riends who set their stands during Audio Show 2014 to sell CDs and LPs all told me the same thing after the Show – sales dropped by half compared to previous years. Some of them started to wonder whether next year they should even set their stands or just let it go and come as private persons to visit the Show. They all pointed out a single reason of that situation – audio files. Most people coming to stands, interested in particular record labels or particular titles asked for files and not for physical medium of any sort.

I respect these opinions but I'd like to offer another explanation. There is nothing anybody could do with present trend of replacing physical mediums with files stored on one or other sort of data carrier. It is happening and that's a present mainstream trend. But we should remember that audio never really followed mainstream. It often took some paths opposite to trends and standards. Otherwise things like vinyl record, tube, or reel-to-reel tape recorder wouldn't have survived till today. But as you can see all of them still exist, they even thrive and nothing suggest they could disappear from the market any time soon.

It is in fact a matter of scale, or proportions. In the 1980ties turntables and in 1970ties & 1980ties tubes had to give way to CDs and solid state devices. Today physical mediums will have to (or maybe they already have taking into consideration smartphones and portable players?) give way to file players. And that's fine. We can't turn the tide and there is no use in trying. It will still take some time to develop proper technologies for audio files players that could offer true high-end sound quality. When it finally happens, when a full potential of Hi-Res (PCM, DXD i DSD) files is utilized, I'll be the first to start using it. But not as the only source of music and probably not even as the first choice source.

I believe that PC Audio supremacy, that resulted in extremely fast grow of D/A Converters, headphone amplifiers and headphones markets is just a temporary fascination, as were home theater and “custom” systems before. These are cool, interesting, but in fact only for some specific group of customers. And after a short era of „Home Theater” and „custom” systems craziness, audio came back to its stereophonic origins based on the same types of devices as always. Yes, these devices were somehow different, improved thanks to technological progress, but their core principles are still the same.

The physical medium is more than that – not just a medium for musical signal. It is also an object that carries some cultural and sociological contents, information and values. Together with, in my opinion, higher sound quality than any files can offer, in case of CDs and LPs it gives users added value (yes, a CD, for me, is still a better medium which a listening sessions with dCS Vivaldi system confirmed). A file is immaterial, so it is difficult to attribute any value to it.

I am convinced that for my generation physical mediums will be the most important ones for a long time. Hopefully we will have a chance to use CDs and LPs till the end of our days. Unless someone comes up with some exceptional idea involving music files that will offer top sound quality (but I don't really believe that).
For us, fans of physical mediums, it is a wonderful time. The number of very special editions proposed mainly by Japanese companies, who wants to get as much of our money as possible, is overwhelming. Compared to that offer presented at AudioShow was bland, to say the least. Most sellers tried to sell regular editions, same ones as in October 1982, when a CD format had been firstly introduced. It takes more effort today to sell music on physical medium. It is not enough to just stand behind a table with some discs on it. Poor sales during AudioShow were, in my opinion, caused by these three elements I've described. But, from my perspective, future looks very bright. A lot of money is still to be spent.

That is why a release of a new Compact Disc or Super Audio CD Player is not surprising for me, is not an anachronism. It proves that there are people there, who can still heard the difference. Mr Bogusław Dubiel, the owner and chief designer of Dubiel Accoustic, obviously shares my view. Two years ago we reviewed his new Compact Disc Player, and now we got our hands on the newest, battery powered version of the same Player.

BOGUSŁAW DUBIEL | Dubiel Accoustic
Designer | owner

Both mechanical and electronic concepts remained unchanged. I got rid of two power transformers together with accompanying diodes, capacitors and voltage regulators. Also a power inlet with a fuse was no longer needed. It was replaced with a 5-pin socket for battery charging (Amphenol) and a mechanical on/off switch with an indicator. The space that was “saved” inside was used for 11 units of gel batteries that supply power to mechanics (motor), and electronics, including all integrated circuits (decoder, DAC, and so on). Batteries supply power also to a tube output stage.

The NOS DAC chip is coupled with tube stage via a custom made transformer (made by one of renowned European manufacturers). For battery powered tube output stages I prefer to use some types of (NOS) tubes like: 3A4, DL95, 3Q5, DL33. In this particular unit delivered for test I used Mullard DL33 tubes. Output capacitors are copper Jensens filled with oil. I also used a new type of master clock shielded with copper enclosure.

