ONKYO C-S5VL Review Part 3: CD-DA (Standard Audio CD) Sound Quality

【SACD Player ONKYO C-S5VL Detailed Review】
Announcement｜Purchase｜Part 1｜Part 2｜Part 3｜Part 4｜Part 5｜Part 6｜Part 7

I had been so focused on SACD that the CD playback sound of the ONKYO C-S5VL actually came as a surprise. For the price, it is very good indeed. If anything, it is better than SACD — it shows absolutely no deference to SACD’s performance. Since only a portion of Hi-Fi enthusiasts would normally be able to keep a separate SACD player and CD player, and the practical reality is that the majority of use will be for CD playback, I think the C-S5VL can be a very realistic choice for a great many people.

[Note: PCM FILTER 3 was used during testing for CD playback]

Allow me to describe my impressions of playing ordinary CDs on the C-S5VL, in full poetic flight as usual. Compared to SACD, CD is even clearer, with a smoother surface. The skeletal outline of each image is fine-lined and sharp, high-speed, with a good sense of dynamic contrast and a tone colour that has a certain luminosity and is quite varied. The lingering quality of the reverb is also more than adequate. Compared to SACD, whose soundstage spreads further back, each image projects more freely here. With high-register instruments such as the violin, distortion is occasionally noticeable compared to SACD, yet the sense of realism in audio reproduction terms is high, and the sound is vivid and alive. It may sound contradictory to say that the lower format is clearer, but with less information than SACD, the soundstage becomes more organised and the perspective improves. The same is true, for example, with upsampling on a DAC.

Compared to the plain, essentially flat sound of SACD, the soundstage here is lightly distorted — it puts me in mind of what in lens optics would be called barrel distortion (note: this is particularly noticeable with PCM FILTER 3 and 5). Before going on about distortion, though, I really ought to do something about the barrel distortion in the photos from my compact camera… I am actively looking for a successor to the CASIO EXILIM EX-Z750, so if you have any recommendations, do let me know.

Even with SACD Hybrid discs, while the honest, perspectival soundstage of the SACD layer is wonderful, the dynamic contrast and forward musical energy of the CD layer are also hard to give up. When I want to actively enjoy the dynamics of the music rather than fine-grained sonic refinement, there are many occasions when the CD layer is actually preferable to SACD — or rather, the CD playback of the C-S5VL gives you a certain quiet vitality, in the best possible sense.

The bass is also clearer than SACD, with better amplitude definition and a greater sense of realism, though in terms of overall balance compared with other players, the sound does lean somewhat towards prioritising treble texture. Images are slim and nuanced. Imaging and soundstaging are precise and sharp, with a modest sense of spread. On the whole, the C-S5VL’s strength is its fresh, clean sound quality. There are no particular weaknesses to speak of, though when it comes to detail, there may be moments where it lacks a certain grip. How to put it — whatever the CD, it plays everything pleasantly and without breaking down, which gives the impression that it is consciously holding back just before venturing into richer, deeper territory. The sound design is firmly centred on balance.

Compared to the higher-end ONKYO C-1VL, which I wrote about previously, the C-S5VL honestly cannot match it in terms of delicacy and the austere precision of its detail retrieval. There is an unavoidable difference in class there. And yet, one could also say that the C-S5VL is actually better suited to simply sitting down and enjoying a wide range of CDs without reservation. By comparison, the C-1VL’s character is perhaps like a beautifully dressed woman in traditional kimono — elegant, but not the most approachable.

In my case, I normally own several CD players in the ¥100,000–200,000 range — the CEC TL5100Z and TL51Z, the CREEK CLASSIC CD and CREEK Evolution CD, among others — so I had assumed the C-S5VL was purely a dedicated SACD machine, and that CD playback would inevitably be a weak point. But since its performance as a CD player turned out to be far better than expected, I now find myself having to reconsider various aspects of how I put my system together.

If one were to look only at the surface-level “sound quality” of the C-S5VL, the verdict might amount to something like “surprisingly good for the price” — but more fundamentally than that, it excels as a music playback machine. Most people who own the C-S5VL will, without quite realising it, find themselves wanting to listen to music more and more. The sound design carries no self-indulgent colouration, and the way it plays back high-quality recordings straight, without imposing its own personality on them, was quite refreshing to me — someone who tends to be drawn to products with strong sonic characters of their own.

The other thing I had been most concerned about when introducing an SACD player was the possibility that the SACD playback of the SACD player would sound, no matter how I listened to it, worse than the CD layer playback of the CEC TL5100Z I use as my main player. Were that to happen, there would be almost no point in having an SACD player at all — and in fact, with the PIONEER DV-585A, that was exactly the situation, and no amount of tweaking could do anything about it. With the C-S5VL, however, on a well-recorded SACD, it is possible to surpass the TL5100Z’s CD layer playback by making full use of the SACD format’s advantages. In particular, the sheer abundance of information extending into the upper frequencies and the refreshingly open sense of airiness that are unique to SACD are things that no CD player, however expensive, can replicate. The C-S5VL reproduces these qualities reliably, which gives a real sense of reassurance that the advantages of the SACD format are being properly delivered.

Also, while my listening tests this time were mainly with classical SACD and CD discs, this player works not only for classical — it handles rock and pop perfectly well too, and anime songs are no problem at all. Vocals image with pinpoint precision, which makes me think it may actually suit those genres even better than classical. If you are putting together a compact Hi-Fi system on a budget of ¥100,000–200,000, I think you will be better off securing the C-S5VL for CD/SACD duties first, and then putting more of the budget into the amplifier and speakers.

The ONKYO C-S5VL is perhaps a model I would specifically want not so much the dedicated Hi-Fi enthusiast as the music lover to use — and in particular, younger people on a tight budget, students included. At this price, it produces a sound with a genuine pedigree that the half-baked PC audio setups that have become so common, or something at the level of a PS3, cannot easily surpass. I would very much like those who are not so familiar with pure Hi-Fi to first come to understand what musical expression means through this player. The C-S5VL plays music in a lively, vivid way, free of the kind of excessive embellishment that high-end audio so often falls into.

Even if you are pursuing PC audio — which has become something of a contemporary trend — having a reference point like this sound will help you understand, not intellectually but instinctively, how the music-less quality of compressed audio-based DAPs or half-finished PC transports, the loss of spatial information, the so-called “dead sound”, becomes a shackle on music itself. And if you have a good example close at hand, I believe the ideal direction will naturally become apparent — whether in choosing which portable music player to use, or in pursuing better sound quality from PC audio.

Oh, and — for households looking to nurture their children’s sensibilities through quality music, why not consider adding a well-made SACD player? While young ears can still hear those ultra-high frequencies, let this be the thing that shapes them. They are sure to grow up with a truly fine pair of ears — or so the theory goes, anyway.

Next up: Pairing the ONKYO C-S5VL with the A-1VL.

【SACD Player ONKYO C-S5VL Detailed Review】
Announcement｜Purchase｜Part 1｜Part 2｜Part 3｜Part 4｜Part 5｜Part 6｜Part 7