The Vinyl Anachronist: The Digital Anachronist?

by Marc Phillips

August 2007

Okay, okay... I've reacted this way once before, when I wrote the column entitled A Level Playing Field, where I confronted the possibility that digital playback was approaching the quality of the best analog. This happened just after buying my splendid Naim CDX2 CD player, which I still adore after nearly eighteen months of ownership. The CDX2 continues to be one of the finest CD players I've ever heard, and I've been exposed to many incredible (and incredibly expensive) players lately, such as the Meridian 808, the Metronome CD-3 and the Aurum Acoustics Integris CDP.

After I wrote that article about the CDX2, however, I received a few emails from people who didn't realize my tongue was in my cheek when I said I was packing up my Michell Orbe SE turntable, SME V tonearm and Koetsu Rosewood cartridge and selling them. Sure, the Naim player tilted the LP-to-CD ratio substantially during subsequent listening sessions, but when it came right down to it, analog still had the edge. It had the air, the tangibility and the presence that even the wonderful CDX2 couldn't quite match. In other words, I wasn't about to sell anything!

The Digital Chickens Have Come Home to Roost

If you go back to that article, however, you may remember me saying this:

“And here’s another crazy thought. While the CDX2 doesn’t necessarily better my analog rig, it comes pretty darned close. The CDX2, however, is only the middle child of Naim’s CD player line, the third of five.” I then went on to talk about the CDX2's big brothers, the CDS3 and the CD555, and I wondered how much better they can possibly be. Well, fellow anachronists, I have recently spent time with the Big Kahuna, the now US$33,000 (NZ$46,000) CD555, and the news is not good for analog lovers. For the first time in my life, I have listened to a mere redbook CD player, and not once did I say to myself that it was really good for digital. Not once did I think about the last five percent of realism that the best analog rigs offered. Not once did I feel the need to temper my enthusiasm with any sort of qualification. The Naim CD555 is the best digital playback I have heard. Better than any SACD player I've heard, or any DVD-A.

In fact, when I heard the CD555 over several days at the US pdf magazine TONEAudio studio, I was able to compare it directly to a number of outstanding analog rigs, including turntables such as an SME 10, Oracle Delphi V and Rega P9, mated with a variety of tonearms from SME and Rega, not to mention cartridges from Dynavector, Rega, Shelter, Mobile Fidelity and Grado. And there was no dividing line, no marked contrasts, no obvious differences between analog and digital sources. The music flowed equally.

Back to the Drawing Board

I find it fascinating, however, that this long-anticipated achievement in digital performance wasn't delivered by any of the so-called high-resolution formats, such as SACD or DVD-A. After the enthusiasm for those formats waned a couple of years ago, many manufacturers went right back to developing redbook CD playback, and it seemed like they learned a few new tricks after they flirted with hi-rez. Not only can you hear these advances in state-of-the-art players such as the CD555, but in more modest offering such as the excellent Rega Apollo, which is probably the only CD player under US$1000 (NZ$1650) that I would seriously consider owning. I know I'm going to hate myself for saying this, but it's a great time to be listening to good old-fashioned CDs!

It comes at a price, though. Here in the States, you can buy a BMW 325i or a Mercedes-Benz C240 for the price of a Naim CD555. And it's not even the most expensive digital playback system out there. Both dcs and Burmester, for example, offer digital playback systems at roughly twice the cost of the Naim, or the cost of a new Porsche Cayman S. To tell you the truth, I know quite a few audiophiles who wouldn't balk at spending five figures on an analog system, but I seriously can't think of anyone who would spend this kind of crazy money on a CD player. (I do know a rather wealthy Englishman, however, who owns both the dcs digital rig and an SME 30 turntable.)

The Trickle-Down Theory

Historically, none of this would matter. We audiophiles are very familiar with the way digital technologies evolved over the last twenty-five years. If you like a certain CD player that's out of your budget, just wait a year or two and the same performance will be available at a small fraction of the price. I can't tell you how much better my second CD player, a $300 Mitsubishi, sounded in comparison to my first player, the $900 Sony CDP-101, the first and worst-sounding CD player ever made. That new Rega Apollo could probably easily beat the twice-as-expensive Naim CD-3 I owned for a decade before I bought the CDX2 in early 2006.

The real concern, however, is whether or not redbook CD playback will survive long enough for any of this to matter. As Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt used to say, every technology is perfected just as it becomes obsolete. This used to be the calling card of analog playback, so it's quite ironic, though predictable, that we're saying the same thing about the CD in 2007. Music downloading has changed the landscape forever, and there's no turning back. In a few years, most of us will no longer be able to handle and touch and hold our music. It will all exist on a touch screen. And that may actually be a good thing, at least until the hard drive crashes.

This leaves analog playback, which is steady, dependable and drama-free. I trust it. That's why as exquisite as the CD555 sounds, it will still not replace my Michell Orbe SE. Only another turntable could do that!

Marc Phillips has been writing about hi-fi and music under the Vinyl Anachronist banner since 1998. His earlier columns can be found on the Perfect Sound Forever website. You can discuss vinyl with Marc at Vinylanach@aol.com