Fully charged batteries allow for 5,5 hours of continuous work, and up to 7 hours if listening is divided into few sessions. A blinking LED placed on The remote control indicates that batteries need recharging. From the moment this LED starts to blink user still has 40-60 minutes of listening.

During listening sessions charger has to be disconnected from the CD Player. One must not charge batteries when the Player is ON! (it might cause a serious damage to the Player).

Charger's plug sports sort of a latch. When connecting it to the Player user must connect it in a such a way that this latch is on the right side (looking from the back side of the Player). Do not twist the plug inside socket – one should check the proper placement before plugging the charger in. Charging takes 10-12 hours and its finish is indicated by a green light turning on. It is placed next to the main, blue one. After green light comes on you need to keep charging the Player for another 30 minutes, then turn the charger off with its switch, and then unplug it from the Player.

I am not so sure if we should call this model “new” as it uses a lot of elements that were used already by the first devices of that kind ever build. The transport mechanism is a NOS Philips CDM-2 with a swing arm system using a counterweight (like a tonearm). Mr Dubiel tried a CDM-1 mechanism first but finally he chose almost identical CDM-2, because it was build of a material (resin) that damps resonances more effectively than aluminum used for CDM-1. Another advantage of CDM-2 is a laser of the same type that was used also for next generations of Philips' transports so its availability (if replacement is needed) is surely better. CDM-2 sports a one-beam swing arm to be exact. Another advantage of CDM-2 is good quality linear motor (later models used commutator motors). This type a transport mechanisms were used from the beginning by Philips and Marantz. Marantz used CDM-2 for its CD-25 and CD-45 Players, and for CD-65 in 1985.

A DAC chip Mr Dubiel decided to use is of equally vintage sort – it's a TDA1541. It's a second DAC chip ever released by Philips, but their first 16-bit one. Usually it was used in combination with a digital filter SSA7220P/A, that was responsible for a 4 times oversampling (without noise shaping filter). Marantz used it for the first time in 1985 for their CD-65.

And finally tubes – for the output stage Mr Dubiel uses a simple low-pass filter and amplification based on triodes. In this particular player the whole circuit is powered with batteries. That is the main difference between previous and reviewed versions (you can read our review of the previous version of Nirvana HERE). Remark: output signal is higher than standard 2 Vrms and a particular value depends on the type of tubes used for a particular unit. The signal is not attenuated. The unit under review delivered signal at 3,6 V level.

As I couldn't find a name of this battery powered version anywhere, I decided to name it myself, so from now on it should be called: Nirvana Battery. It's not the first and probably not the last time when I get to play a Godfather for a new audio product.

True Detective is one of the best TV series I've ever watched (HBO, 2014). Both actors playing main characters, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, were simply brilliant. But what I remembered most, after the last, eighth episode of the first series (the second one will come in 2015) is the music used for the series. The main motive in True Detective is the Far From Any Road piece from Singing Bones album (2003) by The Handsome Family. It was recorded somewhere in an old barn in Albuquerque, New Mexico (well, that's how I imagined that at least) it had a very special vibe and some sort of a “truth” in it. And it is this “truth” about music, about something “behind” sound, behind notes even, Nirvana Battery conveys in an absolutely exceptional way.

I think that it was during this listening session that for the first time ever I heard a true potential of this particular CD Transport, 16-bit DAC and tubes. It was as if Mr Dubiel finally was able to present what were the limits of these elements' performance, what they could and what couldn't they convey – as any technology, any solution had it's limits. Already the previous version of this player had given me an idea about those limits, but now, in this newest Player, Mr Dubiel pushed the limits even further. Tonal balance of the presentation is well balanced and “vigilant”. Sound never gets too bright, or harsh. That was to be expected from the combination of Philips TDA1541 DAC chip with battery power supply. Many other devices, based on at least one of those two elements, display the same sound qualities. They might not be that good at it, but the general impression is the same. None of these other devices ever presented these qualities combined with such an impressive dynamics and lack of this “syrupy” effect often associated with NOS DACs.

