Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player, Danny Kaey Hifistatement
Fifteen thousand dollars is a ton of money. The typical luxo hyped consumer could buy lots of nice toys for $15k these days. Letʼs see, a quick and shameless Google search reveals one of several custom road bicycles, watches, pens, ski gear, a nice vacation, a fancy cruise, art, home decor, a Kiton bespoke suit; but wait, a CD/SACD player? Yep. Compact Disc, you know, that little silver disc that has music on it. Yes, exactly, that one. I know what you are saying and I donʼt disagree with you, even though we are in fact nearing upon the year 2011 and CD sales are continuing to plummet into the long lost abyss in favor of digital downloads, aka. iTunes. Mind you, thatʼs obviously the perspective of your typical consumer – hardly that of your average audiophile.
But even amongst our own flock, spending $15k on a CD player these days better come with comprehensive “why” literature, or at least, as in this case, a review that hopes to explain it. The momentum has clearly shifted towards digital playback solutions based on various homegrown music server solutions (ie. Mac or PC computer sources), or, in some cases, custom built, one-stop shop solutions such as Sooloos, et all. Whichever your pickle, convenience seems to have – yet again, what a shocker – trumped the old school way of digital playback. Who could or would argue the point? iTunes (and many others) offers a great way for anyone to have an easy to use, free, media library front end, why would you not take advantage of that?
As technology marches on, an ever increasing number of manufacturers have latched on to that fact and are now offering what essentially amount to digital linestages, ie. one stop disc playback (SACD or otherwise), USB, SPDIF, AES/EBU, Toslink, stations. Such is the case with Playback Designsʼ MPS-5 all in one solution. Admittedly and rightfully so, the MPS-5 isnʼt your average digital linestage however. Far from it, as Andreas Koch (R&D) and Jonathan Tinn (Sales & Marketing) have created a state of the art DSD based digital processing unit that is rather unique in many ways. Starting with the build and look of the player, this ainʼt your typical disc jockey. Hefty, beautifully machined, two-tone silver and black aluminum slabs compose the top and bottom of the case; two red LED readout displays (one for sampling frequency, the second for time and track number) grace the front; an Esoteric sourced disc mechanism occupies the center of the chassis. The usual array of disc controls are mounted top side right of the case. In all fairness, compared to the typical ugly, bland box solutions most provide this disc player is really a work of visual art and integration. A blue light back lit remote, which continues the main unitʼs industrial chique design cues of two-tone silver black machined aluminum, offers up the usual array of controls and digital source switching. The back of the unit mimics your typical digital train station: input / output offering up just about every conceivable consumer and professional grade electrical standard.
One must see this player in real life to appreciate the handy work Playback Designs has invested – mind you, unlike so many other players on the market that hope to capture the heart of the audiophile, the MPS-5 is all hand built in the US. Considering the economic rumbles of our times, it is rather confidence inspiring to know that at least one manufacturer has decided to forgo ultimate profit for keeping everything in house – letʼs just say that purely from the looks of it, it ainʼt cheap to make this box here in the US, hence the $15k asking price almost seems paltry in comparison to other, foreign sourced, state of the art players. But of course, looks are only one aspect of this reference disc player. Sound being the primary source of sparkle and shine. Here too, however, do you see rather ingenious design in favor of the ubiquitous cookie cutter me too approach. Turns out that Andreas Koch (like so many other brilliant digital geniusʼs of our time, he prefers to work in the back ground – Google his name for a list of accomplishments, suffice to say that he is an authority on digital design having spent many years at various firms throughout the globe) created some very unique digital and analog solutions for this, the companyʼs first, digital player.
The digital section is comprised of custom programmed, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays instead of the typical off the shelf OEM DAC chips; Jonathan told me that this is the true genius of the design, allowing proprietary decoding algorithms to be programmed instead of relying on pre-packaged, mass manufactured common code. As was explained to me, the main benefit of this method is that Playback Designs can focus on continued sonic improvements over time, since the code being executed by these decoder chips can be modified. Further, all digital signal coming to the decoding chips are upsampled to double-DSD sampling rate,ie. 5.6448Mhz. Utilizing another proprietary in house built technology, Playback Designs maintains that their system also eliminates any relevant jitter by removing it altogether from the audio signal. This is also source independent, ie. irrelevant of what digital interface or source is used.
