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 June 1, 2008 Zanden Audio Systems DSC-1 Digital Signal Conditioner
But while the DSC-1 is small and easy to hook up, it lay dormant in my listening room while I reviewed other equipment in my queue. In fact, it lay there so long that I began to wonder if the folks at Zanden had thought I’d lost the little fella. Nope. But when I finally did hook it up, I wished I’d done so sooner. Description The Zanden DSC-1 is a small, shiny deep purplish-blue box about 5"W x 2"H x 3.5"D and weighing hardly anything at all. It’s a passive device, which means you don’t plug it into a wall outlet. Rather, you plug one digital interconnect from a CD transport into the DSC-1’s input, and another into its output and an input on your DAC. It’s dead simple. Three versions of the DSC-1 are available, the only differences being their connectors: S/PDIF with RCAs, S/PDIF with BNCs, or AES/EBU with XLRs. Which you’ll need will depend on the configuration of the connectors on your transport and DAC. (Zanden supplied me with the S/PDIF-RCA variety.) Zanden says little about what’s inside the DSC-1, other than that it includes their Safety Wave material for RF absorption, and has the same high-pass filter as their 2000P CD transport -- which sells for a whopping $28,970 USD. All in all, the DSC-1 is an attractive, inconspicuous box that won’t raise your eyebrows -- until you hear its price. $1499 is cheap compared to the 2000P transport, but it seems expensive for what looks like a simple, tweaky, nondescript little box -- even one that’s as nicely finished as this one is. On the other hand, value in hi-fi is often gauged not by looking, but by listening. Setup I set up a test bed for the DSC-1 by using it with the Simaudio Moon Evolution SuperNova CD player, which has analog as well as digital outputs, and channeling those outputs three different ways into the feature-rich Anthem Statement D2 A/V processor. I routed the SuperNova’s balanced analog signal to the Statement D2 via Nordost Valhalla interconnects, then used a signal splitter on the ’Nova’s RCA digital output to run one digital interconnect directly from the splitter to the D2, and another to the DSC-1 and then on to the D2’s digital inputs. Also, with the D2 I could level-match all inputs to each other; although the analog input was louder by default, I could shelve it down to match the level of the two digital inputs. With these three connections all coming from the SuperNova and into the D2, I was able to play a CD and, by simply toggling through the input buttons on the D2’s remote, run back-to-back comparisons among them. The setup was perfect. Almost. The fly in the ointment was that I didn’t have three identical digital interconnects, which would have been the ideal way to hook up the three digital connections. Instead, I had to use three different digital links: i2Digital X-60, DH Labs Silver Sonic D-75, and Nirvana Audio Transmission Digital. The problem is that the results of the comparisons could be skewed if one digital cable has a sonic signature different from the others. To overcome this limitation, I changed the positions of the digital interconnects from time to time to ensure that they weren’t affecting what I was hearing. Regardless of which cable was where, the sound was the same. For most of this evaluation I also used Simaudio’s Moon Evolution W-7 stereo amplifier and Mirage’s OMD-28 loudspeakers. Balanced Nordost Valhalla interconnects ran from the D2 to the W-7, and Nirvana S-L speaker cables from the W-7 to the OMD-28s. Sound When I compared the two digital inputs, it was clear that the one conditioned by the DSC-1 sounded ever so slightly cleaner in the top end. This was most apparent with cymbals, which lost a hint of edge and gained a touch of "feathery lightness" with the DSC-1 installed. And the midrange had more presence, an effect that showed up with male and female voices. The sound was also fuller in the bottom end, which was most noticeable with drums. These differences were small, but apparent enough through my system to be noticeable to discerning listeners who listen carefully and critically. In addition, I didn’t have to use special audiophile recordings to hear them. They were all fairly easy to discern with "5 Days in May," the opening track of Blue Rodeo’s Five Days in July [CD, Discovery 77013], a readily available recording that I often use for listening tests, and which happened to be the first disc I used to evaluate the Zanden. Furthermore, the DSC-1’s tidying-up of the top end and subtle fleshing-out of the midband and bass made hashy, edgy recordings that I don’t normally use for critical listening tests much more palatable. For example, Bachman Cummings Songbook [CD, Sony/BMG 82876 81247 2] has some great classic tracks from Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, but many are so bright that, at high volumes, they’re ear-piercing. The DSC-1 didn’t remove all that brightness -- it seemed to tidy things up in the top end, not tame them right down -- but it made this disc listenable enough that, whenever I put it on, I always selected the input with the DSC-1 in the signal path. That DSC-1-conditioned input also projected a soundstage with a slightly better-developed sense of space that made for larger, more expansive soundstages. The acoustic space captured on "5 Days in May" was impressive for its width and depth through the nonconditioned input, but even more so with the DSC-1 in the mix: I found it far easier to hear the walls of the recording venue. This was most likely a result of a subtle cleaning-up of the top end, something that, I’ve learned, allows you to hear farther "into" the recording. But there was a downside: Through the DSC-1, the sound lost a smidgen of bite and attack. For example, at the end of "5 Days in May," Greg Keelor cuts into a metal-ish guitar attack that’s forceful and incisive. With the DSC-1, that incisiveness was truncated a touch.
