[Amfibius]

Someone in the other thread asked how the Playback Designs MPS-5 compares to my previous CD player. Well, I am a very slow upgrader of CD players. This is my CD player history:

- Marantz CD-52 (1993-2000)
- Sony XB940ES SACD (2000-2006)
- Cary CD306 SACD (2006-2011)
- Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD (2011 ono)

As you can see, I am a believer in SACD. The first upgrade was driven by the need to get SACD. The second upgrade from the Sony to the Cary was because the Cary was simply superior to the Sony. I have compared the Cary to many other CD players, and it has held its own every time. It is superior to the Marantz, Ayre, Sony ES, and Musical Fidelity SACD players. It is equalled by the Esoteric but the Esoteric has a dryer sound than the Cary. On redbook, I preferred the Cary over nearly everything else.

It was always going to be difficult for anything to replace the Cary, and this was certainly the case with the MPS-5. I was decidedly unimpressed the first time I heard it. The dealer left it with me over the weekend and I told him that I was surprised that it sounded congested compared to the Cary, and lacked detail and dynamics. He came over and had a listen. I could see that he was struggling to contain his disbelief but eventually he did concede that the Cary ran the MPS-5 very close.

A couple of weeks later, he rang me up and said that the player he brought over was brand new. He had since been advised to give the player 500 hours of run-in which he had done. He offered to lend it to me again. I was unable to take him up on his offer for a good year - because by then he was starting to move them like hot cakes. He said to me "lesson learnt - never demonstrate anything until you know you can get the most out of it". Yes of course - particularly to someone with a critical ear and a reluctance to spend 15 big ones!

One year later he brought another demo unit to my place. This time, it had 500 hours of burn-in. The moment I pressed play, even without doing any direct A-B testing, I could hear the difference. This thing is so much better than the Cary! Instrumental seperation is amazing, instruments are full of life and timbre, and the soundstage was wide and expansive. The dynamics and bass were better, showing the superiority of the discrete output stage. The overall presentation was more dry than the Cary, but then the Cary always was a very sweet sounding CD player.

I decided I could get the tone back by playing with the valves, but things like detail retrieval and dynamics can never be improved if it is not there from the very beginning. So I opened my wallet and handed over 15 big ones.