Adventures in audio - The Audiophile obsession with the PSone

Anybody interested in audio must have stumbled at some point across a blog or article claiming the PSone might be one of the best ever CD players, rivaling rigs priced at $6k. The underground rumblings seemed to start over at 6moons but spread pretty quickly and hit print in this months Stereophile.

Being a sucker for this kind of thing and desperate to hear for myself just how good it may be I picked up an original PSone (SCPH-1001) on ebay.

After trying several discs side by side in my PS3 (with digital up-sampling) and the PSone I started to see the appeal. What the PSone seems to do is to remove a lot of what analog and vinyl loving audiophiles dislike about CDs. It delivered something very close to a vinyl experience for me. The problem, at least in my case, is that I actually like the digital clarity, brightness and all the other criticisms thrown at CDs.

I grew up on electronic music, playing with synths and samplers. The digital perfection of CDs is what is strived for in the pre-computer days of sound recording. 4 Track analog tape was a real compromise for me.

Can you argue that some music sounds best via analog and other recording better in digital? Is classic jazz better on vinyl while Coldplay just has to be heard on CD (I am not even including compressed audio here as it just does not compare. Convenient but not for any serious listener).

I have a problem here too. The purists will likely suggest pistols at dawn for me saying this but Kind Of Blue played back in DVD-Audio directly over hdmi to my receiver is simply stunning in a way I simply cannot expect an analog system to beat.

I guess I need a rich friend with a $10k analog system to invite me over and change my mind but for now I will stick with my thoroughly digital setup.

UPDATE: My first unit failed and I returned it for a new one. It sounded way better than the first and so clearly there was additional distortion due to the failing optics. Even with the improved sound I would still say my original review stands. It is definitely warmer and more analog sounding if you like that kind of thing.