Comparing the DSC-1’d input to the SuperNova’s analog outputs was more difficult. They sounded very, very close -- far closer than the two digital inputs. Whereas with the latter I’d been comparing very small differences, I was now comparing changes that were minuscule. Most of the time, in fact, I felt I was splitting hairs; many people might have had trouble hearing any differences at all. The only difference worth talking about was what I’ve already said of the two digital inputs: incisiveness and attack. The input conditioned by the DSC-1 sounded ever so slightly more restrained than the SuperNova’s balanced analog outputs into the Anthem Statement D2. But even this difference was very subtle. Furthermore, neither sound was "better"; they were just a tiny bit different from each other. I could see some people preferring the slightly more laid-back character that the DSC-1 imparts, while others might like the ounce of extra "force" put out by the SuperNova’s analog outputs. But for everything else -- the super-refined highs, the beautifully fleshed-out midrange and bass -- the two inputs sounded pretty much the same. Conclusion
My experience with the Zanden DSC-1 digital signal conditioner was almost entirely positive. With the DSC-1 connected between the Simaudio Moon Evolution SuperNova’s CD transport and the Anthem Statement D2 processor’s internal DAC, the sound was richer and smoother through the mids, fuller in the bass, and more refined in the highs. These were all small differences, but they were audible enough to warrant talking about in the context of a first-rate, high-resolution music system. In fact, I imagine that many people will be thrilled enough by the kinds of improvement made by the DSC-1 that they might make a bigger deal of these differences than I have. After all, listeners often wax poetic about the differences made by various cables when, most of the time, I can barely hear any difference at all. But with the DSC-1, I heard more differences than I do from most cable swaps. The DSC-1’s only sonic downside was that, when connected to the Simaudio SuperNova’s digital output, its sound was not quite as incisive or as visceral as the SuperNova’s analog outputs into the Anthem Statement D2’s analog inputs or the SuperNova’s digital output straight into the D2’s digital input. That artifact, though, was just as subtle as the improvements it made, and might be a positive thing to some ears -- it made for a subtly laid-back sound that should complement the overly aggressive highs of many CDs. As a result, I give the DSC-1 high marks for performance; the improvements it made in the sound of my system were substantial enough that I’d rather have it than go without. The only real knock against the DSC-1 is its price: $1499 seems like a lot of cash for a little box with a couple of connectors and who-knows-what inside. But if you’re happy with your current CD transport and DAC and want to see if you can improve their sound without replacing either, then give the DSC-1 a try. Whether or not it will be worth $1499 to you will depend on how much of an improvement you hear -- and then, how easily you can live with the sound of your system once the DSC-1 is gone. Although I think it’s expensive, now that I’ve used the little Zanden, it’s tough to let it go. …Doug Schneider Zanden Audio Systems DSC-1 Digital Signal
Conditioner Zanden Audio Systems Ltd. Website: www.zandenaudio.com North American distributor: E-mail: eric@zanden-usa.com
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The folks at Zanden Audio Systems
handed me a DSC-1 digital signal conditioner with few instructions other than to "try
it out." They made no promises about what it would do, so I had no expectations. All
I knew was that I needed to hook it up between my CD transport and D/A converter and
listen.
Despite this caveat, the input
conditioned by the DSC-1 always seemed a small but meaningful step ahead, the improvements
it wrought outweighing those subtle losses in incisiveness and attack. Overall, regardless
of the recording, I preferred the DSC-1-conditioned input.
