Well here we go, I have been asked to do a review of my fairly new Cantata so here goes.
I am not an inveterate box swapper, I tend to have a blitz of updating every now and again. The last was in the mid 90s and I devoted the best part of a year to listening to stuff before making my choice. Generally, I don't believe much in reviewer's opinions, but they can be a guide to what may be worth listening to.
OTOH there have been interesting distractions in my past, going to listen to much praised Spendor BC1s and leaving with Nightingale 0.5s being the start of it.
This journey started when I bought a Wadia 170i, so that I could do non-critical listening conveniently from the ALAC files on my iPod.
I have travelled all the time for my work for the last 35 years and had been an iPod owner since the beginning, having pre-ordered the original. It was -such- a breakthrough after carrying a briefcase full of cassettes, then CDs and batteries.
Anyway my iPod, via the Wadia, into my Goldmund Mimesis 20 convertor sounded quite good, so I started looking into streaming/computer based audio on the net.
Getting carried away a bit I started listening to a few alternatives. These were the Weiss DAC2, Sonic Model 4 (thanks Keith), Linn Klimax DS, Prism Orpheus and the Resolution Audio Cantata. When I first looked into it 2 items which were not yet available appealed. The Cantata and Ayre DX5. I contacted the importers and asked for a demo when available. It is a year now since I started listening, I got the Cantata as soon as it was available but the Ayre only became available for audition recently so it was too late...
Anyway, the first I listened to was the Weiss, in retrospect perhaps I did not run it in long enough, but I found the sound a bit hard, listening in the evening and good listening in the daytime. Keith proposed listening to the Amarra/Sonic model 4, which was a small but clear improvement, not grainy with wide frequency response and neither accentuated nor missing tonal regions. The Prism was similar but not quite so clear. The Linn revealed more low level detail, and had a more spacious stereo image but sounded "slow". The system Linn have chosen, using a NAS with UpNP software was also too clunky and prone to crashing to be a serious contender for a home stereo system, IMO, particularly at the price.
The Cantata had the wide accurate frequency response of the Sonic model 4 (same as Metric Halo LIO8), better stereo imagery, particularly depth, than the Linn, accurately revealed the most low level detail, such as piano pedal noise which were audible on he other DACs, but -much- more clear and recognisable on the Cantata. It is also fast, and dynamic, crucial for me.
For information, I listen to 75% classical music and am medium agnostic. My experience makes it clear that there is massively bigger difference between the recordings than media they are distributed on, for example I have heard sublime music on the FM radio, despite its 14bit 32kHz digital pipeline. Awful sounding vinyl, despite fabulous performances (the da Capo Furtwangler Beethoven 9th). Both brilliant and distorted raucous CDs and so forth.
Whilst there are a few high rez recordings appearing, few are of music/performances I wish to listen to...
One other benefit of the Cantata is that as well as being a supreme USB DAC for streaming, it is also a red book player. After all this dicking, I do not find streaming from the computer as convenient as just going to the rack, choosing a CD and putting it on.
So perhaps all I have done in the end is bought another CD player.
The sound I am getting today is, for my taste, the best I have heard anywhere, so I am pretty happy.
cheers,
Frank
I am not an inveterate box swapper, I tend to have a blitz of updating every now and again. The last was in the mid 90s and I devoted the best part of a year to listening to stuff before making my choice. Generally, I don't believe much in reviewer's opinions, but they can be a guide to what may be worth listening to.
OTOH there have been interesting distractions in my past, going to listen to much praised Spendor BC1s and leaving with Nightingale 0.5s being the start of it.
This journey started when I bought a Wadia 170i, so that I could do non-critical listening conveniently from the ALAC files on my iPod.
I have travelled all the time for my work for the last 35 years and had been an iPod owner since the beginning, having pre-ordered the original. It was -such- a breakthrough after carrying a briefcase full of cassettes, then CDs and batteries.
Anyway my iPod, via the Wadia, into my Goldmund Mimesis 20 convertor sounded quite good, so I started looking into streaming/computer based audio on the net.
Getting carried away a bit I started listening to a few alternatives. These were the Weiss DAC2, Sonic Model 4 (thanks Keith), Linn Klimax DS, Prism Orpheus and the Resolution Audio Cantata. When I first looked into it 2 items which were not yet available appealed. The Cantata and Ayre DX5. I contacted the importers and asked for a demo when available. It is a year now since I started listening, I got the Cantata as soon as it was available but the Ayre only became available for audition recently so it was too late...
Anyway, the first I listened to was the Weiss, in retrospect perhaps I did not run it in long enough, but I found the sound a bit hard, listening in the evening and good listening in the daytime. Keith proposed listening to the Amarra/Sonic model 4, which was a small but clear improvement, not grainy with wide frequency response and neither accentuated nor missing tonal regions. The Prism was similar but not quite so clear. The Linn revealed more low level detail, and had a more spacious stereo image but sounded "slow". The system Linn have chosen, using a NAS with UpNP software was also too clunky and prone to crashing to be a serious contender for a home stereo system, IMO, particularly at the price.
The Cantata had the wide accurate frequency response of the Sonic model 4 (same as Metric Halo LIO8), better stereo imagery, particularly depth, than the Linn, accurately revealed the most low level detail, such as piano pedal noise which were audible on he other DACs, but -much- more clear and recognisable on the Cantata. It is also fast, and dynamic, crucial for me.
For information, I listen to 75% classical music and am medium agnostic. My experience makes it clear that there is massively bigger difference between the recordings than media they are distributed on, for example I have heard sublime music on the FM radio, despite its 14bit 32kHz digital pipeline. Awful sounding vinyl, despite fabulous performances (the da Capo Furtwangler Beethoven 9th). Both brilliant and distorted raucous CDs and so forth.
Whilst there are a few high rez recordings appearing, few are of music/performances I wish to listen to...
One other benefit of the Cantata is that as well as being a supreme USB DAC for streaming, it is also a red book player. After all this dicking, I do not find streaming from the computer as convenient as just going to the rack, choosing a CD and putting it on.
So perhaps all I have done in the end is bought another CD player.
The sound I am getting today is, for my taste, the best I have heard anywhere, so I am pretty happy.
cheers,
Frank
