Blind Luck

coaltrain said:

The Pontus takes all the positive qualities of the Ares and cranks it up to 11.

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Jayant_S said:

Maybe spare the poor CD player from getting crushed and swap them?

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coaltrain said:

A while ago, FM Jayant and I had done a blind AB comparison of my humble Audiolab against his hefty Sony. And the results were pretty conclusive. The Sony sounded better. Not a huge difference, mind you, but an audible one. That got me thinking; would a transport upgrade be worth it? Only one way to find out!

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Jayant_S said:

There was a sense of inevitability about that blind AB test. We both came out thinking we needed to buy SOME new gear

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coaltrain said:

Update: The final piece of the puzzle clicks into place...

Once the Pontus had burned in nicely (~200 hrs), everything was right with the world. Until, that is, I happened to read an old article on GIGO; Garbage In, Garbage Out. Back in the day when vinyl ruled the Earth, audiophiles would focus the majority of their budget on turntables. This made sense as TTs were notoriously difficult to get right. And if your source was not up to scratch, even the most expensive speakers couldn't put Humpty back together again.

Fast forward to the age of CDs, and GIGO went out the window. Why spend megabucks on a CD player when they all sound the same? Ah well, but do they?

A while ago, FM Jayant and I had done a blind AB comparison of my humble Audiolab against his hefty Sony. And the results were pretty conclusive. The Sony sounded better. Not a huge difference, mind you, but an audible one. That got me thinking; would a transport upgrade be worth it? Only one way to find out!

Say hello to my (not so) little friend, the CEC TL5 Belt Drive CD Transport.

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There's not much info out there on the TL5, so I'll waffle on for a bit...

The TL5 is built in Japan and you can tell immediately. Weighing in at 8.5 Kgs, the construction feels solid. The disc drawer isn't as reassuringly heavy as an Audio Note or Jay's Audio top loader, but it's silky smooth nonetheless. The puck, however, is next level. Made from brass, its 330 gms doesn't sound like much; until you pick it up. Apparently, its heavier mass is designed to work in conjunction with a lower torque motor and the belt drive.

Oh yes, the belt! When I first heard about CEC and their belt driven transports, I thought 'this must be a gimmick'. Surely a rubber band isn’t capable of spinning CDs at high speed! And what about jumping tracks? That would take ages, right? Man, was I wrong...

The first thing that hit me about the sound was the timing; or should I call it the flow of music? It's very hard to describe just how the CEC plays the notes. The music moves with an irresistible forward momentum, whether it's a frenetic electronic track or a slow-burning ballad. It's nigh impossible for me to listen without tapping my feet, or bobbing my head like I was riding in an auto on a B'lore road.

The next thing one hears is the bass; not just the quantity, but the quality as well. A lot of older jazz albums have the bassist buried in the mix. Not anymore. This also seems to add to the sense of drive and rhythm. Detail retrieval has also gone up several notches, while still remaining fatigue-free. Everything sounds coherent, and just downright musical.

So, is GIGO still valid in the digital era? Oh, absolutely. In my first post here, I noted that the Lintons were not very adept at pinpoint imaging. That's no longer true! It honestly feels like the speakers have also been upgraded, without losing any of their original flavour.

Well, this is it. Besides some minor tweaks I might do here and there, I’m done for quite a while. Famous last words, you think? Guess only time will tell...

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