Bitzie first impressions

I unplugged the Proprius amps from the AV processor, and with the iPad as source (streaming from the Squeezebox server - no computer near enough for a direct connection) plugged the amps direct into the Bitzie with CuSat50s. Speakers are PMC GB1i floorstanders connected with Spatia cables & links - so it was a minimalist GSP only system (aside from source and speakers, and I don't think these are on Graham's development road map (yet??)).

Music ranged from Bach organ, unaccompanied choral, jazz (Dexter Gordon - Tanya from One Flight Up), Dire Straights (Telegraph Road), and Holst's Planets (Zubin Mehta/LAPO, Decca LP rip).

[Edit - that's Dire Straits, of course ]

My usual source is a Slim Devices (Squeezebox) Transporter with it's own "audiophile" DAC and output stage, and also the Transporter into the (Audiolab) AV processor's 192/24 DAC. (I tend to alternate between analogue and digital out from the Transporter - can't really tell the difference as the DACs are so well matched!).

I won't bore you with all my listening notes for every piece, but the scale and authority of the presentation from the Bitzie was mightily impressive. Delicate and transparent when required, dynamic and hard-hitting when required. The low toms in Telegraph Road had a body and resonance that was definitely in the same ball-park as the bigger DACs. Likewise bass from The Planets (Saturn especially), and the various Bach organ pieces. The organ music was notable too for it's low level detail - the mechanical noises of pipe organs, the noise of the blowers, the decay of notes in the big acoustic; these were all really well defined. Mid-range was lucid and treble was just right - no digital glare, but you got what the recording gave you. The choral music (by Eric Whiteacre - Stephen Layton/Polyphony on Hyperion) was just as sublime on the Bitzie as via the other DACs. 

I think the Lautus USB cable should be a regular part of the package, though, as it allows the Bitzie to perform to it's full potential. If you don't use a "good" USB cable it'll be like a V8 firing on 4 cylinders.

Plus it's a bit nostalgic for me as I saw DS at the Hammersmith Odeon (as it was) on their "Live in '85 (and a bit in '86)" tour . . . (feeling my age now  ).

Really like MK's guitar playing. Sultans of Swing prompted my to buy my first pop album since Sgt Pepper in '67 - had many years in the classical wilderness . Now I listen to anything; well, not country & western, obviously . . .