In my previously dreaded quest for a new CD player, I had the chance to audition a 47 Laboratory Shigaraki system at home for a few days. I did not play a single LP for three days! Clearly, the 47 Labs stuff has its own signature (perhaps best described as 'underwhelming', but the ease and musicality are exceptional. Any comments?
I just looked up 47 and I must say I'm intrigued. You described it as "underwhelming" but also said the "ease and musicality are exceptional". Could you possibly elaborate and maybe clarify what you mean?
My choice of the term 'underwhelming' may not have been the best because it is often used with a negative connotation. What I guess I was trying to get at is that the 47 Labs has a complete lack of that hifi badaboom factor in bass and transients that is so common in CD players and contributes so much to digital fatigue. Ease and musicality are the terms that come to mind as far as its overall impression is concerned. I was amazed when this morning I compared a New York Blue Note LP pressing of Larry Young's Unity, played on my Helikon/Ekos/LP12/Lingo turntable setup, with a Van Gelder CD remaster of the same album played on the Shigaraki system - although there were clear differences (most notably much more bottom on the cd), the cd was excellent and there was for me truly no reason to prefer the LP. (And I have previously been no fan of the RVG cd remasters.) For me, that is truly remarkable - so much so that on the basis of that experience and the three day listening session I mentioned earlier, I went out and bought the Shigaraki system this afternoon.
I like your description. You know, my Museatex CDD/bitstream combo (a transport with a 1-bit dac) sounds similar to what you described.It;s just there...very natural sounding, but no badaboom! -akhilesh
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