McCormack Audio UDP-1
Universal Audio/Video Player
 "God is
odd, he loves the odd."
Me too. And apparently, I’m odd -- all my
audiophile pals find it strange that I pay any attention to home-theater gear, while all
my home-theater friends find it inconceivable that I still manage to get so worked up over
two-channel music reproduction. And both groups think it’s downright perverse
that I read so much.
"Who has the time for all of that?" each group
asks the other, rolling their eyes at my weird passions -- or, more properly, my weird
inability to choose only one thing to be passionate about. So sue me -- I like variety.
I will confess, however, that there are times when variety
drives me nuts. Digital audio formats, for instance. I’m all for having a
backward-compatible, high-resolution digital audio option, and might even welcome more --
but make any of them incompatible with the others and I have no interest.
So what did the audio industry do? It clanked and groaned,
the different companies that comprise it refused to play nicely with each other, and now
we have CD augmented by SACD and DVD-Audio (and even DVD-Video, if you want to get picky
about it). As far as the industry is concerned, CD is a given. As far as most
high-resolution players are concerned, you can choose CD and one other format.
Choose poorly, and you may find your favorite recording artist available only on CD and
the format you didn’t pick. Bummer.
Like most audiophiles -- judging from the anemic sales
numbers of SACD and DVD-Audio, which together lag behind the sales of vinyl -- I’d
prefer to choose "none of the above" and settle for CD. Compact discs might hold
fewer data than the other options, but I know I’ll still be able to play them ten
years hence.
But what if one player could play them all?
The thing is, early universal players were incredibly dear,
albeit quite good. The second generation seemed to skip straight to the
cheap’n’cheerful stage, without ever hitting the happy medium of "more
affordable and more betterer."
Until now. Not only does the McCormack UDP-1 universal
player play any 5" optical disc you can jam into it, it’ll make ’em
sound good, too -- assuming they do sound good in the first place. If they
don’t, the UDP-1 will make ’em sound the way they sound. It’s tough but
fair.
Who are you really, and what were you before?
The UDP-1 is pretty, too. It has a hefty brushed-aluminum
faceplate and black powder-finished case -- just like the company’s DNA amplifiers
and MAP-1 multichannel preamp. It stands proud on squishy, puck-like footers of elastomer
damping compound (McCormack supplies logo’d cork coasters to keep the footers from
leaching Schmutz onto whatever the player sits on -- a nice touch, so to speak).
The slender player is deceptively heavy, weighing 22 pounds.
The McCormack UDP-1 plays CDs, MP3s, SACDs, CD-Rs, and
DVD-As, which means it plays DVD-Vs as well. Like all DVD players, it has video output
capabilities -- and the McCormack sports a 10-bit/54MHz video DAC that outputs interlaced
and progressive component video, as well as composite and S-video.
On the audio side, the UDP-1 uses 24/192 Burr-Brown DAC
chips with native PCM and DSD decoding. The player’s analog output section employs
sophisticated op-amp technology and an assortment of high-spec’d name-brand and
plain-vanilla parts. Most companies claim to use only "marquee name" parts, but
Steve McCormack tends to use the best-sounding part for the job, even if it doesn’t
have the sort of name that makes audiophiles salivate.
All of this is driven by a sophisticated, isolated,
multistage power supply with four independent, zero-feedback MOSFET voltage regulators
feeding the DACs and the analog output stage.
If you want to use an outboard DAC for CD or a
preamp-processor for DVD-V, you can output signals via a coaxial digital link. But DVD-A
and SACD must be outboarded using the six-channel, single-ended analog audio outputs,
because their copy protection means you can’t transmit either signal in the clear.
The connectors, both digital and analog, are high-grade stuff. An IEC input allows the
curious to experiment with AC cables.
The UDP-1 retails for $3495 USD.
What did you do, and what did you think, huh?
I did say I like variety, didn’t I? Me and my big
mouth -- that tendency meant that I had to try the UDP-1 in my regular audio system, a
multichannel audio system, and my home theater. The hardships I put up with in this
line of work . . .
For regular hi-fi duties, my main reference system included
the Blue Circle BC3 Galatea MKII preamp, the McCormack DNA-500 or darTZeel NHB-108 power
amp, and the Aerial 20T loudspeakers. Cables were my usual reference Shunyata Research
Constellation Series Aries interconnects and Lyra speaker cables. I substituted a
McCormack MAP-1 for the Blue Circle when I wanted to add multichannel music capabilities,
and used the darTZeel to drive a pair of Magnepan MMG Ws mounted on the rear wall of my
listening room.
For video duties (which, as it turns out, includes DVD-A),
I moved the UDP-1 into my HT reference rig, which consists of an Anthem AVM 30
preamp-processor, five Musical Fidelity M250 monoblocks, a SIM2 HT200 DMF projector, and
-- at least until I complete the review -- Infinity’s nifty little TSS-750
loudspeaker system.
