MS750 vs: MCD500

[jdandy]

REPRINT

I have been wanting to do a serious head to head with the MS750 and the MCD500. It rained in North Florida today, and kept me inside, so it was the perfect opportunity. It won't come as any surprise that the MCD500 reined supreme, but here is how it went.

The procedure was to choose a CD for the MCD500 to play, and located the same CD on the MS750 server. Start them simultaneously, and A/B between them. Since the MS750 digital output is fed to the coaxial input of the MCD500, all I had to do was select the CD or the coax input on the MCD500 to be able to do a direct A/B comparison.

I started with Greg Karukas - You'll Know It's Me, "Back On The Boardwalk". If you don't find yourself tapping your toe to this tune, you better check your pulse. On the MCD500 the harmonica is stunningly real, sounds completely alive, with the sharp metallic reed attacks. Trumpets are crisp, and the trombone has that rich, deep vibrato and texture that breathes life into the sounds. The bass was rock solid, with strong leading edge attack, while organ notes drifted without any smear in and out and among the electric piano, which itself had perfect piano note attacks and detail, and lingering harmonics that hung effortlessly. When selecting the MS750, it was all still there, just not in the same measure. The sound stage seemed flatter, the depth became shallower, although not dramatically, but it was audible. The leading edge of the bass notes seemed softer, the harmonica lost a small bit of shimmer, and the same was true for the electric piano and horns. A certain glistening was absent. It is subtle, and were it not for the direct A/B comparison, the difference would be difficult to perceive.

Next, I cued up Liz Story - Speechless, "Forgiveness" for audition. The impeccable solo piano is a perfect way to compare individaul notes, as well as cords, and lingering harmonics as they diminish into silence. Liz plays some wonderful lower octaves that accompany her right hand creations, and effectively demonstrate the frequency range below 55Hz down to the lowest note on the piano at 27.5 Hz. She uses this area of the piano strongly. The MCD500 simply disappears, you are only hearing Liz play wonderful piano. As I A/B between the MCD500 and the MS750, my first impression was the live piano had suddenly become recorded piano. The deep, three demensional sound stage lost just enough of it's depth that it removed the live aspect from the music. As soon as I returned to the MCD500, the music became live again, and the CD playing machine became irrelevant. Again, the frequency response, and dynamics of the MS750 are very good, and were I not making a direct A/B comparison, I would have no reason to nitpick the sound because it is very good. On the other hand, there is no denying that the the MCD500 does something special to music it captures directly from CD.

One final track, I cued up Chieli Minucci - Got It Goin' On, "Deeper Than Deep" for audition. This track has some seriously deep electronic bass going on at the same time that electric string bass is used. There is plenty of activity with drum snaps, conga, drifting guitar notes across the sound stage, and several strong electric guitar riffs, with a Jimi Hendrix type flair. On the MCD500 the drum snaps had a level of detail that when played on the MS750, seemed a tiny bit smaller. The skin sounds of the Congas rang truer on the MCD500, and the sound stage was deep and wide. The MS750 was capable of recreating 95% of the sonic picture, while the MCD500 put you right up near the stage.

I had fun with this head to head face off. I really had no doubt about outcome. My real interest was in discovering how much of a performance gap there was between the MS750 and the MCD500. I was surprised to discover that the gap was narrower than anticipated. The results increased my confidence that the MS750 faithfully reproduces all but the last smidgen of the original CD source. When not directly A/B comparing the two sources, the MS750 delivers a completely satisfying listening experience. I suspect the differences would be slightly larger if I had been listening to the MS750 through it's DACs instead of through the MCD500 DACs. For those critical listening times when only the best I have will do, the MCD500 remains top dog in my system.
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[Alberto]

Thanks for the review!

I also noticed only VERY minute differences when different sources were fed to the MDA1000. The source of bits (i.e. the transpoert) is not nearly as important as the DAC. I am not sure how the MCD500 deals with jitter from an external source (i.e. does it re-clock like MDA?) but I have to believe that one of the advantages of the on-board drive is that it's sync'd to the same clock as the DAC.

Alberto

CL: Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (from Rhapsody)

[PHC1]

Nice review Dan. Parallels my own findings with the MS300 and MCD1000 both fed to MDA1000. I thought the MCD1000 pulls ahead with a bit better bass and a bit more air overall.

[jericho]

Great review Dan, thanks!!

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Alberto

Thanks for the review!

I also noticed only VERY minute differences when different sources were fed to the MDA1000. The source of bits (i.e. the transpoert) is not nearly as important as the DAC. I am not sure how the MCD500 deals with jitter from an external source (i.e. does it re-clock like MDA?) but I have to believe that one of the advantages of the on-board drive is that it's sync'd to the same clock as the DAC.

Alberto

CL: Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (from Rhapsody)

Alberto.......The MCD500, according to Ron-C, treats the transport as a seperate input to the DAC circuitry in the same way it treats the coaxial and optical inputs. Each input is reclocked in the process of decoding.

[j3brow]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Alberto.......The MCD500, according to Ron-C, treats the transport as a seperate input to the DAC circuitry in the same way it treats the coaxial and optical inputs. Each input is reclocked in the process of decoding.

Very informative, Thanks Dan! A Sonos is the next step in my system...glad to know it will be subjected to the best those DACs have to offer. Very nice review, as always.


CL: Mark Knopfler - Shangri-La SACD

[Still-One]

Dan
Thanks for bringing your reviews over. Well worth reading again.
Jim

[jdandy]

Jim.......Thanks. I appreciate that.