February 2005 Reviewed by Anthony Di Marco	Simaudio Moon Orbiter Universal Audio/Video Player

Description Model: Moon Orbiter Price: $7200 USD Dimensions: 19"W x 6.5"H x 16.5"D Weight: 33 pounds Warranty: One year parts and labor on transport, two years on electronics Features Eight stages of voltage regulation Hand-matched parts Shielded power supply Standard DVD-I output

Features (cont'd) Optional Serial Digital Video output Silicon Images SiI504 video scan converter Mitsubishi M65776AFP MPEG decoder 10-bit/54MHz video DACs Picture controls for Contrast, Color, Brightness, Gamma Internal DTS, Dolby Digital decoders 5.1-channel DVD-Audio and SACD playback SRS TruSurround Three Burr-Brown 1738E 24-bit/192kHz audio DACs with 8x-oversampling digital filter Defeatable video circuit Rack-mountable

Whenever I get a new piece of audio gear, my friends inevitably ask, "How much does it cost?" When I tell them the answer, most roll their eyes. The price of speakers doesn’t seem to faze them much -- I guess size and number go a long way toward rationalizing cost. Amplifiers get little attention because they typically sit below the line of sight, in an A/V rack. And a preamplifier -- what’s a preamplifier?

The cost question gets dicey when a nonaudiophile can compare the cost of an audiophile product with something from the local chain store. The popularity and commoditization of CD and DVD players make them easy targets. Why pay more than $1000 for a DVD player when the local superstore sells a slapped-together, no-name brand for fewer than 50 bucks?

130 times the cost

When Simaudio’s head of marketing and public relations, Lionel Goodfield, told me the Moon Orbiter sold for $7200, my jaw hit the floor. Why did this universal A/V player cost so much? Its chassis certainly evinced clean, solid assembly with heavy-gauge sheet metal and Simaudio’s trademark silver accents. The build quality reminded me of some of Simaudio’s other products, which are well-made and high-performance but more reasonably priced.

According to Goodfield, Pioneer’s Elite division supplies the Moon Orbiter’s disc transport. Such outsourcing of internals is nothing new -- reading and manipulating data are two different processes. How each player messages the binary data once it’s been read from the disc is what gives each model its sonic identity. McCormack’s UDP-1 also uses a Pioneer transport, and Enlightened Audio Design’s (EAD) critically acclaimed DVD Master line of players uses Panasonic’s high-quality RP-91 drive.

The most expensive and critical part of any electronic component is not its disc transport but its power supply, which is often compromised to save manufacturing costs. While many universal players have two or three independent power supplies, the Moon Orbiter has eight: two each for analog video, analog audio, digital audio/video, and the transport. Extensive shielding minimizes the power supply’s high-frequency noise emissions, while extremely short signal paths and hand-matched parts ensure that sensitive low-level signals are kept as pure as possible. And because Simaudio believes that keeping electronic circuits continuously powered up ensures optimal performance, the Moon Orbiter has a main and a Standby power switch. Placing the Moon Orbiter in Standby mode keeps its sensitive circuits at a stable, constant temperature when the player is not in use.

Video Scan Conversion (deinterlacing) and MPEG decoding are respectively handled by the Silicon Images Sil504 and Mitsubishi M65776AFP decoder chips. The Moon Orbiter’s multi- and two-channel audio circuits rely on three of Burr-Brown’s premium 24-bit/192kHz PCM1738E D/A chips. DTS and Dolby Digital decoding are also included. The Moon Orbiter can play these formats: SACD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, VCD, MP3-CD, CD-R, and CD-RW.

Setup

Before I installed the Simaudio Moon Orbiter in my main system, I followed Lionel Goodfield’s advice and left it playing in a loop for three weeks. Because I didn’t listen to the player before breaking it in, I can’t comment on whether there was any change in its performance after 500 hours. But since Simaudio is driven by solid engineering practices, I have no reason to doubt this recommendation.

