Soundings
For my final listening, I fitted out my signal chain with the McCormack DNA-500 power amp and the Dynaudio Special 25 loudspeakers. As the DNA 500 features a 20-amp connection, I used a Hubble-equipped JPS Labs Aluminata; and because the Dynaudio Special 25 loudspeakers only employ a single set of speaker terminals, I couldn't use the bi-wired Synergistic Research speaker cables. So I replaced them with s single run of the dynamically impactful, LF-extended JPS Labs Superconductor 2 Speaker Cables (a solid core design) with their richly layered midrange and smoothly detailed top end. For the sake of consistency, system synergy (and a dependable, quantifiable family sound), I inserted Superconductor 2 interconnects in-between pre and power amps, and connected them to all of my different digital sources. I continued to employ an active Synergistic Research Designer's Reference2 AC Cord on my VTL 5.5 preamp, but to reduce the gaggle of cables and secondary cables behind my equipment rack, I employed the Acoustic Zen Gargantua AC cords on all the digital source components (the Njoe Tjoeb has a hard-wired AC cord), for their exceptional depth of field, midrange layering and silky top end extension.


As we proceed now to analyze the sonic attributes of the Level-1 mod, allow me to share a cautionary tale. During its initial period of break-in, I found it took about 100-125 hours for the modified DVD-2900 to find it ultimate voice and sonic coherence - which pretty much translates to 6-8 hours a day of continuous play for roughly three weeks. When you take into account the quality of all those new caps and resistors and the use of Teflon-insulated solid-core silver DH Labs wire and 4% silver solder, that stuff takes a lot of time to burn in. Some of the Simaudio-sourced gear I evaluated for Stereophile (such as their i-5 integrated amp and the Magnum Dynalab MD 280 receiver which featured a Simaudio amp and preamp section) also incorporated very high-quality components and heavy copper tracings (not to mention a capacitor-less signal path), so the break-in period was naked and interminable. Likewise, the most devoted fans of Meadowlark Audio loudspeakers report anywhere from 300 to 600 hours of break-in before officially registering Nirvana.


But this is HighEnd audio gear. It comes with the territory so don't give in to a bad case of buyer's remorse and lapse into a state of panic. You'll be pleased with the musical payoff.


I found the soundstaging to be impressive on the Denon from the outset. However, as things evolved, there came to be a hell of a lot more air and dimensionality to the sound. Likewise, the midrange opened up considerably, with lots of depth and detail; and the bass got fuller, tighter and considerably quicker. But as a drummer who is very conscious of how an audio system reproduces the fundamentals and overtone series of sticks and brushes, cymbals and snares, the evolution of the top end was of particular interest to me. At first, the high frequencies seemed muted and rather closed in. But as the top end ripened, it grew more open and detailed though not particularly analytical or bright. The one adjective that appeared over and over again in my notes was smooth. Smooth not as laid-back or softly muffled but as sweetly detailed, coolly inviting. Some listeners are far too quick to equate brightness with detail when what they might be experiencing is a peaky non-linearity, line noise or some other form of distortion. To me, the high frequency response of this disc player was very appealing because it allowed the music to breathe and delineated a fulsome sense of space, particularly welcome in helping to define the elemental ambience of a Jazz combo and the wide expanses of a symphony orchestra. Not to mention the 'potential' for extended bandwidth in those higher frequency realms that may be technically inaudible to all but the canine contingent, but which I suspect contribute greatly to the sense of liveness and acoustic space that the best SACDs can deliver.

I tossed on "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" from a hybrid SACD of drummer Steve Davis' live-to-direct-stream digital DMP recording of A Quality of Silence. The disc loaded in a reasonably efficient manner (my old Sony used to take an eternity with SACDs) and the Denon's portrayal of this recording's acoustic ambience, spatial dimension and instrumental detail was thrilling. I've heard many an audiophile blithely dismiss the relative differences in resolution between CDs and SACDs as insignificant. Well, I wish they could've heard this recording on my system. As good as the CD layer sounded on the Njoe Tjoeb, it came across as relatively flat and even a little bright compared to the SACD layer on the Denon. There was a lot more acoustic space portrayed against an inky black background; and while instrumental details were nice fleshed out on the CD layer, there was another level of dimensionality to the SACD portrayal. By which I mean a palpable physical presence, a more realistic three-dimensional image of the instruments in a live environment - not just as the sound of an instrument but its shape.


That is to say, as a drummer, I am intimately aware of how the cymbals on a drum set sound from both a player's perspective and that of a listener at a reasonable distance. The Level-1's depiction of this acoustic was vivid yet relaxed; not only were the inner details on the bass, piano and cymbals much more fully fleshed out and lifelike than the CD layer, but their relationship to each other as distinct entities in an acoustic space was far more realistic and believable. Each image was warmly illuminated in its own space yet musically connected in an overall acoustic blend. Part of this was due to the quality of the Denon's playback capabilities (this recording sounded nowhere near as full or luminescent on the $2000 Phillips SACD 1000 multi-disc player I reviewed in Stereophile a couple of years back ). However, part of this was also due to the acoustic verisimilitude of the recording. I can recall a McCoy Tyner/Stanley Clarke/Al Foster recording on Telarc where each instrument was ravishingly detailed but the overall blend of instruments was oddly unreal, - as though they were each recorded inside their own acoustical isolation chamber. There was no blend. So, yes, the medium is only as good as the method. But when the method is right and the playback medium as refined as the Level-1 mod, then the results can be stunning. And in listening to the cymbals on "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", all manner of inner details, subtle articulations and harmonic distinctions were present that added to the liveness and involvement of the recorded experience: The melodic quality of fundamentals; the lingering spread of subtle dissipation of overtones into a black background; a certain shimmer and aura to the acoustic - the Denon rendered all these details with telling intimacy and without adding any of its own signature to the sound.