Things with the C10 are a lot simpler and, ultimately, a lot more cost effective. To step up from C10 to C10 Mono, you simply add a second power supply, switching two of the four umbilicals to the new PSU.
Talking of cost, the C10 is expected to retail for $91,000 USD, with the C10 Mono upgrade costing $36,000 USD, pitching the top CH DAC solution at $127,000 USD. Those prices will be fixed/confirmed in Munich. But compare them to the price for the top 1 Series solution and once again, as with the P10 and L10, the 10 Series option undercuts the existing top-of-the-line 1 Series set-up. Add to that the fact that the C10 Mono takes up half the space/shelves and uses two as opposed to six power cords and the attraction is obvious.
Having discussed the physical and operational distinctions between the C10 and the C1.2, you probably want to know how they compare sonically and musically? Like everybody else, I’m going to have to wait until Munich to find out. But I can lift a corner of that particular curtain… I haven’t heard a C10 – but I have heard the C10’s DAC architecture running in a C1.2 with a twin umbilical 10 Series supply – and directly compared to a C1.2/X1 pairing.
Fronting up…
Even in this guise, a ‘hybrid’ development mule, the increased resolution and transparency of the new DAC are immediately and clearly apparent. But what is really significant in musical terms, is not all the extra detail, in and of itself, but what the DAC is able to do with it. Or, in other words, information only becomes useful if it is arranged into a meaningful pattern. The ‘C10’ excels at bringing order to the chaos of massively over-sampled digital data streams.
Normally, listening to prototypes or development pieces takes place in a manufacturer’s listening room and system but, unusually, in this case I was able to sneak the units into the back of my car and it was several days before anybody noticed they were missing! Kinda kidding… With this ‘C10’ being supplanted by production prototypes, I was able to steal it away for a few days of listening in my own system, intrigued by the prospect of a new DAC in a (semi) familiar circuit and chassis. With out the normal time pressures of an ‘away-day’ listening session, I was able to really put the unit through its paces. If it’s superiority to the C1.2/X1 was stark, the nature of that superiority is worth examining in more detail.
Let’s start with something that gets up close and personal – Rachel Podger’s startling virtuoso recording Tutta Solo (Channel Classics CCSSA44422). The ‘C10’ places you closer to the instrument, creating a more immediate, more substantial and far more dimensional image. The instrumental tone is richer and more complex, the woody body adding depth and power to its sound. Dynamic resolution is far better and dynamic range wider. The intimate church acoustic is far better defined, a natural extension of the musical energy generated by the instrument. But what is more important than any of that: what ties those sonic attributes to the musical whole is a new, arresting quality in the playing. The authority in Podger’s bowing is more apparent, the texture of bow on strings is more complex and natural, the attack and control in the playing more impressive and convincing. Subtle changes in bow weight, or the instrument’s location relative to the mics, are effortlessly reproduced, bringing life and motion to the musical event. Listening on the C1.2/X1 is a long way from slumming it, but in direct comparison it sounds small, flat and distant: a recording rather than a recreation of the performance. Switch to the ‘C10’ and the playing takes on a fluid majesty and articulation, a sophistication of phrasing and sense of purpose that elevates the performance into the realms of the remarkable.
Putting out…
I mentioned the ‘C10’s way with pattern and order and the Podger performance illustrates that perfectly. Play her performing Chad Kelly’s transcription of Bach’s Toccata And Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565) and what is a vaguely interesting cameo writ small on the C1.2 becomes a towering and exactingly structured monolith on the ‘C10’. Solo violin takes on organ? You’d better believe it. Such is Podger’s control and authority, her ability to pace, space and transit the familiar, interlocking phrases that you simply forget that this is a tiny instrument playing a piece composed for the most massive instrument there is. Pauses and note values are mfar more explicit, the result much more expressive. The combination of instrumental substance and musical flow generated by the C10 invests the performance with a presence and purpose that pull you in and sweep you along.
