Salk Sound StreamPlayer Generation III, Part 3 – HD-PLEX

Connecting emotionally to a computer

The StreamPlayer III is a specialized computer that dispenses bits and bytes, so how can it really connect to the soul? I have said for a long time now that digital will eventually supersede analogue, and we are getting quite close to that point now. For the last few years I can walk into any given room at an audio show and find that there are just as many compelling sounds with digital front ends as with analogue. Similarly, there are as many insipid sounding rigs with vinyl as digital. For me the indicators of a great audio system are that it involves me beyond the analysis of its performance, with nothing obtuse or reticent to prevent my full enjoyment. I find noise of any sort distracting, which is why I tended to move a way from vinyl many years ago.

There is a certain warmth and fullness associated with analogue systems, however, and it can take quite a bit to achieve a similar effect with digital. Yet, this is the “magic” I felt with the King III electrostatic speaker, the sense of being drawn into the music. The StreamPlayer is capable of providing a very rich palate of musical colors to enjoy one’s collection. In a throwback move for me I have been playing artists and tracks that had been forgotten, and it is a rich experience.

Don’t laugh, some oldies but well recorded goodies such as Burton Cummings’ “Stand Tall” and Michael Martin Murphey’s “Wildfire” are surprisingly vibrant and give a very good glimpse into the retrieval capabilities of the StreamPlayer III running Tidal. Even though these songs are decades old they sparkle, and in truth are far better sounding than ever! I do not subscribe to the belief that a highly resolving, very accurate system ruins older songs. Frankly, I think audiophiles must be lost in nostalgia if they want to dumb down the sound by mucking it up with too much warmth, softness and indistinctness. No, I will take the cleanness and hear the limitations of the recording equipment and master tapes. That is far better than to lose a goodly portion of the performance, which is precisely what will happen when it is occluded in an attempt to “age” it to memory’s satisfaction.

A special treat is Glen Campbell singing Wichita Lineman from his collaborative Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb in Session. Campbell had been at it for 50 years when this album was made, and his voice unlike so many that have wilted with age, sounds sonorous, resilient. A fun comparison can be made to the original recording from 1968, where Campbell’s voice sounds suppressed and lacking in extension and dynamics. When one compares the two it becomes evident that a marvelous source like the StreamPlayer III is up to the task of resurrecting the older version.

These men all have very pure, engaging voices which were unmistakable even when I heard the songs over a kitchen radio as a young boy. Hearing them now with so much more of the performance present is exhilarating! I immediately am tempted to sing along, a sure sign that the music is connecting with me.

Another more contemporary piece which has caught my ear comes from Bruce Hornsby of “and the Range” fame. He burst onto the scene in the 80’s with hits like “The Way It Is” and “Mandolin Rain,” but recently with his touring group the Noisemakers he has turned to the Appalachian dulcimer for the album Rehab Reunion. Particularly clever is “M.I.A. in M.I.A.M.I.,” about a guy who bails on responsibilities and heads south. It’s a great tune to lose stress and assess the native sound of a dulcimer.

Have I mentioned the Wisconsin farmer boy Chris Vos and his stripped own blues-rock album Give It Back To You? The Record Company, the band Vos heads, knows how to get in the dirt and play, and the StreamPlayer presents it that way, complete with throbbing bass and funky distortion from use of a 50-year-old microphone and injection of soulful harmonica. Every day I work out at the health club I am subjected to droning, lifeless music, but when I come home to the StreamPlayer III a breath of life enters the listening room and my mind is refreshed.

A music powerplant

Nuclear power plants are incredibly compact, massively powerful producers of usable energy for literally millions of people. The power produced is used in a multitude of devices for countless activities. Consider the StreamPlayer III outfitted with the power of ROON and Tidal to be a musical equivalent, a musical reactor producing a clean, powerful signal for your audio system to retrieve. Better yet, it is a musical inter-reactor, allowing you to go inside and drive it. You can turn its capacity to nearly any direction you wish, file playback, exploration of metadata on artists or industry music labels, collecting your favorite artists’ works, creating playlists of both files and streaming audio, listening to high quality internet radio – the sky seems to be the limit.

The StreamPlayer III has passed my assessment of what a high performance digital audio product should be, and then some. Its sound quality expressed through speaker systems such as the Legacy V and Sound Lab Ultimate U-4iA leaves little to be desired. Its ease of use and depth of involvement in the metadata make me doubly happy I didn’t spend a lifetime dumping tens of thousands of dollars into vinyl, because the StreamPlayer III makes the kind of sound that even persnickety audiophiles can love. Relative to the impact it has on the rest of the system it is a bargain. It is the first digital source I feel no need to defend it as a source, even to vinyl lovers. It’s great, and you should try it!

The switchover is complete

After spending two years coaxing the maximum out of the Mac Mini and specialty software I am free of it at last. The dedicated server is my new norm, and the StreamPlayer III is a gem of a product. I think I have found a new source for reviewing and personal listening. The StreamPlayer III is the perfect step for the passionate vinyl lover or CD user who is looking for an affordable and highly refined digital experience!

Associated Components:

Source: Musical Fidelity M1CDT Transport
 Streaming Music Service: Tidal
 Playback Software: ROON
 DAC:  Eastern Electric Minimax DSD DAC Supreme with Burson, Dexa NewClassD and Sparkos Labs Discrete Opamp Upgrade; Exogal Comet DAC and upgrade power supply, LampizatOr Big 7
 Preamp: TEO Audio Liquid Preamplifier; VAC Renaissance Signature Preamplifier MkII;  Cambridge Audio 840E
 Amps: Red Dragon S500; VAC Phi 200; First Watt J2 (two)
 Speakers:  Kings Audio Kingsound King III; Legacy Audio DSW Clarity Edition; Kings Audio King Tower omnidirectional; Vapor Audio Joule White 3
 Subwoofers: Legacy Audio XTREME HD (2)
 IC’s: TEO Liquid Splash-Rs and Splash-Rc; TEO Liquid Standard MkII; Clarity Cable Organic RCA/XLR; Snake River Audio Signature Series Interconnects; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
 Speaker Cables: TEO  Cable Standard Speaker; Clarity Cable Organic Speaker; Snake River Audio Signature Series Speaker Cables; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
 Digital Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Digital; Snake River Audio Boomslang; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
 USB: Verastarr Nemesis; Clarity Organic
 Power Cables: Verastarr Grand Illusion; Clarity Cable Vortex; MIT Oracle ZIII; Xindak PF-Gold; Snake River Audio Signature Series; Silent Source “The Music Reference”
 Power Conditioning: Wireworld Matrix Power Cord Extender; Tice Audio Solo

Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden