English

Ferrari or Fiat?

Design

Like any good Italian product, the visuals of the North Star Designs are unique, sleek, useful and engaging.
In all, I was very impressed by the clean, organized look of the North Star Design products, and positively elated at the options they offer - multiple inputs, their own version of the I2S bus, and upsampling. Not the mention that the fit and finish of each of them is absolutely first rate. In all, a fantastic package that promised good sound to follow.

The Obviuos

There are some things, that despite being obvious, I cannot resist.
The Pines of Rome. The opening "Pines of the Villa Borghese" with its antic depiction of children at play positively leapt out of the speakers, in a good way. Full of sparkle, the brass and percussion that power this section were clean and detailed, vivid but without stepping over into the over-done crispness that all too often passes for detail.

The transition from the boisterousness of the first movement into the solemn low drone of the "Pines near a Catacomb" was handled with ease. The reverb was delicate even as the bass gently throbbed, showing superb detail at both ends of the spectrum. And, as the movement slowly adds instrumentation and volume, the North Star Designs components receded into background and let the music flow to its peak and then into its quiet ebb. Likewise, the gentle clarinet that opens the third movement, "Pines of the Janiculum" was presented in a clean, dance-like manner and without any intrusion from the gear at all. As you can guess by now, the remainder of the piece, from the soft segue into the "Pines of the Apian Way" and the following procession down that road, ending in a great glory of brass, drums and tympani, is captured with full-blooded clarity.

And Now for Something Completely...

So what of good old American Rock and Roll ...
Chris Whitley's Living With The Law. From the snare taps that open the title track to the fading toms that conclude Bordertown, the North Star twins delivered a visceral, dynamic, richly detailed and completely believable sonic document. Take, for example, the spooky "Phone Call From Leavenworth". The spare musical accompaniment mirrors the dark despair of lyrics that tell the story of man in for life ("I'm down in Leavenworth prison now and I do not count no days"). National Steel guitar, footboard and haunted vocals almost literally leapt from the speakers, and I swear my blood ran cold listening to it. The subtle micro-harmonics and micro-dynamics of Whitley's voice, in particular, were so spot on, so detailed and so accurate that the amount of belief required to make the jump from recording to live in my room was nearly non-existent. But as good as that was, it is only when you contrast this with the reverb laden electric guitar freakout of Long Way Around, that the full range of the North Star duo starts to become apparent. Why, because this track is in many ways the yang to the Leavenworth's yin. To make this song work the CD player must revel in dense, fuzz-tone mystical voodoo harmonics while also keeping clear rhythm and drive. And this the North Star gear did as beautifully as it had laid out the clear-eyed precisions of Leavenworth.

Italiano

Il lettore Sapphire si presenta veramente bene, sia nello stile sia nei particolari, e la qualità del telaio e delle rifiniture è a livelli altissimi. Dà una sensazione di estrema solidità e robustezza, pur rimanendo di dimensioni relativamente compatte e quindi non causando problemi particolari ad essere inserito su un tavolino di dimensioni standard. Il telaio è rifinito in maniera impeccabile anche sul retro e sicuramente farà un figurone sul ripiano più alto del tavolino porta elettroniche. Gli otto piccoli pulsanti alloggiati sul frontale al tatto danno una buona impressione e aggiungono al prodotto una nota lussuosa. Sul retro sono presenti uscite sia sbilanciate, sia bilanciate, mentre sono assenti uscite digitali, il che indica quanto alla North Star tengano in considerazione il DAC interno al lettore.
L'interno rappresenta un ottimo esempio di ingegnerizzazione e pulizia del layout. La North Star dà grande importanza all'alimentazione: il trasformatore principale è di dimensioni ragguardevoli, considerato che abbiamo a che fare con un lettore di compact disc, e presenta secondari separati per le parti analogiche e digitali. Ho individuato almeno 12 diversi regolatori di tensione: e questo è sempre un buon segno.

Il Suono

Iniziamo con il descrivere le basse frequenze. Quelle del Sapphire sono ben controllate agili, profonde ed articolate.
Il suono appare come se non vi fosse nulla in aggiunta, nessuna colorazione o calore, ma non fa neanche nulla per nascondervi qualche difetto.

