CD-player TAD D600
TAD company for almost his entire 40-year history has never produced electronic components, specializing exclusively on the speakers. In it, she certainly succeeded - it monitors and still work in the most prestigious studios and concert halls of the world. And, going into a new segment, TAD engineers took unprecedented measures to avoid dropping the prestige of the brand.
The company has developed Reference Strategy - "strategy template" accepts no compromise, no matter what the cost is not required. Machinery and indeed turned out not cheap. But we see immediately that this thing is far from ordinary. Monumental, weighing more than 26 kg, body with sloping front plane, which is embedded flush control and display unit, machined platform boot and remote power supply unit - the certificate really hard-line approach.
The main objective of the creation of any source-driven - an effective vibration reduction, negatively affecting the accuracy of the reading. In the D600 for this purpose adopted a number of measures. Chassis unit double, inside the cast aluminum frame is placed 6mm steel plate covered with a layer of copper. The latter is not only dampens the resonances, but also provides a reliable screening of electronic circuits. Tray loader carefully designed and perfectly balanced, it has a black surface coating that prevents re-reflections of the laser beam. Drive - own design, with a brushless motor and precision bearings. To protect against external influences player installed on three cast aluminum cleat. Due to the allocation of the power supply in a separate block solved several problems. Firstly, LF vibrations and electromagnetic interference unavoidably arising in operation of any of the transformer is not transmitted to the actuator and the printed circuit board. Secondly, it is possible to increase the power of the source and amount of stabilizers, which is very important to work seamlessly player - including a stepper motor, for example, will not affect the power of other consumers. In the D600 is installed 400W toroidal transformer, although the player itself consumes only 32 watts.
For converting digital to analog converter meets High Burr-Brown PCM1794 in dual differential mode, which gave a significant gain in the signal/noise ratio. When playing SACD DSD stream is converted to PCM with a resolution of 24 bit/88.2 kHz, and then enters the DAC. Transformation of the current-voltage and gain of the analog signal produced by circuits on discrete transistors, operational amplifiers from TAD engineers abandoned as a compromise solution. To reduce interference from its display segments translated in static mode.
The player and the specific measures to reduce jitter. Unique clock UPCG (Ultra-high Precision Crystal Generator) developed in conjunction with TAD company producing precision quartz resonators is 50 dB lower phase noise than ordinary players.
The chassis is divided into three sections, which are located in the transport, both digital and analog. Boards are connected to each other gold-plated coaxial connectors.
The player can be used as an external DAC with a resolution up to 24 bit/192 kHz for coaxial input and a balanced AES/EBU.
Touch control buttons are located on both sides of the display.
Generally speaking, to distinguish the contribution of the player in the system is not easy, but if all the other components correspond to him in class, you can focus on the overall experience. Although some of the characteristic nuances, too, speak volumes. Despite the fact that all CD-players have the same frequency range, low distortion and noise is so small that identify them to the ear can not any expert, and the difference in the sound sometimes very noticeable. Jitter? Maybe, but he's one is not able to influence the subjective perception. The devil, as you know, is in the details, so this level of technology, as the D600, they just do not happen, the developer has to consider everything. As in sport - the closer to the Olympic record, the harder it is given even meager improvements in performance.
U disk Terry Evans, recorded by the method of K2, qualitative potential is so high that the system is able to uncover rare it completely. In our case, to the impressions of the familiar CD add a sense of air, as if the room got a little more, and the ceiling - above. And despite the fact that the acoustics TAD Reference One actually here was a bit crowded. In the upper range of the resolution is phenomenal, no veil, plates appear light and transparent, sometimes even too much. There is absolutely no cutting hearing harmonics with a strong impact, the sound of metal is natural, but to complete the illusion of live performance it slightly lacks aggression.
Oddly enough, the character lower case also depends on the source, there are cases where small changes in the diet significantly changed its DAC. By the way, in the description of the player said that the jitter effect on the bass. I do not know how, but specialists may know better. Since the Reference One declared lower bound 21 Hz, try to evaluate the bass performance of D600. Atmosphere record partially formed due to infrasound, it also creates the illusion of volume, air movement. And what's interesting: advanced lowercase is not a problem in a small room, if you do not twist the volume on all cylinders.
On symphonic music the effect of the expansion of space is even more noticeable - of course, the real Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre deploy fails, but even on a smaller scale the picture is spectacular. With a wide foreground virtual sources perfectly focused, and the triangle in general is somewhere in the back and at the top, ie, where it is usually in the real band. The combination of amplitude pattern with gorgeous shading gives a feeling - no, not the presence, then I would slukavil - confidence, that is exactly what should be created a copy of what is really happening in the hall.
The specific sound of the album Page and Plant due to the fact that the vocals were involved too much digital processing, because of what appeared sharp and unpleasant sibilance. However, engineers record company Atlantic Recording Corp. did not consider the matter in marriage, and I finally understood why. The fact is that when listening to a system with a verified balance of musical whistling sounds are not annoying, as it were, make vocals more clear-cut, contrast.
And hear how sound SACD. The player automatically detects the format is, you need to select it manually. Not to say that the transition has given too noticeable increase in quality, but the extension of the frequency and dynamic range was evident. And interestingly, even on a calm, measured compositions manifested some internal drive, like emotions started breaking out. Sound completely pulled away from the speakers, and the general atmosphere got a little tighter, tools - vividly.
Perhaps the era of CD will soon be over, but this technique as TAD D600, there is time for that matter, any thing which invested so much intelligence, experience and talent. This is the level where we can talk about design as a form of art, and if you type in the classification level of the art State of the Art, then player D600 will surely be one of the first candidates for this title.