The analog section is also state of the art, utilizing carefully designed power supplies, discrete analog outputs and ceramic circuit boards. Wait a minute, I thought you said this sells for $15k. Yes it does. Perhaps the only, potentially confusing (though not necessarily detrimental) element of this player is that the USB input accepts 16-bit 44.1 and 48kHz data. Coupled with the aforementioned Esoteric transport, I consider the MPS-5 to offer virtually every conceivable creature comfort feature, which should please but the most obsessed of audiophiles.
Having had several digital sources pass through my system over the years, I donʼt quite recall one machine as exemplary purpose built as the MPS-5. Armed with multiple sources (my 2008 black MacBook running OSX 10.6.5, iTunes, and Pure Vinyl; the unitʼs CD/SACD Esoteric transport of course; a Sound Devices 722 digital recorder and my custom built PC running Windows 7), I was ready to rock the Zoo. Could this truly be the last, most future proof disc transport based digital front-end one would need? Considering the significant shift towards server based standard or hi-res music playback, not to mention analog, ie. vinyl sources, the good old Compact Disc seems to be running rather short on breath these days. Time would tell…
Armed with the handful of SACDs I own, the evaluation of the sonic merits of the MPS-5 proved to quite conclusive: stunning, revelatory, and state of the art. Cueing up some of my favorite classical SACDs, from the now apparently defunct Living Stereo reissue project of several years ago, some of the highlights include Straussʼs Also Sprach Zarathustra, which, in case of the MPS-5 sounded quite unlike any other SACD experience of recent memory. Given my Zu Definitionʼs prodigious full range bass output, what I heard was artifact free, full range, dynamically visceral and supremely musical performances, all the same time. Transparency, resolution and shear space definition is the best I had heard, giving a true sense of space and dynamic range capable of shaking many of the lose fixtures I have in my listening room. The seemingly gigantic bass drums literally blew your socks off!
A recently acquired copy of the great Nat King Cole, The Very Though Of You from Acoustic Sounds, proved another killer. Mastered from the original 3-track Capitol tapes, this is definitively, the best I have ever heard NKC. Natʼs voice possessed such three dimensionality and grandeur, that I often wondered how this could possibly have been recorded 50 odd years ago, not to mention how life-like he truly sounded. Noise and grit free, clean, commanding and utterly destroying any previous digital rendition of this performance, I (and everyone else whoʼs heard the system) was left with nothing but raised eyebrows and completely reset expectations of what the finest digital can deliver.
Judged purely on the merit of this playerʼs SACD performance, I have to hand it to Andreas and Jonathan for delivering such a compelling, reference quality product for monies far less than expected (and what others charge for). Detail, image, bass output, dynamic slam, punch, transparency and resolution were all several magnitudes higher in order than my previous SACD playback experiences, which include some truly significant, technologically advanced pieces: various dCS models, Cary 306, audioaéroʼs ca. $40k Prestige, EMM Labs, Luxman to name few. While all these aforementioned players undoubtedly have their own two legs to stand on, it was the consistently captivating performance of the MPS-5 that stood out the most and ultimately, proved to be the winner.
Given that native SACD playback was so commanding, I wondered what regular Red Book would offer, followed by USB / SPDIF. Surprisingly, the overall sonic signature didnʼt change significantly when playing back your standard silver discs. The main sonic properties identified via SACD playback remained virtually in tact. Bass slam, transparency and (Red Book) resolution where easily the finest I had heard, which, to be frank, did surprise me quite a bit. Recalling that no matter the input, the MPS-5 upsamples every signal to double-DSD, I am shocked to hear just how much resolution is left in yesteryearʼs 16-bit 44.1kHz standard.
