FRIENDS visiting my place lately have been seeing double. Two Marantz CD players, one atop the other (not the best way to place CD players), have been causing much confusion.
They look the same, but one is a CD63 SE, the other, a CD63 KI. The only visible difference is the shiny gold plate on the KI model.
But they sound dramatically different. While the 63KI itself is a pretty impressive machine and at its price (around RM1,600), was a definite best buy, it is bettered by the 63SE, a discontinued, lower-end model.
So what's the catch?
This 63SE has been modified with a jitter-buster -- a Trichord Clock 2, costing RM590 (with installation), which pushes the total cost beyond the RM2,000 mark.
For several weeks, I have been plugging the Alphacore Micro Purl Silver interconnects to the machines alternately for A/B sessions. A friend, who's an audiophile wannabe, visited one night and took part in a short listening session.
The Marantz CD players were used with my Audiolab 8000A integrated amp connected to JPW AP3 speakers (now retired, and in a friend's home, taking things easy in their golden years) and Mission 782s (my new reference speakers for this millennium). Speaker cables were the Goertz MI2 Veracity.
Let's use an analogy to describe the difference between the reclocked and non-reclocked CD player. It's like looking at a beautiful vista through a glass pane. The scenery looks great, the sky is blue, clouds white, leaves green and flowers colourful. Give the glass pane a wipe with a piece of clean cloth and suddenly everything becomes sharper and the colours more vivid. There is nothing wrong with the glass pane except that wiping it removed some smudges.
The difference between the two CD players is as if a veil had been removed from the space between listener and system. There was nothing wrong with the way the 63KI rendered music -- it was crisp and clear. But with the Trichord-clocked Marantz, everything became crisper and clearer.
Some reviewers have pointed out that voices are projected forward with the Trichord, but my opinion is that the better separation of images gives the impression that voices are pushed forward. With the Trichord, you can hear the background vocalists some distance from the singer.
All the instruments are spread out, there is more space around the musicians and singer and the images are finely etched and stable. Perhaps the greatest improvements can be heard in the bass region as rhythm and beat take on a quartz-like accuracy.
In techspeak, the Clock 2 has a precision oscillator module replacing the CD player's internal oscillator circuit. Powering it is its own power supply, which further enhances performance. Check out Trichord's website (www.trichordresearch.com) for the nitty-gritty.
The bottom line is greater clock accuracy, which means more precise retrieval and reconstruction of data -- in other words, better sound. Forget the technical nonsense, just sit back, relax and enjoy the music.
The Clock 2 will do wonders to your ageing CD player, upping the performance levels quite a bit. You'll have to ask yourself if it's worth investing on the Clock 2 to juice up an old player whose transport may konk out any time.
Such are the life-changing decisions that audiophiles struggle to make. At least, it's an easier decision than the higher-end Clock 3, at more than twice the price!
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