High
Fidelity Review Feature:
Crest National Develops Reference Listening Room
A
member of the Crest National technical staff approaches
the Center and Left Front speaker to see how the
surround playback sounds outside of the sweet spot.
The photo also shows the blue tape on the floor to
insure that the speakers remain properly positioned.
In Part One of
my story on Crest National, I told you about visiting their
new Hybrid SACD replication plant in Hollywood.
As part of the story, I mentioned that I was accompanied
on the plant tour by Bob Freedman of Crest National as well
as Philip O'Hanlon of On a Higher Note, the U.S. distributor
of Halcro Super Fidelity Amps and Michael Sabre, President
of Eggleston Works Speakers.
I'm sure some of you were wondering why Philip and Michael
were part of the tour. That's the part of the story I'll share
with you now.
Planning
A State of the Art, Reference Listening Room
After work was completed on their Hybrid SACD replication
line, the folks at Crest National decided that they needed
to build a companion state of the art, reference listening
room. The purpose of the room would be several fold. First,
it will serve as a place for clients to perform a high quality
review of the discs made at Crest National and to compare them
to the master tapes submitted to the plant before the discs
go into release. Second, the room will provide recording artists,
producers and engineers an idea of what is possible in terms
of audio and video optical discs made by Crest National. Third,
it will serve to introduce many in the audio profession to
the Super Audio CD (SACD) format.
According
to Bob Freedman from Crest National, "Having a high
quality audio and video room like this gives you an idea of
what is
possible from optical discs made by Crest National. The room
is designed to let the professional music community in Hollywood
experience music at its best. In terms of SACD, I believe the
music industry needs this format. To make people aware of the
SACD format, they need to hear it. And when they hear it played
back in this room, they will be excited at how well it can
sound."
Visiting the Reference Listening Room
To
reach the Reference Listening Room, we left the replication
plant and headed across the Crest National campus to another
building. Inside the building was a new listening room equipped
with equipment from Halcro, Eggleston Works and Ed Meitner's
EMM Labs. When I arrived at the room, I learned that it was
a very new facility - it was literally completed the day before
and I was the first visitor to the room.
At this point, Philip O' Hanlon and Michael Sabre took over
and told me a bit about their equipment and how the room was
put together. The room has been acoustically treated and the
speakers are in a 9½' ITU specification circle.
Equipment in the room includes a Philips SACD-1000 that has
been outfitted with the new Digital Output Card designed by
Ed Meitner at EMM Labs. The SACD-1000 Transport has been connected
to a professional Meitner EMM Labs DAC8 Multichannel DSD DAC
into the EMM Labs Switchman II professional preamp/switcher
and then to five Halcro DM 58 monoblock amps, driving five
Eggleston Works Andra II speakers.
Listening to Some Multichannel SACD Music
With such a high quality facility at our disposal, it was
time to listen to some Multichannel SACDs. Bob Freedman turned
the remote control over to Philip O'Hanlon. O'Hanlon has
done many a high resolution audio demo over the years and is
easily one of the more knowledgeable folks in the audio business
when it comes to what sounds good in the world of SACD.
Top
to bottom: Philips SACD-1000 Multichannel SACD/DVD
Video player, SACD-1000 Multichannel SACD Player
with Meitner Digital Output Card installed, EMM
Labs Meitner DSD8 Professional DSD DAC, EMM Labs
Meitner Switchman II preamp/switcher.
1. Tracks 3 and 4 from 'Mahler: Symphony No.
1' by Michael Tilson-Thomas & S.F. Symphony (SFS Media)
Before
playing this one, O'Hanlon said "The Mahler 1 conducted
by Tilson-Thomas in multi channel is breath-taking. One can
clearly here Mahler's unique orchestral layout: the cellos
are directly behind the first violins on the left, while the
violas are behind the second violins on the right. It is also
obvious that the trumpets are not in the same hall; they were
in fact recorded off to the side." Listening to the Mahler
SACD I would agree that the disc and this system provided a
very nice sense of dimension and instrument placement.
2. 'The Look of Love' from 'Look of Love' by
Diana Krall (Verve)
Moving to some jazz, the title track from the Diana Krall Multichannel
SACD entitled 'The Look of Love' was featured. Played
through the Philips SACD-1000 Transport, the Meitner DSD8 Pro
DSD DAC, the Halcro amps and the Eggleston Works speakers the
song was very smooth and warm with good definition and room
filling surround sound.
As an interesting experiment, we compared the same track from
O'Hanlon's copy of the SACD pressed by Sonopress and a copy
of the same SACD which was pressed by Crest National. O'Hanlon
and I switched between the two SACDs and found both sounded
excellent. Any differences between the two were so small that
it would be hard to tell them apart.
