Electrocompaniet ECC-1 CD Player, EC 4.7 Preamp, and AW180 Monoblock Power Amplifier (TAS 198)

A New Viking Conquest of North America?

Most American audiophiles are probably too young to remember the time when small European firms like Tandberg and Electrocompaniet were familiar names in the high end. At least some, however, will remember that Electrocompaniet was one of the first manufacturers to really understand and address the new types of distortion caused by the switch to solid-state, and that it introduced some of the first transistor amplifiers that preserved much of the liquidity and natural lower-midrange warmth and realism of the best tube designs.

I can remember reviewing the 25-watt Electrocompaniet amplifier designed by Dr. Matti Otala and Jan Lohstroh, and it was a real breakthrough for the time. I also can remember a series of Electrocompaniet products that followed. As with Tandberg, however, unfavorable exchange rates, dealer and distribution problems, and a failure to keep up with the trends in the American market caused Electrocompaniet to fade from the U.S. audio scene.

Well, Electrocompaniet is back, and back with some truly excellent equipment. The items under review include the ECC-1 CD player, the EC 4.7 preamp, and the AW180 monoblock power amplifiers, and they are only part of the story. Electrocompaniet has a range of more expensive top-of-the-line stereo electronics, a lower-priced line, and surround-sound equipment as well. It also hasn’t lost its touch over the year. I may have some qualms about the ergonomics and pricing of some of the units—it’s hard to export competitively to the U.S., given European costs—but I have no qualms about their sound quality.

ECC-1 CD Player

There are reasons why many audiophiles buy their electronics from the same manufacturer. While purists may talk about straight wires with gain, the reality is that every active and passive component is to some extent a filter altering the sound of whatever passes through it. This filtering process is both interactive and cumulative. If you mix the filtering effects of the products of different firms and designers, the end result is generally negative. Each component from a different source alters the sound in a slightly different way and subtracts different nuances. This is particularly true if there are any interface problems in impedance, bandwidth, digital processing, speaker loads, etc.

Well-designed equipment from a single firm, however, is virtually always designed to “voice” equipment to produce consistent sound qualities. This rarely is a deliberate effort to produce coloration. It is simply a product of the fact that every designer, like every audiophile, has his or her own particular ideal when it comes to what is neutral and musically natural. The better the “ear” involved and the more consistent the voicing of each item of equipment, the more synergy in the “filter effect” and the less alteration in overall sound quality.

This shows up clearly in the ECC-1 CD player. Taken by itself, the ECC-1 is simply another very good CD player. It does not offer some dramatic new approach to digital design, and it does not offer the added resolution from a CD that cutting-edge digital designs like the Boulder 1021, Meitner CDSA, and PS Audio Perfect Wave players do. It also sells for $3650. A number of cheaper units that are top-rated by this magazine (try the Cambridge Audio Azur 840C), as well moderately priced units like the better Marantz and NAD CD players, offer similar overall sound quality—albeit with a slightly different set of sonic nuances—for less money. Some also offer more features, such as SACD compatibility.

In saying this I don’t mean that the ECC-1 is not an excellent design. It uses 24-bit/192kHz DACs from Cirrus Logic, and has a precision fully balanced analog-output stage that operates in Class A. It has an anti-vibration system modified from Electrocompaniet’s EMC-1 UP top-of-the-line player, and offers both balanced and single-ended outputs, as well as a coaxial digital output.

While Electrocompaniet provides few details about the technical features of the ECC-1’s circuitry, it does state that the analog-output filter is optimized to reduce phase shift at higher frequencies, thereby leaving high-frequency musical information intact. It provides no indication that this filter is particularly advanced or cutting-edge, but it is clear from listening that the ECC-1 is exceptionally well-engineered in regard to upper-octave energy and detail—an area where the aging Red Book standard and 44.1/16 digital technology are not kind or gentle to music.