On Thursday evening the Japanese electronics giant Sharp held a party with THX at the Video & Audio Center in Santa Monica, California. Tom Campbell hosted the event and there were representatives from Sharp as well as THX. I was there representing high-resolution audio and brought along a couple of sample discs and a USB stick with a variety of tracks from my catalog. And I played them in the new SD-WH1000U “Wireless High-Resolution Audio Player”, which was set up in the rear of the store. The name of the place is the Video & Audio Center but flat panel displays dominate the place. They don’t even had a closed off room to do any critical listening.<\/p>\n
The system consisted of the Sharp unit and two “bridge” units hooked up to an NAD amplifier and a couple of high-end Revel speakers. I didn’t bother to get the model numbers of the audio system…sorry. But I can tell you that it sound quite good. I met David Fisher, the Senior Manager of Audio Products from Sharp, at the event. It turned out that we had met previously because he had all of my recent sampler discs as I approached him just prior to the start of the party. He also had a USB stick from HDtracks and some postcards promoting the HDtracks free sampler.<\/p>\n
David assured me that he would send me a unit very soon so that I could review it for this website. The SD1000U’s claim to fame is that it is wireless AND high-resolution. By high-res, Sharp means that it can play full fidelity high-resolution PCM audio files up to 96 kHz 24-bits in FLAC or WAV format as well as DSD (it didn’t say at which multiple), Windows Media Files and even MP3 files. The piece is compatible with DVD-Video (not DVD-Audio?), SACD, Blu-ray (including 3D) and DivX Plus HD discs. It can decode and transmit via HDMI and HDMI 2.0m 4K UHD video, Dolby Digital, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS HD Master Audio. Of course, there are both balanced and unbalanced analog outputs as well.<\/p>\n
This is a high-end piece…$5K for the main component and $1500 for each of the wireless receivers (the “bridges”). This fact pushes this unit into the serious audiophile category. David told me that you wouldn’t find this at Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics. They want retailers that know their customers and high-end audio. The Video & Audio Center is the perfect place…although as I said, they really need a dedicated closed room to give the best demonstrations.<\/p>\n
And there were demonstrations happening all evening as David navigated through a variety of commercial releases from HDtracks and some of my recordings using the mobile app on his iPhone. The first few selections that he played were well known favorites. We heard “Graceland” by Paul Simon, which was recorded and released in August of 1986. It’s a beautiful album and won the 1987 Grammy for Album of the Year. Engineer Roy Halee, one of my favorite audio engineers, recorded it on a 24-track analog tape machine. The track sounded gorgeous on the Sharp player.<\/p>\n
David also played a tune by Louis Armstrong and a couple of others…it’s always nice to demo tracks that the audience will know. But when he played “Mujaka” by The Latin Jazz Trio or “Lowlands” by Hanna McEuen their player produced sounds that eclipsed the older tracks. People heard crystal clear highs and real world dynamic range. I was impressed that the full fidelity of the tracks was being wirelessly reproduced at the stereo speakers. I can’t wait to get my hands on the Sharp SD-WH1000U.<\/p>\n
I’ll write a full review soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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