Listening
Contents
We mainly imposed CDs during the test period. On the one hand because the CD player was just so good and on the other hand because we personally still love the medium. But streams via Tidal also sounded very good.
We bump into Midlake’s “The Courage of Others” and notice that we haven’t heard from this Texan band for a long time. This album is our favourite and is largely about the beauty of nature. Lead singer and inspirer Tim Smith is still with the group and you notice that. It is a magnificent album with a rich instrumentation (guitar, violin, flute, keyboard) and delicious lyrics. Through the CD player on the CDA2 MKII this music sounds great! We don’t tend to ski to the next track and listen carefully to the whole album. That commitment is at the heart of any good system.
“Primrose Green” by Ryley Walker is the next CD we haphazardly pick out of the closet and it sounds like a lovely spring breeze. So fresh and above all. Nowhere are we interfering with any part of the sound. Everything is in balance. The ATC CDA2 MK2 has become best friends with our Benchmark and that pays off. Walker’s voice can sometimes come across as rather sharp, but here the picture is just right. This CD player opts for a safe, fuller playback that makes our music sound less digital.
A last CD comes from Roseanne Cash and sounds almost perfect in this setup. On lesser players, the album “The River and the Thread” sometimes looks a bit cold and distant, but because of the ATC CDA2 MKII it’s enjoyable. We put our notebook aside and forget to listen critically. Always a good sign. We love what the Metrum dac does in our set, yes it goes on, but we could live perfectly with the built-in AKM-dac. We couldn’t think of a nicer compliment.
Compare
We have the full analog Merrill Audio Cara still stand and that offers, not surprisingly, across the line more. He puts down a wider, higher and clearer sound image than the CDA2 MK2 but this is in a direct comparison with a device that only serves as an analog preamplifier.
We are of course very curious how the CDA2 MK2 will perform compared to our brand new Ps Audio Stellar Gain Cell Dac. Because of the analog inputs we notice that the ATC has more body than the Ps Audio. Therefore, as already mentioned, it combines very well with the Benchmark and the closed ATC speakers. Because of the Audio Vectors this difference is less clear. The Ps Audio sounds flatter and more linear across the line and that’s what we need for testing. But the ATC undoubtedly makes more music in this set-up!
Between the AKM dac on the ATC and Sabre dac on the Ps Audio, the differences are again clear. Both dac chips are excellently implemented and have their strengths but the AKM is rounder, fuller, softer and has more punch than the Sabre dac which is slightly faster and more detailed. Both dacs perform excellently and do not sound sharp or analytical, it is rather a difference in taste and tonality. A bit ‘fresher’ on the Sabre as opposed to ‘warmer’ on the AKM to put it black and white.