AudioFile � 1997, Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad.
All rights reserved.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | The Star Online | AudioFile Home | AVMail | Archive | AudioFile � 1997, Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad. All rights reserved. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Review | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| One hot butter cookie | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 'What's the next piece of hi-fi gear that he's going to destroy?' is an eager, oft-asked question in our smoky corridors, where wise men of audio regularly gather to reflect upon the vagaries of the cosmos. And once again, ANTHONY LIM doesn't disappoint. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FUNNY thing, me and Holfi products. After a real swinging intro with the cute looking and potent sounding Tera DAC a couple of years back, things have sorta gone barking up the tree -- where physical terms are concerned. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I mean, I've absolutely no problems with the sonics on tap through all the Danish company's products I've managed to catch. Uh-uh, no sirree, not an iota of dissent on my part, at least nothing major enough to warrant a wagging tail. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If they manage to work, that is. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes, well, the truth is, me and Holfi stuff just haven't been getting along too well on a physical scale. Consider the nifty little Aura integrated amp of nearly 730 days ago. The unit I had was the only non-food item I've ever fried. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Just to jog 'em rusted memories, the Aura cooked some of its circuits after the wrong choice of cable induced enough oscillation to sizzle the amp out. Subsequent rectifications by Holfi have seen to this little problem ... which didn't quite seem so little to me at that point.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Okay, so maybe it was a one-off thing, y'say. Well, agreed. Could've been one of those anomalies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Not. The new Xara CD player that came upon me a couple of months back is proof of that. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No, I didn't fry it. It worked just fine mechanically and electrically; you could power up, work the tray, do everything the remote intended the machine to do, execute all possible commands. Only one problem. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There was no sound. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Another first. I opened the unit up -- everything looked secure. The score now read: Holfi 2; It's Me, Isn't It? 0. Suitably befuddled, I packed it up and brought it back to the office. Kuldeep Singh, who'd collected it for review, had some kind words to say. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ''You're jinxed, at least where Holfi stuff's concerned. No more Holfi products for you.'' | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (The human mind is an amazing thing, innit? It is able to memorise the most insignificant detail and yet, conveniently forget major disasters. For the record, during Anthony's first six months here, he fried two amps to cinders, turned a DAC into a quivering wreck of melted circuits and gleefully ripped apart a tweeter .... -- Ed.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Am I glad I didn't listen to him. Not that I would have, anyway -- I took the subsequent replacement unit home. It worked dandy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ah, yes, we have to do this bit first, don't we? Well, be informed that the Xara (such a lovely name, this) is a multi-bit mare. Yes, in an age where bitstream bites, the player has 16-bit, four-times oversampling written all over it. Much like the Tera, and interesting, to say the least. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Here's what else there is. Those into the numbers game will be happy to note that the Xara has five separate power supplies, 18,000 uF of filtering capacity and a rather lowish 1.25 volts output level. The player uses a proprietary non-feedback, class A, single-ended analogue output stage to handle the output current signal once out of the DAC; Holfi claims that the analogue signal passes through only two transistors before leaving the Xara, thereby ensuring little distortion stamped upon the final result. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mechanically, there's little to complain about the build quality. Things are tight and trim, and the yummy wood panel (walnut, in the review sample) helps add a sense of class. And, just to show that the Kokkedal-based company's serious about suppression, the Xara gets a healthy dose of mechanical and electrical damping -- heavy bitumen plates find their way onto selected areas of the chassis for the former, with carbon foam plates doing duty for the latter. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Externally, you can't go wrong with buttons and switches. Only four buttons are to be found on the front panel, these being for play, track forward/back and drawer operation. Round at the back, things are even simpler; a pair of RCA outputs and an on/off switch are the only items. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stuffed heads on a wall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CEC TL 5100, EAD T-1000 CD transports; EAD DSP-1000 Series III, Pink Triangle Ordinal DACs; Camelot Dragon digital interface; Philips CD850II CD player; NEW P-3/A-60, Exposure XIX/XVIII pre-power amps; Acoustat Spectra 2200, Unity Audio CLA3, DCM TimeFrame 400 Series II loudspeakers; AudioQuest Diamond and Diamond x2, Kimber Kable KCAG, WireWorld Eclipse and Polaris interconnects; AudioQuest Digital Pro, WireWorld Gold and Silver Starlight II, Kimber Kable AGDL digital datalinks; Oehlbachkabel LS214 Referenz, Wireworld Polaris speaker cables; Townshend Seismic Sink isolation platforms; Tripp-Lite LS1000L, API Power Pack line filters; Synergistic Research A/C Master Coupler and ADT power leads; Unicone, AudioPrism, Robertson Audio, AudioQuest feet. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Better than a butter cookie? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There was enough during the initial run up to suggest that this player was capable of much. I wasn't proved wrong. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For starters, there's nothing sterile or mechanical in the way the Xara sounds; indeed, if you're thinking that I'm going to say that it sounds warmish and fluid, well, you're right. In many ways, all this is highly reminiscent of another Holfi of another time -- namely, the Tera -- though here it is certainly much of an improved thing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What the Xara presents is never overblown or detracting -- the Tera had a tendency to call attention to itself in some manner of its workings, noticeably an etched, if clean, quality. Here, there is less emphasis on making details absolute -- the Xara doesn't try too hard in this respect, and it works a whole lot for it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fundamentally, this is a player that threads music -- with a strong accent on smoothness and flow -- rather than present a highlighted sum of parts. The latter has sonically more of a wow factor, but is in most cases a more difficult long-term proposition. This is certainly not the case with the Xara. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial listening might make the listener suspect that all is not completely there; the truth is, everything is depicted, but merely rendered without fuss and fanfare. Not exactly neutral, rather natural, if natural is used to depict the lack of histrionics in this player. Rather surprising for a multi-bit design. Holfi has obviously done a lot of work here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The treble is clean, smooth and relatively well extended, with what must be the best reproduction of natural sibilance I've heard in a player under RM5,000 for a long, long time. Leading edges are noticeably rounded, but without hampering detail retrieval ability, which -- though not world beating -- is generous. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It is, however, the Xara's midband that is the star. Such is the coherency, that one has to but listen and be transfixed. It is not so much transparent as it is honest, musical and, above all, captivating and passionate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ultimately, its weakest part is in the lower registers. Any player at this asking price is bound to have limitations, and in the Xara it lies mainly in the bass; not lacking in quality, ultimately, what it suffers from is quantity. Tonally, the Xara is a bit of a low-end lightweight, but whatever is there, is tuneful, with only a slight hint of bloom. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It is the amalgamation of all this that makes the Xara work. The transition between frequencies is what makes it all come together; the one between the mid to bass perhaps a little less so, but it hangs enough that one hardly notices, or cares. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The soundstaging is relatively defined and wide, but like the Aura, less delineated than that of what the best examples of this form are capable of; this somewhat inherent trait, in no small way, helps the Xara further with its non attention grabbing ways. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crunch, crunch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What can I say? That I like the Xara? I do. A whole lot. Its less-than-analytical character precludes it from being an obvious choice in my daily scheme of things. But, if I merely wanted to listen to music without fretting over the details, this is one machine on my shortlist, and one that I could live with for a long time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At the end of the day, the Holfi Xara is not only about music, but also of essence, spirit and character. And that, as I believe, is enough said. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Model: Holfi Xara CD player | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Price: RM3,190 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D/A conversion: multi-bit, 4x oversampling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Review sample courtesy of WISMA AUDIO CENTRE (03-262-8034), F103A, First Floor, City Square Centre, 182 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur; also available from WISMA AUDIO CENTRE (04-229-3366), 210, 2nd Floor, Penang Plaza, Jalan Burma, 10050 Penang. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verdict | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For:Excellent coherency; smoothness and spirit in droves; above all, a musical entity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Against:Bass extension ultimately lacking, and, if you want to pick, not exactly the most dynamic of sorts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| to the 2nd Audio System | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| times since May 16, 1999. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||