I recently purchased this digital system and used it at the RMAF. I own a C1 stereo that I was using before as my digital to analog unit before. My two friends own Select 2 by MSB and the dCS Vivaldi stack which I have listened to many times albeit not in my own system but in excellent circumstances.
I expected the C1 Mono to be better than the stereo however I just was not prepared for the jump. My friends and I have discussed many times how original thinking about the quality of Redbook CD's was wrong and that the culprit in the sound was always the hardware not the recordings. That is not to say they all sound amazing but many sound a lot better thane we thought. In those passages where there was complex musical signals and we heard the sound like a box of cereal being shaken, all compressed , confused and crunchy sounding there is now clarity and space. This system is truly world class and it should be since it costs a lot. My initial impressions are this is something I have not experienced before and I hope over the next weeks and months i am able to truly get my head around what it is capable of. For right now I am just listening and loving it!
I expected the C1 Mono to be better than the stereo however I just was not prepared for the jump. My friends and I have discussed many times how original thinking about the quality of Redbook CD's was wrong and that the culprit in the sound was always the hardware not the recordings. That is not to say they all sound amazing but many sound a lot better thane we thought. In those passages where there was complex musical signals and we heard the sound like a box of cereal being shaken, all compressed , confused and crunchy sounding there is now clarity and space. This system is truly world class and it should be since it costs a lot. My initial impressions are this is something I have not experienced before and I hope over the next weeks and months i am able to truly get my head around what it is capable of. For right now I am just listening and loving it!