Setup was simple: a set of component-video cables, eight single-ended audio cables, and a power cord were all that were needed to integrate the Moon Orbiter into my setup, which included an Audio Research MP1 multichannel preamplifier and its companion 150M.5 power amplifier. Because I neither used a processor nor own a monitor with DVI input, I didn’t use the Moon Orbiter’s standard DVI or digital audio output. For those whose monitors have a Serial Digital Interface, Simaudio will install an SDI output for an additional $1000. Professional AES/EBU and 75-ohm BNC-type digital audio connections are standard.

The Orbiter’s initial setup is handled by its Setup Navigator, which walks the user through basic system configuration. The player’s onscreen interface prompts the user to choose settings ranging from language preference to how the Orbiter will be hooked up to other electronics and the number of speakers that will be connected. More advanced settings, found under Initial Settings, allow the user to set up screen savers and parental locks and to balance the audio channels. While I appreciated how the Setup Navigator tries to help the user make the right choices, some over-abbreviated steps could have the result of leaving the system only partially set up. Rather than burying under Initial Settings the channel balance, speaker size, and PCM/Bitstream adjustments for DD and DTS, Simaudio should have included them in the Setup Navigator.

Simaudio believes that DTS and DD bass management should be handled by a processor such as their own Moon Stargate, and that "decoded DVD-A and SACD signals are created and calibrated in such a way that no flexibility is necessary." Goodfield went on to state that the "Moon Orbiter needs to respect this; otherwise, you would have a source component that tampers with the integrity of the recording." According to Simaudio, the Orbiter’s subwoofer output delivers only information extracted from a soundtrack’s low-frequency effects channel, which would indicate that large full-range speakers are required all around. Further tinkering revealed that the Orbiter’s Speaker Settings did allow all speakers to be set to Small, but neither the owner’s manual nor Simaudio’s technical-support department could tell me what type of crossover would be used in this mode. Based on other products, I would guess the answer was 80Hz or 100Hz. Nevertheless, bass management in my setup was handled via Thiel Audio’s PX05 passive crossover; the Orbiter sent the LFE signal through the ARC MP1 preamp directly to a Thiel SS2 SmartSub subwoofer.

The cost is in the ingredients

My evaluation of the Simaudio Moon Orbiter’s video performance was done entirely with its video processing in progressive mode. When listening to audio-only material, I turned off the Orbiter’s video circuits via a button on the player’s front panel.

The Moon Orbiter’s video section was impressive. Colors were clean and nicely saturated against detailed, inky blacks. Pictures possessed a filmic quality; images had density and were not overly bright, like those produced by some DVD players. The autumn colors of Secret Window were rich and deep, while the sun-drenched tundra in the opening sequence of The Day After Tomorrow exhibited good white balance without any discernible peaks. Transitions leaned more toward the smooth than the ultra sharp, and pictures were generally more organic than revealing. The many close-ups of female complexions on HBO’s compelling, well-mastered Iron Jawed Angels looked consistently natural. And while the Orbiter never seemed to lack detail, I didn’t experience the depth of field I’ve seen from other players, such as Denon’s DVD-2900 and DVD-3800. The Orbiter’s processing abilities didn’t seem perturbed by poorly encoded DVDs. Playback always remained solid, without apparent combing or MPEG artifacts, even on such notoriously difficult films as Titanic.

What really blew me away was the Moon Orbiter’s sound. My notes repeatedly mention "open," "atmospheric," and "sweetly extended top end." Nor was I ever aware of any compression or congestion of massed sounds. Complex musical passages were beautifully separated, while both stereo and surround images reached beyond the walls of my room. The excellent reissue of David Fincher’s Panic Room is a tour de force of intricate sound design that re-creates with eerie precision the atmosphere of Jodie Foster’s cavernous New York "townstone." I was taken by the Orbiter’s dynamic, natural presentation. Both micro- and macrodynamics were easily apparent in the way propane gas wisped though a garden hose and into an air duct (chapter 9), and then in the overwhelming impact of fire as Foster gives her captors an explosive surprise.

