weeks' use I began to experience some of the best sound I'd ever had off silver disc.
Back in the early '80s, whenever a new CD player came along for review, I used to think 'Is this the machine we've been waiting for; the one that simply won't have the ills most CD players seem to suffer from?'. Alas, I was invariably disappointed! Of course certain players were better than others, but none ever fulfilled my highest expectations, even though some were clearly very good. And the Clock 3 modified Pioneer PD-75? Well, I can't truthfully say it's perfect, but it is exceptionally good - possibly close to the limits of what's possible, given CD's 16bit specification.
So, even if I can't claim my Clock 3 Pioneer PD-75 is absolute perfection, I do think it's significantly better than anything else I've experienced to date. It's such an honest sound; plain and unvarnished, but faithful to the characteristics and qualities of the original recording. Playing the DG set of Mendelssohn's complete string quartets with the Melos Quartet (415 883-2, 3CDs) really highlighted this. There's still some tonal hardness (just as there was on the LPs), but you can really hear the four string instruments clearly defined - the pitches of the notes and the subtlest dynamic inflections.
DG's analogue recording has body and presence, with powerful dynamics (sometimes a shade over- forceful), yet there's no suggestion of tape hiss; the music projects cleanly and powerfully over whatever slight background noise might be present. In this context, I think it's possible to play Clock 3 modified CD players at a slightly reduced volume level for the same subjective loudness because dynamic range is wider; loud bits are slightly louder, quiet bits slightly quieter.. The sound has more bite and presence, despite being smoother and cleaner. If something appears to be missing, it's the absence of added noise and distortion, not musical detail.
Because the music sounds so dynamic, stereo imagery is more 3D holographic; the sound leaps from the speaker boxes with greater vividness and projection. On the Melos Mendelssohn recording, the four string instruments are not over-separated left to right in the stereo soundstage. Yet because they're each able to project individually in a dynamic sense, you get a much better idea of stereo placement and the interplay between voices. If, say, viola and cello play together, it's easier to separate the two. Slight dynamic contrasts tell more readily, and you're more able to hear the precise pitch of each note.
Another recording that really highlighted the positive qualities of Clock 3 was Leonard Bernstein's Sony (CBS) recording of Sibelius' third symphony. This analogue recording from 1969 sounds remarkably good on CD in its remastered form (the LP was mediocre), but I never realised how good it could be until I heard it on the Clock 3 Pioneer. The sound was impressively clean and precise, with excellent dynamics and clarity against a virtually silent background. You could tell it was a multi-miked recording (all instruments were rather 'narrow' in stereo width and compartmentalised with little sense of hall ambience) but the sound was nonetheless superbly clear and solid - and completely satisfying musically.
Two other friends have since had their Clock 2 players updated to Clock 3, both with very positive results. Indeed, one with a Wadia transport says he almost wonders how he ever listened to CD before, so big is the improvement with Clock 3! A pretty ringing endorsement. Admittedly, he had other things done as well as Clock 3; conversion to balanced digital operation and about 30 Oscon capacitors fitted inside his Trichord Pulsar DAC. But, having heard his system, I'd say much of the improvement is down to the effects of Clock 3.
There's the same clarity and cleanness I hear in my own system, the same freedom from high frequency edge. The whole presentation is very solid and precise, with outstandingly firm placement of stereo images in space. Tonally, the sound is darker than I recall - less up-front, but no less detailed or articulate. Listening to the special limited edition version of John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom, I was really impressed with how weighty and firm everything sounded. The timbre of individual voices and instruments, and the way musical sounds decayed, was very natural and realistic.
From this I conclude Clock 3 is a very significant improvement over previous Trichord Clocks. Although I've voiced some criticisms, the more I listen the less sure I am of 'faults' actually with Clock 3 - they're more to do with problems and limitations elsewhere in the system, and perhaps with CD itself. It's certainly an impressive upgrade, one you should definitely investigate yourself. Clock 3 takes us a step or two closer to the qualities of the original master tape; the more I hear it, the more impressed I become.
Jimmy Hughes
|
