CD Player/Transport Reviews

Streaming music from Tidal—or Qobuz, or Internet Radio, or suchlike—required me to use the RC S app, which was reasonably clear and straightforward if graphically unsophisticated: All I had to do was select, from the bottom of the RC S screen, the Sources icon, then select Tidal—and off I went. My only frustration—and, again, I'm new to this, so perhaps the wrinkle I'm about to describe is common to all such things—was that, every time I recalled my phone from sleep mode, I had to wait several seconds while the app reloaded. Several seconds: who has that kind of time?

How good was Tidal through the AVM? By way of the MP 8.2, I tried streaming albums from Tidal as background music when people came over—a sort of listening/nonlistening I don't care for, though many people of my acquaintance do. But at that task the combination failed spectacularly. After selecting Thelonious Monk's Straight, No Chaser (Columbia/Legacy), I was passing through the living room when "Green Chimneys" came on—and the sound was so good and so musically compelling that I had to stop and listen. (Judging from its front-panel display, the AVM apparently upsampled the 16-bit/44.1kHz Tidal HiFi file to 24/192.) It was so good that I stopped what I was doing, sat down, took out my iPhone, and used the AVM app to bring up Monk's Brilliant Corners (Riverside/OJC). The title song came across with a satisfying if not quite LP-caliber sense of drive, the shifting rhythms holding my attention well, and the occasional dynamic bursts from Sonny Rollins's tenor saxophone bringing me to the edge of my seat—just as they all should be. The sound was nongritty, reasonably well balanced—a smidge more bass depth wouldn't have hurt—and acceptably colorful. This was, in other words, very good, very involving digital playback. How could I not give it my full attention?

An even better example: As I write this, I'm listening to Fairport Convention's Full House (Hannibal) via Tidal and the AVM player—and now must turn it off so I can concentrate on writing.

Via Tidal and the AVM, I went on to enjoy the instrumental "The Falconer's Arm" and the exotic, strangely modal (but don't ask me which mode: I failed that unit in Music Appreciation 101) vocal number "Roses and Snow," from Bashovia, a posthumous compilation of recordings by acoustic guitarist Robbie Basho (Takoma). Once I'd acclimated to the primitive and timbrally skewed recording, I enjoyed every nuance of Basho's remarkable fingerpicking style, and the textures of his instrument were rich and endlessly interesting.

The comfortably, colorfully angular "Overtures of China," from Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth (Saturn), was revelatory. It's another primitive recording: The sound of Sun Ra's distantly miked and not-completely-in-tune piano defined the recording space, while its tone and those of the other instruments reminded me of the sounds of amateur marching-band recordings from the 1950s—but the weight and touch of the timpani were uncannily realistic, as were the texture and tone of the baritone sax.

In response to a glowing review by David Solomon (then with Peachtree Audio), delivered via Facebook, I played King Crimson's Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind (3 CDs/1 BD, Panegyric KCXP5001): live recordings made during the band's first three-drummer tour, in 2015, which was when John Atkinson and I went to hear them in Manhattan. Although these recordings were unfamiliar to me, the AVM's ability to communicate, in particular the power of Robert Fripp's guitar, was unmistakable. Phrases in "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part One," in which a solo line on flute is juxtaposed against chording on a flute Mellotron, were mesmerizing. And in all numbers, the wide-ranging dynamics of the eight-piece band's enormous battery of percussion were pure delight.

I could stream all day about streaming—but here I should mention a glitch I encountered, perhaps five days in, when using a wireless connection between the MP 8.2 and my router: The AVM suddenly, and for no apparent reason, dropped the connection. I was busy with something else when that happened, so it wasn't until a couple of hours later that I shut down the system, remade my Ethernet cable connections, rebooted the system, and set about remaking the wireless connection. It worked for less than one full song, then the AVM again dropped the connection.

When I told Peder Bäckman about this, he observed via e-mail that the problem might be in the player's WiFi antenna—this was, after all, a show-demo unit—or might have resulted from interference from other equipment. In any case, he advised switching back to the Ethernet cable, which I did. If there was a difference in sound between wired and wireless streaming, I couldn't hear it.

