Digital Drive: REVIEW: Heart CD6000 CD Player/Recorder by garrett Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

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Model:	CD6000
Category:	CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price:	$749.00
Description:	Marantz CD6000 player with tube output stage & tweaking by Heart
Manufacturer URL:	Heart
Model Picture:	View

Review by garrett on November 21, 2001 at 09:46:38 IP Address: 168.122.13.225

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I initially thought I would purchase a Heart CD6000 and an Ah Njoe Tjoeb, compare them, and then sell whichever one I cared for less. I finally decided this was a bit too financially risky so I cancelled my order for the Ah Tjoeb and settled on the CD6000. I did this because I was impressed by the extensive modifications, by the superior quality of the superior CD player being modified, and above all because Heart got completely rid of the op amp and replaced it with a tubes. One less stage is always a good idea in my experience. Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio was very nice when I cancelled my order, although he sounded less than pleased when I told him I was purchasing the CD6000!

The first thing to note about this cd player is it takes a ludicrous amount of burn in time – especially given that it’s a fairly inexpensive product. I’ve been running it for 200 hours and I’m not sure whether it has yet hit its full potential. Out of the box it sounds constricted with an unpleasant treble harshness. This begins to go away after about 48 hours, but takes about twice that to entirely disappear. If you read any reviews that do not say that reviewer ran the machine for at least a week before critical listening, do not trust them.

Secondly this is not a warm gooey cd player. It has the virtues of a great tube product, I think likely due to the elimination of the op amp stage. It is extremely natural, it doesn’t sound like it’s being tubified. It’s quite revealing. My poorly recorded and poorly transferred CDs still sound pretty lousy. I consider this a virtue, I don’t trust CD players that make everything sound good.

I listen almost exclusively to acoustic music – jazz, classical and folk – and the Heart CD6000 is unbeatable in this price range, and well above it, for well-recorded acoustic music. In considering the purchase of the CD 6000 I listened to a number of other CD players in and above this price range. My old Marantz CD 63 MK II is so completely outclassed that there’s not really a comparison. Better comparisons are offered by the Cambridge Audio D500 and the Rotel 991. The Cambridge Audio sounds rather as if someone has “analogized” an average digital player. There’s treble roll off, a midrange bump and a lack of focus in the imaging, particularly a noticeable smear in the center of the soundstage. Perhaps it matches better with some systems than others.

The Rotel 991 is far more impressive, and should be at more than twice the price. My main complaint with it concerns the general gestalt of its presentation. This is somewhat difficult to describe, but the analogy with etching and painting is useful. The Rotel, and other far more expensive players I’ve heard like the Spectral and the Krell, remind me of an extremely well executed etching. It is beautiful and the images are crisp and not “etched” in the bad sense. But as an etching is made up of countless repeated cross hatching used to gradually build up a figure, so the Rotel seems to be made up of little bits externally describing the music. It seems as if each instrument is being described from the outside and then placed into a soundstage. That this sort of listening experience becomes fatiguing for me is a matter of taste. Reasonable people can prefer Durer to Rembrandt. I personally prefer Vermeer.

As I said the CD6000 has the virtues of a top notch tube product. Revealing but extremely natural. Never gooey but life like, particularly on human voices, but also piano and guitar, to a really impressive degree. I have a very good analog set up, and I had gradually stopped listening to CDs. The Heart has brought me back with a vengeance. The CD6000 does not sound like analog. It lacks the last bit of “air” you find in good analog. But it has a kind of solidity and holism of presentation, which is quite incredible in its own right. I am right now listening to the EMI recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von Erde with Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich. Both voices sound breathtakingly real and they emerge out of the music in a way that reminds me of concert performances. Similar things could be said of very different sorts of music that I’ve listened to, and instruments other than voice: Tim O’Brien, the Celtic Jazz Ensemble, Sonny Clarke, Richter. Music is presented as a whole, and the soloists are not cut off from their ensembles. The Heart CD600 does this better than my analog, which given that it costs nearly five times as much, is quite amazing. I never thought I’d say that.

Extension seems very good, although bass extension is limited in my set up so I can’t comment. Soundstaging is quite good and imaging, but I imagine you could do better. Dynamics are excellent and open up with break in. But really what’s most noticeable is the way in which music is presented, well musically, as a whole in a way that’s unfatiguing and uncompromised. I don’t think I will need to by another CD player unless Stoet comes out with an upgrade. I’ve heard no cd player anywhere, and I mean anywhere, near this price point that sounds nearly this good.

A few final points, The excellence of the cd player gave me “upgrade fever”. Another buyer of the CD6000 apparently bought a Manley Stingray. If you don’t want the fever beware. I bought a Pass Aleph 3 at an incredible price ($850) from Frank Stuppel (the American dealer of Heart). I don’t think I need to proclaim the virtues of this amp, but the Heart has stood up to it in every way, and then some.

The build quality of the Marantz CD 6000 platform is excellent, far superior to their previous generation of CD players.

Frank Stuppel is tremendous to work with, honest and extremely knowledgeable. I would recommend him to anyone, and have. I’ve dealt with numerous lousy dealers so he has been a godsend.

Finally the Heart CD 6000 came with a free Auric Illuminator. This is the most impressive tweak I’ve ever heard. My wife said, why do you spend so much money on this gear when a bottle of goo can do that? On a price to performance ratio it is far beyond any other deal in audio. The Heart and the Pass are superb deals, but they cost a bit more than 39.95.

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Product Weakness:	Long break in
Product Strengths:	Holism, natural sound, realism

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Classe 70 and Pass Aleph 3
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Melos SHA Gold Reference (fully upgraded), EAR 834P
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	VPI HP Jr. MK.III, Kuzma Stogi Reference Tonearm, Grado Sonata
Speakers:	Spendor 3/1
Cables/Interconnects:	Nordost, Goetz, and Audioquest
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Acoustic- Jazz, Classical, Folk
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Chang Lightspeed
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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