Tutta Solo is an SACD and you might be thinking that the higher sampling rate gives the ‘C10’s DAC architecture an unfair advantage. But, if anything, the differences between the two DACs are even more musically apparent on Red Book material (conventional or MCA-CD, which the C10 will also decode. Moving on from Bach to Beethoven and up in scale, Batiashvili’s recording of the Violin Concerto in D Major, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Sony 88697334002) transports the solo violin into a larger space and a broader musical context. And larger is the word. The ‘C10’ throws a bigger, deeper, more developed and far more defined soundstage, peopled with substantial instruments that play with presence and purpose.
Instrumental textures are once again, far more natural than the C1.2 and, while it might sound like an odd observation, that makes the nature of instruments, the way they actually generate sound, much more obvious, with a more convincing sense of the human agency involved. The overall balance is also warmer and more natural, with greater body and dimensionality. Transparency and resolution are both improved, reflected in increased soundstage depth and more clearly defined instrumental height and location. Once again, the musical relationships within the piece, within the orchestra and, in this case between orchestra and soloist/director are much more explicit and musically meaningful. The extra dynamic ‘jump’ available from the ‘C10’ (and the presence of a stage full of players) makes for heightened drama and musical contrast. Those orchestral tuttis that punctuate and drive the opening of the first movement are genuinely explosive, delivering dramatic musical contrasts just when and where they’re needed.
While listeners tend to associate the assessment of rhythmic abilities with rock or pop music, the interlocking elements that make up an orchestral performance are just as demanding and revealing. Play digitally recorded orchestral music through a DAC with superior time-domain performance and you get a significantly more dramatic, expressive and engaging – err, performance. Listen through the ‘C10’ and you hear it from the Podger disc – and you definitely hear it from the Batiashvili, which delivers awesome power and impact from what is a smaller than average ensemble, but one that’s playing with great gusto and enthusiasm. Switch to driven rock and you are in for a treat…
Out-Stoning the Stones…
The art of the cover number is both subtle and demanding. The result needs to avoid simple homage or pastiche and bring new light or meaning to the music – like Devo’s brilliant ‘(I can’t get no) Satisfaction’. But in this instance it’s another Sone’s number I’ll cite… The ‘C10’s innate sense of pace and flow invests Patti Smith’s take on ‘Gimme Shelter’ (Twelve, Sony 88883751692) with an insistent, propulsive power that’s impossible to ignore. The tight band – a band that’s been playing together for decades – is given an almost addictive edge by an infusion of Red Hot Chilli. Smith’s vocal delivery gains intelligibility and emotional impact as the song’s anti-war message emerges, clear and powerful, driven by rather than swamped in the iconic guitar riff. It’s a musical and audio tour de force.