Playing back Trentemøllerʼs The Last Resort, an expertly produced and arranged electronic production, full of catchy synth lines, loops and hooks, the MPS-5 really outgunned any of my previous Red Book standards, many of which where inclusive of the SACD players mentioned above. Subterranean synth bass, when done right (and with the proper playback chain), is an experience not to be missed. Whereas many other players sound sloppy, fudgy and somewhat constrained, the MPS-5 rose to the occasion of offering up enveloping, live, rhythmically correct, pitch perfect and textured bass lines. Remarkable, considering the age of the “gold” CD standard. Moving onto the USB and SPDIF input, it was clear that the digital linestage would perform with similar style. Though not quite as clear cut via the playerʼs built-in USB input, hi-res files (ie. 24-bit/96kHz recordings made off the equally amazing Sounddevices 722 digital recorder) played back via the SPDIF input and SonicWeldʼs USB 24/96 Diverter (review forthcoming), sounded the equal of the MPS-5ʼs SACD playback. Tom Pettyʼs recently re-issued (ORG) Damned The Torpedos also contains the album as a complimentary downloadable 24/96 FLAC file. Compared directly to the pristine analog pressing spinning off my Brinkmann LaGrange/12.1/Zu-DL103 combo, it was shocking to see both sounding very much the same. The Zu-DL103 perhaps had a smidgen less bass output and slam, alas, overall, the two played on virtually equal footing, a first in the household of Danny Kaey (the norm has always been that the Brinkmann combo typically always played in significantly higher leagues compared to whatever digital I had in the system). Tomʼs uncanny voice and guitar sounded as though they had been played straight off the mic feed, not recorded and re-released some 30 odd years later. Mind you, the latter is a $40+k analog setup, vs. the Playbackʼs $15k entry. Kudos to Andreas and Jonathan for designing a truly analog experience.
Now that SPDIF input again: utilizing the otherwise impeccable Sounddevices 722 digital recorder, I have over the last year, converted several of my most cherished LPs to 24/96 digital rips. Played back via the 722ʼs SPDIF output, the sound is pretty much as expected, which is to say imperceptible (as far as I can tell) from the straight analog output of the Brinkmann combo. In one word, transparent. Considering the massive data crunching that is being performed by the DACs, ie. 24/96 PCM to double-DSD conversion, it is absolutely astounding hearing the results and utter transparency of that process.
I mentioned earlier that the unitʼs built in USB input could – in todayʼs world – (keep in mind the player was released in 2008, when most, if not all other major digital players didnʼt even have a USB proof of concept design out the door, much less ready to ship) seem somewhat out of place. After careful auditions I have to conclude that if you currently do not own or have access to hi-res, ie. 24/96 or higher resolution files, the MPS-5ʼs USB input will serve you just fine, pundits be damned. As I have all my Red Book discs copied via Poikosoftʼs Easy CD-DA Extractor to Apple Lossless files (on my PC), selecting standard output on the MacBook, ie. not upsampling to higher than 16-bit 44.1kHz, did not produce any less of a sonic experience than using the aforementioned hi-res ʻbot, Sonicweldʼs Diverter, playback software having more to do with the ultimate sound quality. At any event, if truly you need hi-res decoding done, there are plenty of third party USB to SPDIF solutions out including up to 24/192, or the most excellent – and unique – Sonicweld Diverter.
Statement
Playback Designʼs MPS-5 is a truly remarkable CD/SACD player and digital line stage. The sound is characterized by itʼs uniquely analog sound, explosive dynamics, reference quality transparency and that oh so precious ability to make you hear realmusic. Add to that itʼs modular digital design, ie. the ability to offer sonic upgrades via simple software updates, and $15k suddenly doesnʼt seem so far fetched, especially considering what the competition charges for given similar characteristics. SACD/CD playback is the finest I have heard and since the digital decoders work the same across all digital inputs, this player suddenly even seems bargain like. Highest recommendation as your last disc player and digital hub for the future.