When
I reviewed the first Super Audio CD (SACD) player, Sony's ultra-expensive SCD-1,
in these pages almost two years ago, I envisioned the format as designed for
audiophile "purists" who turned up their noses at CD and even (for
reasons still very debatable) DVD playback. Since then, however, it's become
clear that SACD is being positioned to compete directly against DVD-Audio. Whereas
the first SACD players were two-channel only and carved from solid metal, the
SCD-CE775 marries full surround sound playback with a plastic front panel and
further flouts audiophile sensibilities by providing a five-disc carousel changer
mechanism. But unlike the two-channel DVD-S9000ES SACD player I reviewed in
January, it doesn't sweeten the deal by also playing DVD-Video discs. It plays
SACDs and CDs, period.
The SCD-CE775's utilitarian front panel has enough controls that you might not even miss a lost remote. My favorite is the knob that lets you find a desired track with a quick twist. The Time/Text button lets you display CD/SACD text, if any (all the SACDs I've seen have disc and track titles, but it's still rare on regular CDs). The SACD/CD button lets you choose either the SACD or CD layer on hybrid discs, while the MULT/2CH button lets you choose either the multichannel or two-channel mix on discs that offer both. Unfortunately, you can't use these buttons while a disc is playing, so you can forget about any instant A/B comparisons.
Unlike DVD players, the SCD-CE775 has no onscreen setup menu - or any video
output. The menu button brings up text prompts for setup options on the fluorescent
display. The remote control is a slender stick with a numeric keypad and buttons
that largely duplicate the front panel.
Installation was an easy matter of connecting the six analog audio outputs to my receiver. Using the menu button, I set the default playback mode to SACD for multichannel and set up the player's onboard bass-management processing, a key feature that the first round of DVD-Audio players lack.
For the two-channel mode, I selected the 2CH+SW setting, which provides high-pass-filtered signals for the front left/right speakers and a mono low-pass-filtered signal for a subwoofer. The alternative 2CH Direct setting provides stereo signals only, with no subwoofer signal. These two-channel settings, however, operate only with two-channel SACDs, not CDs, which means that you might be better off using the digital output for CDs and having your receiver do the CD decoding and bass redirection.
Next, for the multichannel mode, I selected 5-Large+SW so the player would provide full-range signals for my five main speakers and a low-pass-filtered bass signal for my subwoofer. Other choices will accommodate a number of different speaker configurations, including one (MCH Direct) for those rare systems with six full-range speakers. Like DVD-Audio, and unlike DVD-Video's Dolby Digital system, the SACD format doesn't require producers to reserve one of the potentially six channels for bass frequencies.
Using
the remote's Level Adjust button, I optimized the relative output levels of
the front L/R and center channels, the front and surround channels, and the
front speakers and the sub. In each case, the fluorescent display showed relative
levels with a bar graph and a moving indicator. Conveniently, you can make these
adjustments either with a test signal generated by the player or with music.
Setup accomplished, I loaded in my entire collection of multichannel SACDs - all four of them (see page 108 for reviews of three of the four). I started my audition with James Taylor's Hourglass (Columbia), originally released as a stereo CD in 1997. The rhythm, guitar, keyboard, and vocal tracks were recorded in a cottage on Martha's Vineyard using a budget Yamaha 02R digital console and a Tascam DA-88 digital multitrack recorder. But don't let the humble origins fool you - Hourglass won recording engineer Frank Filipetti a Grammy for engineering and Taylor the Best Pop Album Grammy.
For the new multichannel SACD-only release, Filipetti prudently resisted adding any surround sound gimmicks that might detract from the simplicity of the music. In "Ananas," for instance, most of the sound remains in the front L/R channels as in the original mix. The center carries dry lead vocals (but not backup vocals) to help solidify the center image, and the surrounds are lightly used, with a little delayed and reverberated snare mixed in to add a sense of space. During the chorus, a few keyboard licks and some shouted lead-vocal phrases are added in back to liven things up. The kick drum and bass chugged along in my subwoofer. "Up from Your Life" has a similar mix but ends with a powerful bass line and low drum hits in all four "corners" as well as from the sub. To get the full effect, you'll need surround speakers with good bass response. In any case, the SCD-CE775 conveyed all the subtleties of these recordings with utter transparency.
For some more aggressive testing, I rotated the platter to the Guano Apes' Don't Give Me Names (a Supersonic/BMG import). This hybrid disc did not agree with our preproduction review sample of the player. With both the multichannel SACD mix and, to a lesser extent, the two-channel version of this disc, but not the CD layer, its output muted again and again. (Our review sample's firmware wasn't quite complete; by the time production units hit store shelves this summer, this shouldn't be an issue.)
