bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) (07/05/90)
I had heard about the Sony DAT from the "Sony Dat in 2 weeks posting". I
called the local ES dealer last Wednesday and asked if he had any info on the
machine. He told me he had one since Saturday and hadn't gotten a real chance
to play with it, but to come on down. I said "How soon are they available"
and he put me on hold, came back and said "You can have one tonight if you
want".
Well, you know how it is. And about 9pm that night I too was the proud
owner of a 75ES. I have Sony 1000 and it has two optical inputs and only 1
coax so I run both the 608ES and the 75ES through optical. It sounds really
nice, but I hadn't had a chance to be really critical until yesterday.
I called Andy (whom I mentioned in previous tests) and we arranged to meet at
the studio. We were to compare the Sony with his Panasonic 2500 (I think that
is the correct model number) pro DAT, and at the same time I would get a
chance to listen to his new Meyer HD1 monitors.
For source material we used Andy's Denon 1520. (We had previosly determined
that my 608ESD is a better sounding unit, but I couldn't dismantle my whole
audio system and tranport it!)
We routed the signals through an SSL 6000E console. This is probably one of
the finest audio consoles in the world. This unit is about 3 years old, and
worth about $200,000 on the used market. We used the console because of it's
extensive switching functions where we could instantly AB the results.
Monitor are the new Meyer HD1. These are studio monitors designed for
near-field listening. They use an 8" woofer and a 2 or 3" tweeter. They are
self-powered with 150W for the low-end, and 75W for the high end. They
connect to the system via a line-level xlr connector and a power cable.
They are the size of a medium sized bookshelf speaker - about 1 foot wide,
about 18" tall, and about 14" to 16" deep.
These speaker have about the best imaging I have ever heard. The speakers,
while only 4 feet way, totally disappear, and you hear the orignal soundstage
recreated in front of you. Even MONO(!) sounds wide. I listened to those,
and to one of my favorite discs, the Telarc Chiller album.
These speakers do not have an extreme bottom end, which I missed. They also
seemed to be slightly soft on the high end. They ARE designed for monitor
useage, to enable everything to be heard (within the above ascribed limits).
What is amazing about them is their soundstage, and the ability to reveal
things that you missed on other speakers.
I was hearing things in the hall that I hadn't heard before, on my montiors,
or Andy's Dahlquists.
We hooked the Denon to feed both DATs through the console and selected three
adjacent monitor positions on the console. We carefully aligned the playback
levels of all three using vu meters, and I feel we were well within 1/4 to 1/8
db level matching. (segmented bar graphs and vu meters make a good team).
The routing was all done with studio patch cords, no exotic cables.
We then proceeded to listen at the prime listening postion. Andy knew what
buttons were which, and I didn't. After switching back and forth several
times we discussed what we heard.
One player (at that time I did not know which) had a more transparent top end,
while the other unit seemed to have a fuller bottom. We listened some more.
On the player with the fuller bottom, I noticed that the extreme low end was
lacking a bit, and the unit with the more transparent high end had these lows
but not the upper low bump.
Neither of the players sounded exactly like the CD player, but the one with
the transparent top end sounded more like the original.
About this time Dana, an engineer who used to work with Andy and I at BeeJay
came by from Wolfs Head (a stuido across thew way). He agreed with our
assessments.
The best of the two units was the Sony, at $950, vs the over $2000 for the
Panasonic. The Sony uses 1-bit technology and the Panasonic 16. That is
probably the main difference in sound.
Dana then brough a master that he cut on the Panasonic at his studio. We
played it in the Panasonic, and he was looking for my reaction. One thing
that bothered me was the boring bass line, that also was muddy in places and
indistinct.
We put the tape in the Sony. The bass line became better defined, however it
was still boring :-). The Sony appears to be quite a good machine, and
listening over other systems the differences between the CD output and the DAT
output may not be as great. (Again, we are all recording oriented and hear
things that others may not, or hear them in a different way).
The differences between the two machines are probably not as great as the
differences between two phono cartridges from different production runs.
The Panasonic is used as a mastering machine, instead of the A80 $10,000
2-track Studers. The Panasonic will record at 44.1kHz, while the Sony
records at 48kHz, and 32kHz, but will record 44.1kHz from a digital source via
coax or optical.
All in all, it is a very impressive machine.
One final note however. Andy has a Sony 601, that has had the Apogee filter
mods (like my F1). In the past Andy had noted that the Pansonic was quieter,
while the F1 sounded more accurate.
The 601 has been back to Rowland Research several times. Bob Grace, at
Rowland, feels that Andy's 601 is THE hottest 601 in the country. Beside the
filter mods, there has been an DC offeset ajdusment mod, and an input buffer
modification. As a final shot we listened to the 601.
The 601 sounded more like the original than either of the DAT. Then again the
601 has almost as many dollars in mods invested in it as the DAT.
I am quite happy with the unit. We were using analog signals all the way
in the setup. Someday we might find some more free time to see how the
optical links sound.
Andy is now waiting for a pro-unit to come out in 1-bit mode. He won't
record 48kHz for mastering as he doesn't want to use digital conversion. He
has heard (meaning he has been told but has not listened to it himself) that
there are some problems with digital rate convertors. (I wish I could
investigate that one myself!).
I would not hesitate to recommend the Sony DTC-75ES for ALMOST anyone.
I suspect it would right at home in most mid-range ($3-5k)systems.
It would be interesting to see a showdown on that vs something like the big Nak.
bill
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Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill
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