I would call this sound “gold -ish”, as it is so smooth and shiny, but without any harshness, that it slightly modifies the music so that it sounds bit more “gold”. But the point is that it doesn't paint the whole picture with gold, doesn't sink it in syrupy. Despite the fact that such a “sweet” sounding sources (many turntables sound this way, but also some digital sources) often deliver better performance than many very analytic but dry sounding ones, we can't pretend that it is what “fidelity” to the recording is about.
It seems that Nirvana's balance between “sweetness” and “truth/fidelity” is set right where it should be. On one hand it plays all, I mean ALL, recordings in a very pleasant way, but it never forgets to inform listener about the kind of recording, about musician's performance in it, about how it was prepared and put on CD.

Dynamics plays a key role in this presentation. Battery power supply usually tends to limit dynamics, even in performance of such a fantastic device like Human Audio Libretto HD CD Player. Mr Dubiel told me, that it was one of the biggest challenges for him, when he'd been designing this device, but he'd known also that it would have been a key to success. And, if I understood that correctly, the solution was quite simple: each section got its own battery delivering exactly the voltage required for this section, so there was no need to use any voltage splitters (usually resistors are used for that). It would seem that what limits dynamics in most such battery powered devices are those little resistors. And the dynamics delivered by Nirvana Battery is truly impressive, almost as impressive as with Ancient Audio's Lektor AIR V-edition, and at the same level as offered by Mytek's Manhattan D/A Converter, a great device by the way and one of the most up-to-day ones, too. We have to remember that a Player from Opole uses mostly 30 years old solutions, and some of them even a 100 years old!

Another surprise was the bass reproduction. This element almost always “suffers” from battery supply and tubes in output stage. Very few manufacturers know how to avoid that effect. Some examples, from Audio Research, Ancient Audio and Dubiel Accoustic prove, that it can be done, that it is in fact a question of application rather then choice of particular technology.
Each of these manufacturers “shapes” bass to its own preferences, bit differently in each case, of course. Nirvana Battery allows its bass to go very deep. Bass is very rich and powerful. A differentiation of tonality and dynamics is exceptionally good, as it is also for treble. In fact when listening to the music one wouldn't really pay attention to bass, treble or midrange, as the sound is very coherent along the range, and one listens to it as a whole. I can tell you about particular sub-ranges based on observations of particular instruments. And I have to add that is was quite easy to follow a chosen instrument once I set my mind on it.

The scale of the sound, I mean of vocals, instruments and whole soundstage, is massive. Sinatra from Songs For Swingin’ Lovers!, Brian Eno with Moebius and Roedelius of Cluster (After The Heat), but also Cream from Disraeli Gears, a recording issued on Platinum SHM-CD, whatever I decided to play it sounded marvelous. Sound was dense, rich, with deep, powerful bass and with impressive dynamics. This Player delivers every type of music with equal commitment and it always sounds really good.

As in any other case also during this test there were some recordings that impressed me even more than others. Like In The Wind by a super-trio Peter, Paul and Mary, like electronic music played by analogue synthesizers, like Cohen's Popular Problems. Yes, even this album, recorded for a „mass market”, meaning – I am writing this in the second decade of the 21st century – for smartphone's owners with their tiny in-ear cans, sounded really nice. Nirvana Battery was able to put all the pieces within this recording together into enjoyable whole. Nirvana was able to “domesticate” Cohen's voice, that had been recorded in a completely different acoustical conditions than instruments, in a way so that together with music it created a uniform message. Yes, it was a sort of a manipulation, as these two elements of this recording were completely different, but this interpretation of the signal actually made sense, it allowed me to enjoy listening to this recording.

This sort of „harmony” of these two elements with a completely different acoustical background was possible due to combination of some sound qualities Mr Dubiel chose for his Player and some technologies he involved in his design. I've already mentioned some qualities of the sound like: density, richness, smoothness, liquidity, proper tonal balance and impressive dynamics. Philips' drive and DAC offer some qualities, that their designers tried to improve in their later version. This device allowed me to confirm that, as I'd observed that when reviewing other Players before, and since the observations seemed to be similar each time, I would attribute them to a drive and a DAC rather than to their particular applications.