Despite the periodic muting, I persevered. On "No Speech," the lead vocals (and some keyboards) are isolated in the center channel, while the drum set and lead guitars are mainly placed in front and, of course, the bass guitar in the sub channel. The surround channels often erupt with backup vocals, powerful guitars, weird effects, and unidentifiable sounds. Yet at other times, they fall completely silent. The SCD-CE775 seemed oblivious to all this mayhem and simply delivered whatever was on the disc without complaint.
For a drastic change of pace, I listened to Sacred Feast (dmp), a compilation by the 31-member Gaudeamus choral ensemble conducted by Paul Halley. Recorded in the Trinity College Chapel in Hartford, Connecticut, they sound splendid on this multichannel hybrid SACD (truthfully, I'm sure they'd sound splendid on a scratchy mono LP). The recording places the performers firmly in front, with generous amounts of natural reverberation in the surrounds. Interestingly, the six-channel master recording also captured sound from overhead, but with my setup this full-range track was sent to my subwoofer - like most people, I don't have a ceiling-mounted full-range speaker installed in my home theater. Even so, the reproduced sound quality was magnificent overall.
To complete my audition, I checked out a multichannel hybrid SACD sampler of movie and TV soundtrack medleys by Jerry Goldsmith, performed by the London Symphony conducted by the composer. The recording places you in the middle of the orchestra, with instruments and hall ambience coming from all around. The effect was interesting but not very convincing - it sounded as if the left/right stereo tracks were duplicated in the surround channels. This does give a sense of surround sound, but it's not realistic because you'd never hear an orchestra spread all around you (not even a conductor has that perspective). The sixth channel was not used for bass or anything else.
After all this surround sound auditioning, I switched back to stereo playback, which seemed stunningly flat and uninviting in comparison - like switching your TV from color to black-and-white. It left me wondering how I ever put up with plain stereo all those years!
A few operational notes: It took the SCD-CE775 about 10 seconds to switch between SACD disc layers or different mixes, and disc changes took about 15 seconds. I wish these times were a tad faster - I'm a busy guy. On the upside, the player provided fast track access and played both write-once CD-R and rewritable CD-RW discs.
Sony's SCD-CE775 demonstrates just how fantastic SACD playback can be, especially with surround sound recordings. It's increasingly clear that the biggest challenge left for audio reproduction is not improving the playback electronics - the SCD-CE775 seemed completely transparent to me. If you believe that the SACD catalog will eventually contain the music you want to listen to and are more interested in listening to high-quality music than in watching video, then this five-disc changer presents an attractive invitation to the beauties of surround music. But if the format catches on, I'm holding out for an SACD megachanger.
HIGH POINTS:
- Superlative SACD surround sound.
- Good range of setup and bass-management options.
- Reasonable price.
LOW POINTS:
- Slow to switch between two-channel and multichannel mixes or between SACD and CD layers.
- No video output.
- Bass management works only with SACDs.
In The Lab
|
Multichannel
SACD Performance Maximum
output level High-pass-filter
frequency response |
Standard
CD Performance Maximum
output level |
Like all the other SACD players we've tested, the SCD-CD775 had relatively high noise levels above 20 kHz generated by the Direct Stream Digital system, and these contaminated our measurements of the distortion and noise in the audio range. Its measured SACD noise level was only about 6 dB superior to CD playback (or the approximate equivalent of a 17-bit PCM system) and about 9 dB worse than the other multichannel SACD player I've tested. However, a spectrum analysis of the noise showed that below 20 kHz it was quite a bit lower than a CD player's and would be inaudible under all reasonable listening conditions. The CD playback also measured noisier than usual for both an SACD player and a similarly priced DVD player. I would have liked to see the EN16 figure closer to 0 dB and EN20 in single digits. But if you use the player's digital outputs when playing CDs, the noise performance will be set by the downstream equipment's digital-to-analog conversion circuits.
This is the first multichannel player of any variety to contain bass management,
a considerable point in its favor. Unfortunately, the bass management turns
on only when playing SACDs. So if you use the player's analog outputs and pop
in a CD after setting up your system for SACDs, you may end up with a rolloff
in the bass and nothing coming out of your subwoofer! Better to use the digital
output for CDs so your receiver's bass-management will kick in. So near (to
getting it right), and yet so far. - David Ranada