I medi sono puliti, veloci, neutrali e molto trasparenti.
Le medie frequenze del North Star rappresentano sicuramente un punto di forza per questo lettore. Grazie a questa caratteristica le voci vengono riprodotte con un'ottima presenza e grande sensazione di realismo. Aggiunta al basso rumore di fondo questa trasparenza consente di ascoltare molti dei dettagli della registrazione che prima era difficile discernere.

e alte frequenze appaiono cristalline, dettagliate, precise, pulite, ariose e potete aggiungere qualsiasi altro aggettivo che descriva il suono che vi aspettereste da un lettore di fascia alta. La messa a fuoco è eccellente ed il suono non è in nessun modo riconducibile ai diffusori. Le atmosfere caratteristiche delle registrazioni così come le tessiture acustiche vengono riprodotte in modo molto convincente. Queste caratteristiche fanno di questo un lettore molto accattivante ed emozionante. In particolar modo gli archi vengono riproposti in una maniera più naturale di quanto di solito vi aspettereste solitamente da un lettore CD.

Italiano

Il “TOP AWARD” è il premio assegnato dai visitatori ai prodotti ed alla sala d’ascolto che avranno raccolto le maggiori preferenze.
L’originalità del premio consiste infatti nella partecipazione diretta dei visitatori alla votazione che determina il prodotto vincente in ciascuna delle 4 categorie: Audio 2 Canali, Audio Multicanale, Video, Accessori e Complementi.

English

The Sapphire player looks really good, in a stylish and understated way, and the quality of the casework and the finish is fantastic. It feels extremely solid and robust, while still being relatively compact and easy to accommodate in a standard rack. The case is completely closed and nicely finished all around and looks very good on the top spot of your system. The 8 little buttons on the front are a nice touch and add to the feeling of luxury. At the back are single-ended as well as balanced outputs
The inside is a picture of order and organisation.

The sound

Let's start with the bottom end. The Sapphire's is very well controlled, agile, deep and articulated.

The mids are clear, fast, neutral and very transparent.
The midrange of the North Star certainly makes a very good point for itself. Voices are reproduced with a lot of presence and realism because of this. In combination with the low noise floor this transparency allows you to listen deep into the soundstage and hear details that were difficult to discern before.

The top end is brilliant. It is crisp, detailed, precise, clean, airy, etc. Everything you would expect from a top class CD player. Focus is excellent and the sound doesn't stick to the speakers at all. Recording atmosphere and venue acoustics are reproduced in a very convincing way. It makes this player very engaging and exciting. Strings especially sound very good and more natural than you would generally expect from a CD player.

English

First off, the $2500 USD Sapphire is, to my eye, a fine-looking machine -- coming out of the "beauty is as beauty does" school of design. While there are only so many ways to distinguish a rectangular-front, sliding- drawer CD player, North Star added just enough visual elements to the Sapphire to make it stand out in an otherwise crowded field. But it was around back that the real beauty of the Sapphire came into view -- those XLR output jacks. With the first cut I played, I knew that the Sapphire was fully balanced. Why? Because the balanced output was significantly louder than the single-end. This is as it should be -- a fully balanced circuit will have 6dB greater output.

Single-ended, the Sapphire's sound was clean and clear, with bass that was deep, if ever so slightly ill defined. Via the single-ended outputs, the Sapphire rounded the music's rough edges, slightly blunting the leading edge of the initial transient, yet not robbing the music of its character. Classical music was a real joy, as the strings were presented in a silky-smooth manner, brass had the requisite blat and bite, and there was a good sense of space around the orchestra and the individual instruments. I found myself completely enjoying my time listening to the Sapphire via its single-ended outputs, and this was just what I had expected, given how the Sapphire was described in the initial review

After I switched over to the balanced outputs, things changed considerably. There was an added sense of clarity to the sound. Mary Gauthier’s voice took on a more realistic dimensionality, and I heard how her vocal cords and body helped to form her voice, as well as the subtle nuances that she uses to make her point in each song. Foley’s bass, on the Miles Davis CD, was deeper, tighter, and had more definition. There was a better sense of the purr, which is indicative of an electric guitar. Acoustic bass, whether used in a jazz band or in a classical orchestra, conveyed a better impression of a large, wooden, stringed box, with either the plucking or bowing taking on a more realistic sound through the balanced outputs.

Sound:

"I found the unit to be extremely transparent, allowing me to enjoy delicate nuances in several selections without ever getting in the way. The musical information conveyed was smooth, with none of the glare and shrillness that can present themselves at higher frequencies."� "Very good spatial accuracy with a believable soundstage"� too. "A remarkably dynamic and realistic performance."

Features:

"North Star Design uses the Philips L1210 CD transport, a mechanism that is known for its dependability and good performance. Guiseppe Rampino, the company's president, explained that similar to his Extremo DAC, the Sapphire CD player utilizes Burr-Brown PCM1796 chips to achieve 24-bit/192kHz resolution. The analog stage is designed with the same structure as the Extremo DAC's - double balanced with one stereo digital-to-analog converter per channel."