Nirvana seems to present everything that happens in the back of the soundstage bit closer to listener than my reference Player, and it seems to unify the acoustics. “Unification” might not be the best word here, as it suggests that it is a flaw, something that bothers listener (and it doesn't), so maybe I should rather say that it “adjusts” the acoustics. It is a sort of correction, no doubt about it. But it is done in combination with everything I described before and thus it seems natural.
Bringing back of the soundstage bit forward means that some vocals, that I could usually hear not in the front but rather somewhere in the middle of soundstage's depth like Dave Gahan's on Depeche Mode's Ultra, like Mary's on above mentioned In The Wind, like Jack Bruce’s in Sunshine of Your Love (Cream) seemed to be closer to me, seemed to be larger, conveyed in a more distinct way. It changed listener's perspective, as the whole soundstage gained in density. But it also shortened the perspective.

Other thing I noticed is imaging that is not quite as good as offered by Lektor, Accuphase DC-901, or by already mentioned Mytek Manhattan. Nirvana does not convey such a precise, well defined images, but rather less distinct, that tend to blend into the background bit more than competitors'. The upside of this is that it's exactly that, what makes sound so liquid. It seems that modern DAC chips are more resolving, offer better separation of images. It's easy to check that out listening to mono recordings as these offer us only depth of the soundstage and images on it. When playing such recordings, including, for example, Disraeli Gears by Cream, the reviewed Player produced less distinct, less palpable images compared to above mentioned Players. Also textures of each instrument seemed but more unified.

Summary

Nirvana Battery is an excellent Player. It offers much better performance than its “regular” version (with classic power supply). Why? Because everything that its predecessor did right, Battery does even better. Its character allows user to enjoy music for hours (until batteries deplete, actually) without any fatigue. It is surely not too sweet, nor too warm, so it stays “fresh”, it doesn't get boring. Impressive dynamics makes listening to it even exciting, it's a pure pleasure to listen to. It is not that resolving, as many other high quality Players from the same price range, like, to mention just few, products of Ayon Audio, Accuphase and others. Also there is no such a huge depth of the soundstage as some other Players offer, but it is so due to a very dense, rich front of the soundstage.

It doesn't change the fact, that what we have here is a fantastic product of a small Polish manufacturer, workshop really. And this tiny company designed and manufactured a product that can compete with Players made by largest companies from around the world. What's more - in terms of performance level it will be a fair fight. For some aware users, who know exactly what how they want their music served, and who will find proper sound qualities in Nirvana Battery choice will be very simple.

KRZYSZTOF DUDA
Deep See
Solition, CD (2014)

GAD Records has just announced their plan for the second part of Sonda, their bestseller that help them establish a position on the market. This album contained illustrative music to a very popular TV show called Sonda. It was a very popular science show aired by Polish TV between 1977 and 1989, that was presented by Zdzisław Kamiński and Andrzej Kurek.
Following huge success of that album GAD released an album Altus, with works of Polish composer who wrote music for Sonda, but also for several other shows (review HERE). This album turned out to be another success after which Mr Duda agreed for an interview for „High Fidelity” (see HERE).

Altus is a collection a music written in different periods of time by this composer of electronic music. His newest album, Deep See, is based on a completely new material. This record was released by Solition, another label that issues also music by Krzysztof Kanaan, also a composer of electronic music but a man from a younger generation (review of Continuum album HERE).
This is a “budget” edition, with only basic cover, no insert, and there is even no catalog number. Recording and mixing was done by Mr Duda, a mastering by Piotr Madziar. If I understood the information correctly only analogue synthesizers were used to record this material.

Mr Duda's music seems inspired by the 1970ties and 1980ties. Some elements though reflect more contemporary music. For example the opening of the first piece on the album, called: The Harbour of Poseidon, is clearly inspired by Daft Punk;s soundtrack from Tron movie, or to the introduction to Transbalticus, that could be an opining of any piece of club music.

Sound quality is really good. It is easy to tell that whoever prepared this material did a good job and had a good understanding of this music. It is a large scale sound, slightly “soft”, with greatly built both range extremes. Treble is truly vibrant, lively but never harsh, and bass goes down really deep. This type of presentation truly fits the type of music Mr Duda plays. It's a really cool music with amazing drive and the sound quality is also very good. The only thing the sound lacks is a true palpability of images, of sound sources, so something that krautrock from 1970ties offered in plenty. But, as I already mentioned in my review of Robert Kanaan's album Continuum, nobody really records music this way anymore.

