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- Jul 2, 2003
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The DAC finally arrived on Monday but as we had friends staying I just plugged it in a let it be. Music was firmly in the background and I was unable to do any serious listening to make a judgement. My guests have now gone and I've spent the morning playing familiar tracks.
The Chibi Saru is small. It fits neatly in the palm of my hand. It is well built with a good finish. On the front is the Coax In and two LEDs (blue & red) on the back are the RCAs for the signals out & the socket for the PSU.
The Red LED lights when the signal is "pre emphisis" eq, the Blue when "normal" conditions pertain.
I had music playing through the Squeezebox when I first plugged in the CHibi Saru and the difference in sound quality was immediately noticeable. The bass came back, not quite as taught as the CDS2 but more of it with better high detail. And so it was left...Until last night....And today. After my friends left I cued up my usual test tracks, closed my eyes and set to listening. I won't give a blow by blow account of each track. Suffice it to say I was hearing stuff I hadn't heard before with the CDS2. New instruments, new emphasis on musicians. Bassically better clarity, deeper, more solid bass, increased detail but above all improved musicality. Oh, and a soundstage. Track after track I perceived noticeable improvements, none of which were trivial. The shrillness was removed from some recordings, distorted harmonics were filled in, weak bass lines became a solid foundation, the instruments played by people. You know the sort of thing. Basically the Squeezebox with the Chibi Saru DAC outperforms my CDS2 by some margin.
Now you might say that I have an over fertile imagination or am deluding myself. Now comes the difficult bit. You may remember 18 months ago my wife & I did a dem between a Rega P9, an LP12 & a CDS3. The turntables comfortably saw off the CDS3 and we bought the Rega, added a Dynavector XX-2 and P-75 phonostage. This combination happily saw off the CDS2. Well last night, after a comfortable meal we and our guests sat down with the music playing. We had the turntable playing some Talking Heads (77), I mentioned I'd just bought Rush "Moving Pictures" & was asked to play that. I switched from TT to HDD and the immediate reaction was "Oh, that's lifeless compare to the vinyl" What you'd expect really. This led to the next hour comparing vinyl & digital. We started with Talking Heads "Take me to the River" from "Stop Making Sense". I had this on the original vinyl and on a remastered CD so it was possible to cue the two up and switch. To make this slightly more reliable I blocked the view of the preamp and refused to tell them which source they were listening to. Everytime my wife and friends choose the Squeezebox as being the preferable source. There wasn't a lot in it but the SB offered better high detail and openess of sound. Hmmm, maybe the remastered CD was better than the original vinyl. I dug out DSotM. My CD version is the 20th anniversary remaster and my vinyl is the 30th anniversary 180gm pressing. So the turntable was given every opportunity to thrash the digital. Unfortunately my tone deaf friends and wife choose the Squeezebox everytime. One of my friends and my wife, being properly brought up, were firmly convinced that vinyl would win so were somewhat non plussed to find they had choosen the Squeezebox on each pass. As was I. As I was switching the sources I knew which was playing but my feelings are that the SB is the better source.
Now remember that I had bought the P9 because it was better than the CDS3 in a straight shootout. Where does that leave me and the Squeezebox. The Squeezebox & Chibi Saru DAC is better than the P9.
The Chibi Saru is small. It fits neatly in the palm of my hand. It is well built with a good finish. On the front is the Coax In and two LEDs (blue & red) on the back are the RCAs for the signals out & the socket for the PSU.
The Red LED lights when the signal is "pre emphisis" eq, the Blue when "normal" conditions pertain.
I had music playing through the Squeezebox when I first plugged in the CHibi Saru and the difference in sound quality was immediately noticeable. The bass came back, not quite as taught as the CDS2 but more of it with better high detail. And so it was left...Until last night....And today. After my friends left I cued up my usual test tracks, closed my eyes and set to listening. I won't give a blow by blow account of each track. Suffice it to say I was hearing stuff I hadn't heard before with the CDS2. New instruments, new emphasis on musicians. Bassically better clarity, deeper, more solid bass, increased detail but above all improved musicality. Oh, and a soundstage. Track after track I perceived noticeable improvements, none of which were trivial. The shrillness was removed from some recordings, distorted harmonics were filled in, weak bass lines became a solid foundation, the instruments played by people. You know the sort of thing. Basically the Squeezebox with the Chibi Saru DAC outperforms my CDS2 by some margin.
Now you might say that I have an over fertile imagination or am deluding myself. Now comes the difficult bit. You may remember 18 months ago my wife & I did a dem between a Rega P9, an LP12 & a CDS3. The turntables comfortably saw off the CDS3 and we bought the Rega, added a Dynavector XX-2 and P-75 phonostage. This combination happily saw off the CDS2. Well last night, after a comfortable meal we and our guests sat down with the music playing. We had the turntable playing some Talking Heads (77), I mentioned I'd just bought Rush "Moving Pictures" & was asked to play that. I switched from TT to HDD and the immediate reaction was "Oh, that's lifeless compare to the vinyl" What you'd expect really. This led to the next hour comparing vinyl & digital. We started with Talking Heads "Take me to the River" from "Stop Making Sense". I had this on the original vinyl and on a remastered CD so it was possible to cue the two up and switch. To make this slightly more reliable I blocked the view of the preamp and refused to tell them which source they were listening to. Everytime my wife and friends choose the Squeezebox as being the preferable source. There wasn't a lot in it but the SB offered better high detail and openess of sound. Hmmm, maybe the remastered CD was better than the original vinyl. I dug out DSotM. My CD version is the 20th anniversary remaster and my vinyl is the 30th anniversary 180gm pressing. So the turntable was given every opportunity to thrash the digital. Unfortunately my tone deaf friends and wife choose the Squeezebox everytime. One of my friends and my wife, being properly brought up, were firmly convinced that vinyl would win so were somewhat non plussed to find they had choosen the Squeezebox on each pass. As was I. As I was switching the sources I knew which was playing but my feelings are that the SB is the better source.
Now remember that I had bought the P9 because it was better than the CDS3 in a straight shootout. Where does that leave me and the Squeezebox. The Squeezebox & Chibi Saru DAC is better than the P9.
I think the SB1 presented the treble.mid better than the P9 but lagged behind in bass weight. This isn't something that's too important for me and as the detail was far greater I was happy. I've been doing a fair amount of "back to back" listening between the P9 & the SB2/NOS DAC using original vinyl pressings vs remasterd CDs where ever possible. The scary thing is is how close they both are in presentation. Still more detail from the SB2 but the overall sound is far closer to good vinyl. And as most of my LPs are doggy reissues you don't need to be a genius to work out the SB2 is streets ahead most of the time.