3. 'Let Me Touch You For A While' from 'Live'
and 'New
Favorite' by Alison Krauss (Rounder)
Next up, we played the song 'Let Me Touch You For A While'
from both the upcoming 'Live' Multichannel SACD pressed
at Crest National and the 'New Favorite' Multichannel
SACD which has been out for sometime now by Alison Krauss.
The live version featured vocals center front and most of the
performers and music across the front channels with ambience
and the audience in the surround channels.
The same song from the 'New Favorite' Multichannel
SACD featured more material in the surround channels and had
a richer tone to it. Of the two, the studio version was preferred
although the many hits featured on the 2-SACD Live Multichannel
SACD will be tempting to many Alison Krauss fans.
4. 'New Favorite' from 'New Favorite' by
Alison Krauss (Rounder)
While we had the 'New Favorite' SACD out, I asked
O'Hanlon to play the title track as that's always been my favorite
surround
selection from that album. As soon as the song started out,
there was stunned silence in the room. We heard a beautifully
balanced playback of instruments and vocals almost floating
around the room.
O'Hanlon said: "'New Favorite' is wonderful in Stereo
SACD, in multi-channel on this system it's to die for, both
the performance and the sonics are nothing short of spectacular." I'd
have to agree - the sound was just wonderful - surround sound
playback doesn't get much better than this. If you ever get
a chance to hear the Crest National Reference Room, this is
a must hear performance!
5. 'Ooh Wee' from 'Live In Tokyo' by Marlena
Shaw (Eighty Eights)
More jazz; this time O'Hanlon put on 'Ooh Wee' from
the Marlena Shaw 'Live in Tokyo' Multichannel SACD
on the Eighty-Eight's label. This Direct to DSD Multichannel
recording features vocals mixed hard center as well as a dynamic
band backing Shaw. The full impact of the band came through
with excellent transient response on the system. The vocals,
which can sound a bit "hot" on some SACD players
were crystal clear on this set up. Very impressive.
6. 'The Storm is Passing Over' from 'Grace'
by Broadway Inspirational Voices (DMP)
If you've read the recent show reports from the AES Convention
in L.A. and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last
month (see features
index),
you've heard about the upcoming 'Grace' Multichannel
SACD. Recorded by Tom Jung at DMP Records, this
is a direct
to DSD multichannel recording of a group of Broadway Singers
who perform gospel tunes when not on the stage. Jung's recording
features a room filling gospel choir plus a lead singer in
hard center front. This is an impressive Multichannel SACD
on every system I've heard it on. In the Crest room the choir
was even more expansive and dynamic than before.
The
3 front channel speakers and amps in the Crest
National room (each channel featuring it's own
Eggleston Works Audra II speaker and Halcro DM
58 Monoblock Amp). Also note the motorized screen
at the top of the shot which will be used with
a soon to be installed Sony HD Video Projector.
7. 'Babylon Sisters' from 'Afro Blue'
by M. Sasaji & the L.A. All Stars (Sony Music Entertainment
Japan)
'Afro Blue' is the new album by M. Sasaji & the
L.A. All Stars on the Sony Music Entertainment Japan label.
Unlike their
previous SACD 'Birdland' which was recorded direct
to DSD for Stereo but not Surround Sound, this album features
direct to DSD recording for both the Stereo and Multichannel
SACD tracks. 'Babylon Sisters' is a big band treatment
of the Steely Dan favorite. Through the Crest reference system,
the
sound of the big band was very clean and dynamic. Again, a
very impressive playback and more dynamic than I've heard this
SACD before.
8. 'Daraijin' from 'Mondo Head' by Kodo
(Red Ink)
Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead is both the producer and a
performer on this one. It features the group Kodo on some massive
drums performing the tune 'Daraijin'.
According to Philip O'Hanlon, he selected this cut to highlight
the visceral impact of the drums, the cut's "subterranean
bass" and the ability of SACD with the Halcros and Egglestons
to reproduce some very wide range and deep transients, even
without a subwoofer. It was very effective and did make O'Hanlon's
point.
What's Next?
We talked about what's next for Crest National. As I mentioned
earlier, they are already at work in bringing a second Hybrid
SACD replication line up. It's slated to be operational this
Spring. More replication lines will follow as demand for Hybrid
SACD pressing rises.
Since Crest National also makes DVD Video discs, Freedman is
planning to add a Sony High Definition Video Projector to the
reference room so that it can be used for video playback as
well. With the sound quality that is already present, that
should be very nice.
After our listening session and as my visit was coming to a
close, I told Bob Freedman that if this is how the reference
room sounds after one day, before a full break in, his goal
of having a room that people will be excited to hear has been
met. No question about that. Indeed, the future for disc replication
and the sound room looks bright indeed at Crest National.
Brian Moura - 07/02/2003
The
contents of this feature are exclusive to and the sole
property of High Fidelity Review, copyright
2003, all rights reserved. This feature cannot be reproduced
in whole or in part without the written permission of
High Fidelity Review. Can't see the images on this page?
Click here.
