Sounds like a slam-dunk, right? Not so fast. For starters, the C10/3 might not match the fluid musical sophistication of the four-box rig, but it’s still a worthwhile MUSICAL step up on the C10/2, with its wider dynamic contrasts and shifts in density – and it does offer those additional (far from unattractive) sonic attributes. So, depending on your budget, your end-game and your musical tastes, I can see a situation in which the shorter step to the C10/3 might well make sense. One less box, one less shelf and a lot less money than the C10/4 option, for a rock and pop listener who really isn’t going any further down this particular audio road – for cost or space reasons – I can certainly see the attraction. However. Let’s not kid ourselves. How many of us, investing this sort of funding are ever really done? The C10/3 makes some sense. The C10/4 makes a lot more sense for a lot more listeners. But the C10/5 makes more sense than both of them put together.
The bottom line here is that the C10/5 easily trumps both of the interim steps. The C10/4 is certainly a valid stopping point, but given the significant performance advantages and the modest cost (relative to the rest of the multi-box DAC and clock) does it really make sense NOT to incorporate the extra box, the final step, the oh so tasty cherry on the icing on the CH cake? Having lived with all of the various options, I’d have to qualify that as false economy.
Making sense of your money?
CH Precision’s C10 Statement DAC Mono might be one hell of a mouthful but then it’s one hell of a product. I say product (singular) because despite those eight-boxes, this is a single, exactingly engineered and integrated system. Used in conjunction with the T10 Time Reference, with or without the D10 CD/SACD transport (and I can’t stress strongly enough that it should be with) it sets a completely new standard for CH digital replay – as it should, given the price. More importantly, it builds significantly on the strengths of its 1 series predecessors, bringing a dynamic and temporal authority to replay, a musically versatility and easy, unforced fluidity to performances that make it the first DAC to stand face-to-face with the previously unassailable Wadax Reference DAC. When the Wadax Reference Transport finally arrived to match the reference DAC, it set a completely new standard of optical disc replay. That standard has just been matched and in some areas surpassed by the D10/C10. For the first time these players, different as they are, one to the other, are closer to state-of-the-art vinyl replay than the qualitative differences between recordings and pressings.
CH’s 10 Series digital components offer users a staged upgrade path and the option to spread their investment without financial penalty. The musical benefits and logic underpinning that upgrade path are even more compelling than they were with the already impressive 1 Series units, offering far greater ‘headroom’ and wider steps along the way – steps that ultimately, musically make more sense.
