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Our brain is a strange creature. It makes connections based on auditory, sensory and visual experiences. With the CEC transport, through those strings, you tend to think that this device will sound analog, warm, soft or something. But that’s not true at all. For starters, you’re going to hear primarily the d/a converter that you connect to it. That’s true with any transport. Yet even a transport has a ‘signature’. It affects that dac just like a streamer. The best streamers and transports bring the listener closer to the music making music seem less digital. But of course you are still listening to a ‘digital’ reproduction of music.

So what this CEC duo does is not easy to explain. What is clear is that you always get an excellent reproduction. Never average or just good but just above average and often downright great. Everything is just right. We could go down the whole list of audiophile adjectives but the best description here is that everything sounds “right” and that rarely happens in any price range. We don’t want a fraction more of this or a fraction less of that. No, just push play and enjoy. And that’s what only the best devices are capable of.

There is suppleness, resolution, urgency and, above all, tons of listening pleasure. Play, say, a Feist CD on an ordinary CD player and you’re guaranteed a migraine. Not here. This duo never sounds sharp, hard or distant. The stereo image pulls open further and the placement is impeccable. Voices are separate and can be heard with crystal clarity.

Listening

Below we try by means of small examples to indicate what was so special about this CEC duo. Matthew Herbert is a personal favorite and for the first time in over twenty years we don’t hear a sharpness in the voice of Dani Siciliano who does the vocals on the album “Around the house”. With Wilco on the album “The whole love” from 2011 we hear on the song ‘Black Moon’ about 1min23 a kind of crackling which must have been hardly audible before because we had not noticed this before.

On Tricky’s ‘She Makes me wanna die’ we finally understand what he is singing and we can hear the tape hiss on this track quite clearly as if we had polished the CD with Dreft and a dirty film had been removed. Then again, on the fantastic album “21st Century Soul” by As One aka Kirk Degiorgio, we are stunned by how much detail we hear throughout the track “Amalia” and how nuanced the track comes through. Indeed, this album can sound quite harsh and digital but this time it comes through velvety smooth with truly stunning detail.

Joanna Newson is an amazing artist who unfortunately doesn’t release new music very often. Fortunately, her music is timeless and, in this configuration, downright mesmerizing. Often it is even less clear than on Tricky what Newson is singing but again we understand every word and sit mesmerized listening to this wonderful music. The placement of the piano and harp is perfect with Newson’s voice right in the middle. The onset of the harp is so pure that we get goosebumps.

We have listened to Laura Marling, Mouse on Mars, Cecilia Bartoli, John Grant, Elliott Smith, Prefab Sprout, Jim Hall, David Bowie and Janek Schaefer, among others.

Compare

Our Musical Fidelity M1 transport via coax clocked from the Mutec to the Sonnet Morpheus doesn’t play badly at all but the CEC combination goes further. The CEC transport an sich already plays better through the Morpheus but the duo via Superlink is special. More fluidity and calm, holographic too and detail rich without sounding analytical. Wonderfully clean music comes through the speakers.

Hopefully the rest of your system is ‘up to scratch’ otherwise the costs will increase even more. The Sonnet Hermes via AES/EBU clocked from the Mutec to the Sonnet Morpheus again plays fine but here too the CEC duo goes further. It plays looser, more open and effortless and with stunning timing. Each CD is a reacquaintance and hits the right chord every time, pun intended.