Sound quality: 8/10

Such a complex and time consuming design might have been built only by a very small company – none of the “giants” of audio market would decide to release such a product. Just a casing comprises of many elements that combined together create an extremely rigid, mechanically damped shell. Main chassis is made of polished, stainless steel sheets. A marble slab is screwed from below to the bottom of the device (just like in German Audionet CD Players), and a thick plywood plate is glued to it (you might want to compare that solution to the one used by Japanese company SPEC, see HERE). Side panels are made of wood – that will remind one audio devices from 1970 ties and 1980ties, when wood panels very popular.

A front panel is made of polycarbonate, with some print placed on its back side. Underneath there is a large, alphanumeric, orange display with four LED modules. Since there are only four modules one can ready only track and index number on it (the latter is usually not used today, but it is particularly helpful when it comes to classic music), or track time. Below display there are two amber LEDs, indicating display's status. Third comes on when “pause” function is used.
Nirvana Battery is a top loader. One puts CD directly on motor's ax, and than puts a wooden puck on top of the disc.

There are two ways to control the device – either by using push-buttons on the front panel, or by using a remote control. The latter has a wooden enclosure and push-buttons identical with those on front of the Player. Buttons on front of the device are backlit. On the left side there is a red LED that flashes whenever Player accept commands from a remote.
Back panel sport a pair of very nice, high quality RCA sockets made by American company CNC, a five-pin XLR socket (Amphenol) used for connection with external charger. Above XLR socket there is a red light that indicates charging, and an amber LED that by different brightness indicates different charging level.

Few more information about usage of batteries. Batteries supplying output tubes deplete first. Drive might still be spinning a CD while the sound is already gone. That's fine, but I wish that an information about how much time on batteries we still have left was presented in some more visible spot – on the top cover for example. It would be nice if the message was also unambiguous – a row of LEDs or an alphanumeric display. Also when it comes to a device at this price I would expect an automated charging with some relays that could disconnect charger from Player at the moment Player was switched on. The whole process of charging is not particularly difficult as it is, but if one pays a certain amount of money one expects also some level of convenience.

The external charger is a large, plastic box with power cable on one end, and much thicker cable leading to the Player on the other. This cable connecting Player with charger is not particularly long so both devices need to placed quite close each other.
This battery powered Player's weight is quite significant. Two main element contributing to such a weight are solid casing and batteries placed inside. Batteries are grouped into three lots – two on one side of the drive and third next to the tubes. There is a lot of them and they occupy a lot of space. Each circuit is powered by a battery delivering voltage required by this particular circuit. Some of them, to fulfill particular requirements of some circuits, need to be custom made.

Mr Dubiel is a fan of the first Philips CD drives. He buys old Philips CD Players just to retrieve only CD Drives (with controllers). For Nirvana Battery he decided to use a CDM-2. The drive sits on springs and on cork washers. There are rubber tubes placed over springs to damp their horizontal vibrations. Behind the drive there is a PCB with decoder and DAC chip: Philips TDA1541, that receives signal via I2S line. This is a 16-bit no oversampling chip. Next to it one will find precise ERO capacitors, that work as I/U converter and low-pass filter. A SAA digital filter widely used by Philips and Marantz in the 1980ties this times is not used. The TDA chip works though without oversampling and without digital filter.

Above this PCB there is another with copper shielding – this is a precise word clock - Clapp oscillator. This type of oscillator is used in short wave radios for its low jitter. Similar oscillator was used for a previous version of this Player, but for a Battery version a totally new clock was created.

A decoded signal is sent to a two-stage output stage and analogue filter. It is based on direct heated tubes. For this particular project Mr Dubiel chose Mullard DL33 tubes, but as alternative he could use one of the following types: 3A4, DL95, or 3Q5. All of them were designed with battery power supply in mind. Mullards used in the reviewed unit were manufactured in 1943 in a British factory later destroyed by Nazi bombs. This factory was never rebuild.

There is a coupling transformer between DAC and output tubes, which is also custom made for Dubiel Accoustic. Copper Jansen capacitors couple tubes with RCA output. Another interesting oil capacitors are used for anode voltage decoupling – one was made in Soviet Union, other was made by Unitra Telpod. This factory also doesn't even exist anymore – fancy condos took its place.