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I’ve seen wave forms from both the reissue and older original Virgin CD. What dynamic range there was on the latter is now compressed into oblivion. This thing redlines the whole way through. No wonder it’s painful to listen to. Yet the 24-bit/176.4kHz remasters of the Stones’ Decca catalog such as Let it Bleed are fantastic. Whoever is remastering the Stones’ post Decca catalogue should be reassigned to something less important like the REO Speedwagon catalog. Who is going to notice or care with that? Back on point. Initial observations were made with my HP laptop feeding the Calyx with a Cardas Clear BUSS USB cable. Later on I compared laptop playback against CDs spun on my trusty CEC TL51X transport feeding the Calyx via a MIT Magnum S/PDIF cable. I also compared the Calyx to my Audiomat Tempo 2.6 DAC fed by the CEC.


All laptop playback was through J. River Media Center 17 in memory playback mode. I also use a neat little shareware program called Fidelizer that optimizes various background computer functions for music playback. This brings me to another point. If you’re getting into this field thinking computer audio to be easier by omitting the tweakier aspects of high-end audio—fuggeddaboudid. Depending on your computer knowledge, the learning curve can be steep particularly in managing your music library. Tagging and metadata can be a royal pain in the arse. Furthermore everything makes an audible difference, be it operating system, playback software, RAM, processor speed, signal cabling, power supply etc. The differences can range from subtle to startling. Even lossless formats such as FLAC sound different from uncompressed WAV files which should be impossible since both formats are bit identical. But there it is and I’m not the only one to have noticed. Fascinating stuff but perhaps also a little frustrating. It’s like learning to be an audiophile all over again!

Over the last few months I’ve ripped and downloaded some 95 albums to my laptop’s internal hard drive. All tracks were saved as or converted to WAV and backed up as FLAC files on an external drive. Regardless of brand name or type of drive i.e. solid-state or hard disc, they will all fail at some point. Back up your music. While most tracks were 16/44.1, some were higher resolution too. Some of the great sounding and musically fine hi-rez recordings included Richard Egarr’s interesting take on Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos [Harmonia Mundi 24-bit/88.2kHz WAV] in which the players tuned to a lower pitch of A=392Hz as opposed to the standard Baroque pitch of A=415Hz or the modern concert pitch of A=440Hz. This gives a richer warmer tone. It’s not my overall favorite recording of these works but nevertheless enjoyable and a little different. Also on the playback pile was Paul Lewis’s excellent new Schubert disc [Harmonia Mundi 24-bit/96kHz WAV], a couple of Reference Recordings HRx 24-bit/176.4kHz WAV albums; Britten’s Orchestra and Exotic Dances from the Opera, Ivan Fischer’s Mahler 4 [Channel Classics 24-bit/192kHz WAV] and Mozart’s Divertimenti in E-flat major [BIS 24-bit/88.2 kHz WAV] by Trio Zimmermann.

I also downloaded or ripped a good number of 16-bit/44.1kHz BIS recordings. BIS has long been one of my favorite labels mostly for its adventurous spirit in contrast to the big record companies who appear to be as innovative as a garden gnome. Some recent favorites include Vadim Gluzman performing Sophia Gubaidulina’s wonderfully moving In tempus praesens [BIS-1752 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV] and some Villa-Lobos [BIS-1660 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV] courtesy of John Neschling and the Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra which I think are an absolutely brilliant group of musicians.


On the pop and jazz side some tasty numbers included LCD Soundsystem’s London Sessions [Virgin 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV] and Bill Evans’ classic Waltz for Debbie [Riverside/Analogue Productions 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV].


Now I’ll skip right to the final chase scene. USB playback with the Calyx, be it 16-bit/44.1kHz or higher, was excellent and well beyond what I expected for the price. Music emerged from an exceptionally quiet black backdrop in which all manner of musical nuances stood out. Resolution of low-level detail was superb but didn’t come across as sterile or aggressive. It’s not that I heard things on my recordings for the first time. It’s more that what I heard and like about a particular recording as little nuances and artistic touches was a bit more apparent and real. Along with excellent low-level detail I noted a silky smooth yet crystal-clear midrange and treble while the bass was taut and amazingly well articulated if a tad lacking in weight.


While I didn’t find the presentation dry per se, it did lean in that direction. The Calyx also seemed to remove the digital edge and brittleness from 16/44.1—that glary, bright, etched upper band so despised by vinylphiles—without rendering such recordings lifeless or dull. Also impressive was the wonderfully relaxed easy way in which music emerged. Playback was balanced, natural and free from artifice. The sense of forward propulsion, momentum and timing was superb and certainly superior to any CD player or transport I have owned. Simply put, music via the Calyx was utterly engaging. The more I listened, the more I enjoyed it.

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