Firstly, please allow me to apologise profusely for the time it has taken me to get round to posting my promised findings on the jump from my Marantz to Primare. I genuinely have a good reason and fully believe you will all understand...
Secondly... Oh my God, what have I started?!? Not only did I upgrade my interconnects to JPS Superconductor 2 but I am now also the proud owner of a shiny new Primare i22 amp. Just don't tell the wife; "Don't be daft honey, the HiFi was always silver... ahem..."
Yeah, I know she knows but she also knows I know she does the same thing with handbags! The equilibrium works for me! Anyway, I digress, back to the matter at hand.
In order to make a fair comparison, I will only be making a comparison based on all the notes I took prior to buying the new cables and amp.
I think it's only fair to start off by saying how much I appreciated my Marantz CDP over the past 3 1/2 years and acknowledging how much joy it brought me. This was an upgrade from entry level Cambridge Audio kit paired with Kef Cresta 3 speakers. I dearly loved those as well but had goosebumps at the obvious improvements the Marantz brought at the time. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I don't take these upgrades lightly without truly appreciating the difference and making sure I know exactly where the extra money has gone.
The first and most glaring difference to strike me was the ease with which I was able to identify individual parts in a piece of music. Songs I have loved for many years suddenly had to be rediscovered all over again. Listening to Radiohead's Subterranean HSA I found myself stunned at the level of detail I simply never knew was there before. Sticking with OK Computer, I decided to try a track I had always tended to skip before, No surprises. The glockenspiel in this track had always jarred with me, I found it incredibly harsh, piercing and, frankly, a bit irritating. It now comes across as far softer and infinitely more musical.
Switching to Vivaldi's Four Seasons Concerto No. 4, the feeling of winter is conveyed perfectly. The pizzicato of the high strings bringing to mind images of thawing icicles dripping in to slushy puddles and the meandering of the first violin conjuring images of wilted leaves dancing playfully above the snow, at the whim of the wind. Is this what Vivaldi intended to convey? Probably not. Does that matter to me? Not one jot. The fact is that the difference in sound has given me a new perspective on an old classic, created a more immersive "make believe" in which to lose myself and I can't ask for any more than that.
Trying another old favourite with a bit more bite, I opted for Stockholm Syndrome by Muse. Playing it on the Marantz, it was exactly as I had always remembered, fierce, attacking, frenetic and thoroughly enjoyable! Upon switching to the Primare I was astonished at the intricacies I never appreciated in the track before. Thinking it may be down to me listening more intently, I gave the Marantz another spin. To my amazement, a track I had enjoyed so much on the same player only moments earlier had suddenly become "Noise in the Key of D Minor".
Finishing off with some slightly more calming songs, listening to The Cinematic Orchestra, To Build a Home, I would swear I could actually HEAR Patrick Watson's bad posture. Jesting aside, the same recurring theme here... clarity and the fact that everything just seems to be... in its own space and untangled.
I finished off with Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb... I'm sure my wife will be able to peel me off the couch in the morning...
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