USB Type B Input
As satisfied as I was with the AVM's sound with CDs, and as much fun as I had streaming Tidal, the best sound I got from the MP 8.2 was while using its DAC to stream files from my computer, my playback software being Roon v.1.3, build 269. This was apparent from the first track I played: Richard Manuel's beautiful song "Whispering Pines," from the Band's eponymous second album (16/44.1, Capitol). The sound was free from digital nasties of any sort, yet had such tremendous detail that I heard, or at least thought I heard, nuances in Robbie Robertson's subtly picked acoustic-guitar part that had escaped my attention in previous listenings.

As I listened to "Whispering Pines," the MP 8.2's digital display described the file as "44.1." I neglected to note whether the AVM was set to Lo Res or Hi Res, but because this was early in my auditioning of the DAC's USB Type B input, I know that my iMac's Audio MIDI Setup utility was still set to a resolution limit of 44.1kHz. Later that day, I reset the iMac to max out at 32/384, then noted that, at some points in some files, the MP 8.2's display would report higher sampling rates when set to Lo Res than when set to Hi Res—with the same file.

That said, though they sounded consistently good to superb, I found little or no correlation between what I was hearing from my files played through the AVM DAC and what I was seeing on its display. For example, while listening to Daniel Barenboim's recording of Liszt's Funérailles, from a download of his On My New Piano (24/96, Deutsche Grammophon), I thought the native 24/96 playback sounded better than the same file upsampled to 32/384. In the former, the silences between notes sounded more like nothing and less like something.

USB Type A Input and My Phone
I wanted to try playing some of the files on my hard drive—a Western Digital My Passport for Mac—through the USB Type A port on the MP 8.2's rear panel, thus bypassing Roon. Without consulting the manual, I assumed that merely toggling through the player's source selections would eventually bring up that option. It didn't. I then took a closer look at the manual, and finally noticed that, like Tidal, "USB can only be selected via the optional RC 9 remote control or the free RC S App for iOS and Android." Oh.

So I opened the RC S app and selected My Files. As it turned out, this selection was for playing music files already uploaded to my phone.

As long as I was there, I went ahead and played a few, and heard sound quality superior to even the best of my Bluetooth experiences. Also, for whatever reason, when playing my music files in this manner, the difference between the AVM's Steep and Smooth filters seemed more audible—and affected more than just the music's high-treble content. Mick Harvey's electric bass in "Lime Tree Arbor," from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' The Boatman's Call (44.1k AIFF, Mute/Reprise 46530), sounded anemic with the Steep filter activated. One more vote for Smooth.

USB Type A Input Redux
Still, I persisted, and the last things I heard from the Ovation MP 8.2 during its visit to my home were files played through that USB-A socket. With my Western Digital drive still plugged in, I returned my attention to the RC S app, and this time selected USB. The app replied: "Unable to Browse." Son of a bitch!

Thinking maybe I needed to attach the hard drive before powering up the MP 8.2, I shut it down and did so. This time I got a slightly different message with the same meaning: "Browsing not supported." Okay, I can take a hint.

But I'm no quitter. I copied a 24/96 file from my iMac to a Lexar USB stick, then plugged that into the back of the MP 8.2. It worked! This time, when I used the app to select USB, the choice "USBstick" appeared on the AVM's display. I hit Play, it played, and the correct resolution—96kHz—appeared on the screen. The sound was fine, and again, richer overall with the Smooth filter activated. Mission accomplished.

Conclusions
Time and again I thought of my early assessment: that the Ovation MP 8.2 would have done extremely well as just a CD player (not for $10,995, perhaps, but hey . . . ). Yet as my listening progressed, the AVM player left me even more impressed with its ease of use and good sound as a streamer, and its very good sound when used as a USB DAC.

The manual needs work. Though its setup chapter is commendably complete, later chapters omit a number of important things. And I'm anxious to hear AVM's explanations of the apparent sampling inconsistencies, on which JA's measurements may also cast some light. But in the end, for me, it all came down to sound, and at that the Ovation MP 8.2 did exceedingly well. I am very impressed.