This temporal alacrity is universal. The sparse vocal and bass opening of the Vampire weekend track ‘How Long’ (Father Of The Bride, Columbia 19075947362) which often sounds sluggish and plodding on other machines, including the Studio Player, comes across as fleet and urgent on the Reference Transport: not hurried, just propulsive. Temporal distinctions between different performances of the same work are not just more obvious, their implications are more deeply felt too. The performances of artists who have truly mastered the time domain are raised to a whole new level – even an audiophile hack like Clap Hands… is a whole new experience. No other digital rendition tells you so clearly what Ella does with ‘Cry Me A River’ – or how much better the UHQCD transfer (UCCV-9696 – with its extra weight, body, fluid timing and more natural tonality) is than the Analogue Productions SACD (CVRJ 4053 SA).
The bottom line here is that the Reference Transport extends the musical performance over and above the Studio Player’s in EVERY regard. Its presentation is significantly more natural in terms of scale and perspective, with far greater resolution, finer dynamic, tonal and textural discrimination. But above all, that temporal security, the ability to place and space notes with such natural, unforced precision, to track the signal in terms of time and level, to present it with such uncluttered clarity and rhythmic organisation, is a first for digital replay. As good (and as enjoyable) as the Studio Player undoubtedly is, don’t go confusing it with the Reference components. They’re still the real deal.
Comparison Two – The Atlantis Transport
While the notion that the Studio Player has rendered the Reference components anachronistic is perhaps the (exclusive) preserve of audio optimists, the performance of the Reference Transport/Akasa optical input compared to the older Atlantis Transport used with the Reference DAC is a more pertinent question, especially given the number of Atlantis units out there in the marketplace. Indeed, the Atlantis has been the ‘reference’ disc transport around these parts for around a decade, a period during which it has enjoyed a clear musical advantage over all-comers, whether those competitors play physical media or files. More recently, Wadax’s own Reference Server has matched and occasionally exceeded the performance of the Atlantis Transport (although the converse has more often been the case). It’s an impressively capable unit and one that offers considerable competition for its pricier stable-mate, especially given the installed base of invested users.
The sound of the Atlantis Transport is characterised by its sense of presence, body, separation and easy, fluid phrasing. It navigates changes of pace with a sure-footed confidence and brings a stable sense of substance to the musical performance. Play the Warner Classics UHQCD of Barbirolli conducts English String Music (with the Sinfonia of London – WPCS-28020) and it sets up a beautifully defined stage, with a natural sense of scale and perspective, the basses placed deep in the stage, centrally located and stood on a riser. Even in the slowest passages of the Tallis Fantasia the pace never lags, with Barbirolli keeping things moving forward. It’s this sense of measured progression and the musical tension it generates that makes this the definitive performance – a performance that challenges even the most ambitious disc replay systems: a performance that demonstrates exactly why the Atlantis has remained at the pinnacle of disc replay for so long.