If she can stand it, I can. Play it!
Quick -- do you have a preferred digital format? I do.
It’s, ummm . . . well, it’s, ummm . . .
Well, based on what I have the most of, it’s CD. But
good as it is -- and it can be very good -- CD sound is far from perfect. Ask me what I prefer
and I’d probably name DSD SACD, which, at its best, can sound extraordinary. That
said, you can’t dismiss out of hand DVD’s linear high-bit-rate PCM, because you
can jam a lot of information into its datastream.
So which is my favorite digital format? I guess it’s
whichever one the next disc I want to hear is recorded on. Besides, I resent having to
choose. I thought the whole point of having a standard was that you didn’t have
to think about crap like that. Thinking about how complicated this whole multiple-format
situation has become always makes me cranky.
The UDP-1 calms me right down, however. When I find
something I want to hear, I no longer have to wonder, Can I play this? I just put
it in the drawer and press Play.
Well, almost. You need a video display to navigate the menu
of most DVD-Audio discs (some are better than others in this regard). Do you want the
stereo mix or the multichannel mix? Or maybe you’d prefer the straight PCM stereo
track some discs have hidden about four pull-down levels into the menu. You can’t get
there from here without a display.
"That is a problem," Steve McCormack
conceded. "I’d have loved to have included a video display on the UDP-1, if I
could have kept the price from going up. That wasn’t possible, so I concentrated on
delivering the best musical sound I could."
McCormack went on to explain that he pretty much left the
video side of the UDP-1 alone. "I chose to build the player on a Pioneer platform
because it was the best-sounding option and its video was extremely good. I’m an
audio designer and a recording engineer, so the sound was crucial. I’m happy with the
platform’s video output, but it’s the sound I’m invested in. I’m
particularly proud of the CD sound -- I’ve heard universal players, including some
very expensive ones, that don’t sound that good on CD."
What he said. No, really -- the UDP-1’s CD sound was
superb.
You could be forgiven for thinking of the UDP-1 as being
primarily a hi-rez player. I did. As a result, I was startled by the sound of good old
"Red Book" CDs. It was clear -- which you’d expect CD to be, whether you
think of that as a good thing or as sterility. What I didn’t expect was immediacy,
incisiveness, and impact that were as finely nuanced as those of any digital player
I’ve heard this side of the $20,000 Linn Sondek CD12 (or, to name a more recent
visitor chez Wez, the $6000 Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista).
JVC’s XRCD of Sviatoslav Richter’s performance of
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto 1, with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony [JM
XR24018], was, not to put too fine a point on it, revelatory. I was familiar with the
performance from the 1960 RCA shaded-dog LP -- or so I thought. JVC has somehow managed to
extract more dynamic shadings from those master tapes than my LP ever had -- or could it
be [gasp] the McCormack?
Don’t know. Don’t care. This was assured
music-making of the utmost luminosity. The performance of the concerto is reserved, almost
Olympian, and Munch leads the BSO in a vivid, dare I say witty, counterpoint that
almost makes me giggle every time I hear it.
Then there’s Richter’s performance of
Beethoven’s Op.54 sonata in F, the "Appassionata." Wow. Richter’s
performance is intensely personal -- some might say willful -- in its
highhandedness in relation to tempos. All I can say is that it works for me. And the UDP-1
worked for it, delicately distinguishing all of the pianist’s changes in
dynamic and metric shadings, But here’s the thing I found incredible -- rather than
emphasizing the changes, the McCormack did something that very few CD players I have heard
have ever accomplished: It sketched out the performance’s over-arching architecture.
Yeah, yeah --- people tell me that CD players don’t do
that. I think some of them do manage better than others to extract the information
that makes rhythms cohere. The McCormack is among a very small handful that do it
exceptionally well. This is more basic -- and more rare -- than all that audiophile crap
hi-fi nuts (including me) go ape over. The UDP-1 did all that stuff, too, but what really
impressed me was its ability to make me believe in entire performances, not just parts of
them.
And SACD? Whoo-hoo -- that’s good stuff. Telarc’s
new SACDs of its early Soundstream recordings are ear-openers that amaze me with all of
the information they contained that I would have sworn simply didn’t exist in the
original tapes. Well, it didn’t on the LPs or, later, the CDs -- but it must have
been lost in the translation, because it sure as heck is there on the SACDs.
In this regard, the disc containing Barber’s Adagio
for Strings, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Sir Thomas Tallis,
and Pachelbel’s Kanon [Telarc SACD-60641] was most startling --
primarily because of the extreme dynamic shifts in the Vaughan Williams. No, not the
crescendos, but the phenomenal amount of presence, um, present in the pianissimo
passages. There’s a hall there, shaping and supporting the string sound, even when
that sound is no louder than a whisper. Hi-rez? I should say so.
