I’ve been favorably impressed with the new DirectWave Player right out of the box. The sound signature was a bit shrill at the beginning, but a week of burning the electronics in dissipated any harshness in the sound. SACDs sound absolutely magnificent; this player has really unlocked the potential of my music system. I feel like I am finally reaping the splendor of SACD playback. I’ve had several players recently ranging from an BDP-105d, to a McIntosh MVP871, and the DirectWave blows them totally out of the water.
The Columbia/Legacy SACD – “The Best of Johnny Winter”, displays the best of the DirectWave Player. Lots of air, and space, surrounding the instruments, and you can concentrate on either the individual tracks that comprise each song, or the totality of the sound. I think that is one neat trick. Mr. Winter’s vocals are crystal clear on every track, and the tones of his slide guitar in “Highway 61” are transcendent. He is missed.
I am also delighted in the way the DirectWave reproduces the DVD-A format. Though not quite as resplendent as SACD, DVD-A offers a fullness that redbook CDs lack. R.E.M.’s “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” maintains a certain ambience to my ear from start to finish, and the DirectWave does a great job of making the disk sound as if it were recorded in one take.
Redbook CDs are rendered beautifully; the player performs that trick of reducing the song to the individual tracks that comprise it. I absolutely love Harold Budd’s “Lovely Thunder”; it is one of my most played disks. I am hearing it with new ears through the DirectWave. It’s absolutely amazing how Mr. Budd sustains notes and chords through an entire track, and how the DirectWave reproduces the sound.
I have flashed the player to version 1.76, and playing a Blu-Ray disk is not working for me. Tried the Blu-Ray version of XTC’s “Oranges and Lemons”’ and the Blu-Ray version of Discipline from the latest King Crimson Box Set – “On (and off) The Road.” In both cases the player appears to read the data and gets to track 1, but no sound is forthcoming. It also shows for each case a total of 255 tracks, which most likely is not the case.