The Moon Orbiter had no problem handling wide dynamic range or detail, and never hesitated to bring down the hammer when the program called for it. This, the airy yet muscular presentation of a very-high-resolution device with a stout power supply, showed how well the Simaudio engineers were able to keep noise away from the pure low-level signal. Noisier products add low-pass filtering that rolls off high frequencies and robs the audio signal of its detail and snap. In my experience, products with less robust power supplies whimper when asked to reproduce a split-second transition from silence to chaos.

With two- and multichannel music, this effortlessly extended quality was complemented by seductive midrange weight and controlled bass slam. One thing that surprised me was how good older recordings sounded. Bruce Springsteen’s raspy voice and trademark guitar on the modern classic Tunnel of Love [CD, Columbia CK 40999] has a tendency to sound thin and edgy. The Moon Orbiter rendered the instrument with a pristinely delicate and succulent edge. I can’t say the Orbiter’s sound was euphonic -- it wasn’t overly warm with a forward midrange, or plodding with a reticent treble. The sound was quick and supple, with a slightly sweet quality in the uppermost registers that made recordings such as Peter Gabriel’s excellent Up [SACD, Geffen 493388] and Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Fairytales [CD, Universal 860994] extremely involving.

Comparisons

On first impression, the Esoteric DV-50 universal audio/video player’s bank-vault construction had the edge over the Simaudio Moon Orbiter. Some may argue that the Esoteric offers a more stable, less resonant platform for spinning discs than the Simaudio. The Esoteric also offers a fully balanced circuit for two-channel audio playback, with the requisite XLR-type outputs.

Before I sent my DV-50 out for Esoteric’s "S" upgrade, I found its picture very good but nothing groundbreaking. Although the DV-50 uses the same Sil504 processing chip as found in the Moon Orbiter, its picture is more revealing of a DVD’s flaws; the Orbiter provided a smoother, more forgiving picture. The Orbiter produced more saturated colors, whereas the DV-50’s colors had more punch and less "weight" -- and neither player equaled the more seductive, lifelike picture of Denon’s DVD-2900. Through the Orbiter, Finding Nemo looked rich and colorful but lacked the snap of the Denon and Esoteric players. But the Esoteric, though detailed, did not pull me into the images as much as did the Denon or the Simaudio.

Things changed dramatically after the Esoteric DV-50 had been upgraded to DV-50S status. It now eclipsed the performance of both the Simaudio Moon Orbiter and the Denon DVD-2900. Playing Finding Nemo, the DV-50S revealed added detail in Marlin’s skin; the outline and depth of the clown fish’s scales were more apparent, his orange color more brilliant. The image looked deeper, revealing the vast underwater landscape as one dense geometric plane below another. In comparison, the Orbiter’s pictures looked shallow.

The Simaudio and Esoteric players’ playback of audio material crushed the anemic Denon. What did I say about power supplies? I found the Moon Orbiter’s slightly sweet and airy playback more involving that the DV-50S’s more analytical, transparent character. After I’d listened to the Orbiter for an extended period, the DV-50S sounded harsher. The Simaudio’s bass also reached deeper, with more detail. Bass sounded a bit more extended and lean when compared to the Esoteric’s slightly warmer, punchier bass.

Priorities

Whenever a manufacturer attempts to fold multiple technologies into a single product, there are compromises. Although the Moon Orbiter delivered very good video performance, it was apparent to me that Simaudio had decided to focus a little more effort on the player’s sound. At first I thought the Orbiter might have included audio circuits borrowed from its cousin, the Moon CD player. According to Lionel Goodfield, this was not the case; a new circuit was developed to handle the Orbiter’s multichannel requirements.

Those who sit down and listen to this universal player in the context of a high-quality multichannel surround system should hear and appreciate its considerable qualities. In terms of audio reproduction, it is the best universal player I have had the pleasure of experiencing.

Manufacturer contact information:

Simaudio Ltd.
95 Chemin Du Tremblay, Unit 3
Boucherville, Quebec J4B 7K4
Canada
Phone: (450) 449-2212
Fax: (450) 449-9947

Website: www.simaudio.com

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