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Combak sent with the player a power cord and
a set of interconnects. This aspect of the set-up seemed
a natural since Combak was an essential part of the
player's creation and the maker of cables and wires for
many years. All break-in was done with the Combak
compliment of wires and cables, though as time went on,
and I became comfortable with the sound of the unit, I
substituted various power cords and interconnects for
those sent. Substituting cables changed the voicing of
the unit, but not its character. The only combination that
I liked as well as the included Combak combo (in some
ways preferred) was an old set of Metaxas interconnects
and a Lowe's based power cord. What can I say? They
were fabulous.
As for preamps to use with the Reimyo, don't
sweat it. I couldn't find a bad match for this player
preamp-wise. And that included the passive Sonic
Euphoria PLC transformer based controller. The analog
output section of the Reimyo drove everything in sight
without any indication of compatibility problems. As a
result, most of my listening was done with the Euphoria,
there being no doubt in my mind that the combination of
the Reimyo and Euphoria represented the pinnacle of
front end electronics in the high-end today.
The Sound of Music
Listening to the Reimyo was exciting; but in a
different way. With most audio products, and with all
audio systems, the mind is constantly filling in. It is
required of the mind in order to make sense of what is
heard; and that can be work. The more work a mind has
to do during an audition the quicker listening fatigue sets
in. I am convinced that on many occasions, the listener
isn't aware of the effort he or she is expending when
listening to music until something goes off in the central
nervous system saying it's time to stop. That's when the
system is turned off for the purpose of doing something
else, something seemingly more important. And if the
situation is bad enough, all of a sudden, everything
seems more important. The more mental work the
listener is forced to do the more severe the fatigue. The
results are longer periods of non-involvement with the
music your system makes. Talk radio takes on added
interest and the car stereo is sufficientto provide one with
all the music needed... at least for a while.
Why isn't it the same with your car audio and
lower fidelity sources of music? It's a matter of concen-
tration. When in the sweet spot of your listening room
there are few things to do except listen and focus your
attention on the reproduced event. The senses are in
unison as they enjoy and analyze what is being heard.
Even the smallest deviation from what your mind expects
as natural is a focus point and a distraction. In your car
the mind is (hopefully) concentrating on getting you from
point A to point B, and it's the music which serves as a
distraction from the task at hand.
Which leads to the performance of the Reimyo.
It doesn't fatigue. Instead, my listening sessions with
this player left me anticipating the next audition with a
substantial amount of glee. Not that I haven't felt that
way before with certain componentry, we all have. It's
just that with this player the desire to listen never waned
- not because of the player anyway. Bad CDs were still
bad CDs, but even they were rendered in such a way that,
even if the music suffered, I could still listen attentively
without feeling that I had just undergone a barrage of
Mike Tyson left jabs to the head. With the Reimyo, bad
recordings were heard for what they were. During those
times that musical/recording errors were revealed, I was
able to sort out and compartmentalize the negatives
while easing into the performance, mentally accessing
what it was about the recording that made me play it in
the first place. The revelation of being so much closer to
the recording itself illuminated the auditory experience to
the point of finally understanding what was going on -
without working at it.
As noted above, the Reimyo is a vastly different
sounding player for what it is able to reveal... from what
I can tell, it's what the format sounds like when opti-
mized. It's the promise of Redbook digital fulfilled. And
with this fulfillment it has leapfrogged over the so-called
technological advancements presently available from
SACD and DVD-A. The question now is: can SACD
catch up to Redbook and the Reimyo? I kind of doubt it
in that my ears say that it's the SACD format itself that
is colored and flawed... How can that be fixed? DVD-A
is a little different. I've heard numerous 24/96 DADs from
Chesky and Classic and can call them sonically superior
to what we have now software-wise with Redbooks. Still,
even with superior software, no machine capable of de-
coding 24/96 that I know of can make up the ground
established by the use of the Reimyo with standard CDs.
If I could only hear DADs or DVD-As on a player of the
sophistication and quality of this one. How ‘bout it
Combak?, a player capable of playing 24/96 DADs and
DVD-As would be welcome. The circuitry is already
there. But would that somehow taint the purity?
Above, I referred to the three major reasons for
this player sounding as exceptional as it does. Here
they are once again, but now broken down in terms of
understanding and explanation:
Complexity: Music is comprised of complex
waveforms that every system distorts in diverse ways.
But when a player, or any digital device for that matter,
is able to sort out to a demonstrably greater degree the
unique qualities of a sound, a major step toward believ-
ability is taken. The more one can recognize about a
recorded sound, the less the mind needs to fill in missing
info or correct distorted information to make the listening
meaningful. Music from the Reimyo is naturally non-
simplified. It sounds full, it sounds complete, it sounds
whole while in the context of the recording. Importantly,