Resolution Audio - Cantata

The Stereophile review omitted much of any description of how the Resolution Audio Cantata sounded. John Iverson did a good job of checking out all of the different ways in which one can get digital signals to the Cantata and said that all of those ways produced a good result. He omitted mention of how well it performs as a CD player. (I can comment on that: It's a great CD player.)

While it was a great review, I think that Mr. Iverson did not do the Cantata justice in that it is even better than he described. That the Cantata is flexible is pretty obvious. It would have been nice had Mr. Iverson done more to explain the more subjective and less obvious qualities of the Cantata. I think that he would have left an even more positive impression than the already great review.

I felt the same way about the review. Jon Iverson is an experienced reviewer who is well thought of and normally does a fine job with reviews. It is interesting he used a Marantz A/V preamp for listening and comparisons. It would seem there would be much better choices to evaluate a CD player the quality of the Cantata.

Along with using the Marantz AV Preamp for the review I was surprised that the Ayre QB-9 was considered the standard for comparison. I have listened to Ayre, Esoteric, Macintosh, Audio Research, Bel Canto, and other players and have not heard a Player/Server sound as musical as the Cantata. The one area I do agree with John Iverson on is that at $6000 the Cantata is a bargain. I plan to enjoy mine for many years.

Although this is a thread on the Cantata, I wonder what speakers are paired with the C-50.

Anyone has a success story to share?

Just reading this thread with gusto!

I received delivery of my Cantata only a few days ago all the way down under in Australia. We only very recently, last month in fact, got a distributor for Resolution Audio down under. Not sure why it took so long.

I have been enjoying my North Star Design USB DAC32 and M192 CD transport utilizing a Revelation Audio Labs iS2 CAT5 link. For the money this is a staggering combination with all the detail, separation and sweetness I could ever want in digital replay. That was until my friend brought over his Resolution Audio Opus 21 GNSC modded unit...

The Opus 21 just sounded more musical and made my NSD combo sound slow and labored in comparison.

I promptly ordered the Cantata and must say it is amazing out of the box.

For current Cantata owners out there, how long is the run in period until the player reaches its peak performance? Is feeding the Cantata a digital stream from my DAB+ radio considered run in? Or is it best to run a CD on repeat for several days.

I have a feeling the Cantata will be my musical companion for many years to come...