It was also fun to play some of Telarc’s multichannel
SACDs, using the MAP-1 and the rear-wall-mounted MMG Ws. I’m singling out
Telarc’s recordings because I found them the most natural-sounding of all the
multichannel discs I had on hand. Telarc puts hall ambience in the rear -- and that’s
all I want back there. Mostly. Yes, it is possible that an artist will develop an
artistic vision that requires instruments in the rear channel -- Berlioz and a couple of
Venetians named Gabrielli did, after all -- but why, oh why, do so many recording
engineers seem to think that trombones and timpani belong back there?
Sorry -- where was I? Oh yeah, I was explaining that I liked
the Telarc multichannel discs, such as Jennifer Higdon’s City Scape [Telarc
SACD-80620]. Yes, the stereo CD has a solid soundstage and beautifully natural tonality,
but the multichannel SACD has those things, too, as well as a greater sense of hereness
-- or thereness. It’s a hard thing to explain. The stereo CD sounds absolutely
holographic to me. It doesn’t seem to come solely from in front of me; it seems solid
(which, after all, is what stereo means). The multichannel mix sounds only a bit
more so -- until you turn off the rear channels, at which point the soundstage collapses
to the front.
But wait -- I just said that the stereo sound doesn’t
come solely from the front. Well, it didn’t -- until I heard the multichannel mix.
Perhaps this is why so many of us who are used to two channels say that we don’t need
more channels, and why folks who listen to four or five channels say that two channels
sound flat -- we’re both right, and we continue to lean toward our bent.
You don’t want more than two channels? Fine.
The UDP-1 is a great little stereo CD and SACD player. But if you want more than that, the
UDP-1 can do that, too.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
A lot more, as I discovered when I schlepped the
UDP-1 to the home theater downstairs. You want to watch a DVD? It’s a peachy little
DVD player. Maybe it lacked a little of the video refinement of the $8000 Krell DVD
Standard or the $10,000 TAG McLaren DVD32R PSM192, but sometimes ya gotta suffer in this
life. On the other hand, if you aren’t going to blow the image up to Cineplex
proportions with a CRT projector, you won’t be suffering too much with the
UDP-1. The picture looked pretty darn good on anything as [ahem] small as a
48" display.
And, once again, it sounded outstanding, whether playing
Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks through its own analog outputs or DVD-A multichannel mixes,
such as the Sachsisches Vocal Ensemble’s recording of the Bach motets, BWV 225-229
[Tacet DVD-A DVD 108]. I enjoyed this recording musically, but my pleasure was diminished
by the strange placement of the ensemble: instruments up front, organ in the center
channel, and the two SATB quartets lined up left and right, the sopranos near the
instruments up front and the basses back along the rear wall. It does put you in the midst
of the vocal interplay, but I found that distracting. Too bad, because it’s a nice
performance that sounds very natural, once you adjust for your weird location.
This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
I never knew that the Bach motets recital had such an
unusual "perspective," for the simple reason I never had a DVD-Audio player.
With the UDP-1, I no longer had to worry about which disc was what -- and that’s the
beauty of a universal player. When you no longer worry about formats, you can concentrate
on the music, which for me is still what it’s all about.
Except when it’s also about the video, which the UDP-1
has covered as well. I’m still on my own when it comes to reading, but that’s
okay -- I do most of that in the two rooms of my house that have neither hi-fi nor TV.
For everything else, the McCormack UDP-1 does the job at a
pretty good price. You can find less expensive universal players, but, in my experience,
they generally are not exemplary CD players, no matter how well they play DVD and
SACD (and I’m not so sure they’re all that great at them, either). But the
McCormack is, first and foremost, a CD player that belongs in the company of the very best
I’ve heard. In fact, unless you already own one of those exalted few, you could buy
the UDP-1 as a step up from your current CD player. That would make the SACD and DVD-A
functions value-added extras, which, the way that these formats are (not) going, might be
the best way to think of them. Do they add to my enjoyment of music? Yes. Do I want
better-sounding recordings? Yes. Is the market going to support another format -- much
less two -- in addition to CD? We’ll see, but I’m not optimistic.
Just another reason to embrace the McCormack UDP-1. Buy it
now, and not only will you not regret the purchase today or tomorrow, you might not regret
it for the rest of your life. Because we’ll always have CD.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
McCormack UDP-1 Universal
Audio/Video Player
Price: $3495 USD.
Warranty: Three years parts and labor.
McCormack Audio Corporation of Virginia
2733 Merrilee Drive
Fairfax, VA 22031
Phone: (703) 573-9665
Fax: (703) 573-9667
Website: www.mccormackaudio.com
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