The sources of the common sense have become exhausted in today's folklore of the industrial and consumer society imbued with the motto "the bigger, the better". Therefore, simplification leads to purification and elegance. Namely, there is a firm link between simplification and "ideal" forms. The psychological mechanism called pursuing a good form is in fact a pursue for patterns i.e. archetypes, and this mechanism represents one of the foundations of human knowledge, i.e. the quest for something that makes "sense" to us and that is easy to understand, with desirable attributes that are most frequently found in the nature. Such pattern of thinking is (much too) often and mysteriously lacking, however, and that is good news for us, it prevails in the design of the audio equipment 47 Laboratory. The invested time, the interest and the pleasure make perfect craftsman. Development and improvement go hand in hand with pleasure. Sound changes are achieved by a way of creative skills and the sense for esthetics. It is not only important to make initially a good product but rather to listen to the changing and maturing of the sound. However, the ear alone cannot be entirely effective because technology and design skills are indispensable to progress from what is just good to truly excellent.

The size of Shigaraki is, of course in the tradition of the firm, "minimalist", nevertheless I would like to express my full respect to the creative aspect of the design. This is not about making an apparatus small-sized but rather a result of the desire to create the impression of sound fidelity, whereby the dimensions themselves do not play any role at all. This is, also present in the Japanese approach to bonsai, where no distinction is made between cutting the trees in a garden and those in small pots. With such approach - applying common sense and holding to the aesthetics of simplicity, the potential of the CD format has been fully exploited and an "intimate" sound image has been created without the otherwise commonly present "contaminating" artifacts of the digital medium.

LISTENING AS A CREATIVE ACT

In a world dominated by noise, music is precious. The bridge towards this human need can be simply demonstrated by the Shigaraki converter and the CD player I used for transport. The unit consists of two small "cubes", the power supply unit and the converter, both of which a compact and pure in form, but otherwise not attractive by either their color or finish. They do not have any glazing or decoration, and the color is the one typical of the baked Shigaraki clay. The firm's logo has been carved in as the only ornament. The subdued and fine nuances of earth colors seem as if they announce the visual echo of the sound. The cubes are firm and surprisingly heavy considering their dimensions. The role of the natural features of the high-quality Shigaraki clay in the elimination of "noise" should not be underestimated as even any slight changes or combination of details may result in significant change of the sound patterns. A delicate sound requires a delicate housing that reflects its subtlety.

With Shigaraki, one's ears become unusually insatiable, and such a degree of intimacy, maturation and approximation to the real sound I have never experienced or "observed" before, not even with units priced above $4,000. I would compare this rarely experienced "reality" with how rain develops when microscopic dust (micro details) and other components from the air enter into a cloud (musical tissue), after which the particles act as a core around which drops (tones) are condensed, and then these small drops grow much bigger through collision and combination. At this point the gravity becomes crucial - the drops are too big, and this is how rain (music) comes into being.

SOUNDS THAT BRING LIFE INTO THE WORLD

It is indeed possible to fully recognize individual timber of instruments with their diversified textures, colors and shine, but main appeal is an easy and a discrete progression of tones due to exceptionally preserved distribution of all harmonics in time, which gives an almost perfect impression of accord of the musicians with every stroke of the conductor. The creamy delicacy of the clarinet, the bronze of the brass instrumentalists and the nuances of string instruments constitute a substance that grabs your attention and imagination. A dense and soft flow of natural musical tones is underlined, and the sound does not tend to dullness and monotony on one side or brightness, or glass-like quality either. The definition of details enables proper distancing necessary to properly arrange the orchestra regarding musical harmony and space correlations. The timber of the string instruments is, considering the medium, of the quality of precious metals and reveals mastery and substantiates how direct inspiration has been sought in listening of live music. However, the rows of the strings are not entirely spatially resolved, but this is anyway not what I expect from a CD player. The reproduction of the entire orchestra is convincing and without any major losses in terms of micro-dynamics, otherwise so frequently found on digital recordings, the groups of instruments are in perfect balance, and individual instruments within a group are sufficiently distinctive. Abundance of action, although at the full volume and faced with the macro-dynamic magma of a big orchestra the converter gets slightly out of its otherwise firm step. The deep bass is impressively natural and fully integrated with the superordinate frequencies and represents the true foundation of every musical tone.

An almost holographic characterization of space has been achieved in Bach's "Mass in h-minor" (The King's Consort, Robert King, Hyperion CDA67201/2), which I never managed to achieve with other CD players. This is primarily due to the natural emergence of pigment patterns and their diversification in the timber of individual instruments, which is another positive attribute otherwise found in best analogous systems. Yet, reverberations do not display level of precision of the analog front-end, but you will hardly notice this unless you have been listening to state-of-the art analog combinations. The entire orchestral space is activated, and there are no incidences of mistaken instrument identities. The sense for the scale, perspective and impression of the space is fully characterized by density, individuality and perfect arrangement of all performers. They are firmly placed, exposed with a high level of precision yet not the one of a nanometer scale, whereas the voices are well balanced, rich and pleasurable for the ear. As the instrumental timber is rich and finely shaded, the reproduction almost loses the "digital appearance" and, due to richness of vocals, the "air" becomes thicker. However, the participants are always surrounded by sufficient air, correctly positioned and of appropriate dimensions, thus their spatial definition is never in question. The size of instruments or vocals never change drastically or unnaturally by exaggerated diffusion of their edges, which is more or less always present in CD players. The peripheral sounds move with unusually delicacy, like a wind, with soft edges and in line with all minute changes in the formation of the orchestra or the choir. The rigid lining of the medium frequencies is almost entirely absent, whereas few alien elements can still be found in the medium-high range, however they always remain "behind the scene" and a better transport would probably eliminate this problem from the upper spectrum as well.

The excellent potential of the Shigaraki is best shown on the piano, and this is indeed an area in which it outperforms the top analog combinations. This instrument is now free of any pitch instability and musical tones are solid as a rock. The variations of the patterns and colors of various pianos are amply displayed, the cohesive structure is reinforced and permeated by interplay of delicate details. However, when required the tone could be massive and rich and reflects the full range and dynamics of this demanding instrument. The fidelity to the original is truly fascinating. The lower register is particularly lively and impressive. The changes of tonal forms are effective and realistic; the sound image saturated with richness of harmonies preserves the complexity of sound masses. Chopin's textures and expressions reveal a refined rhythmical construction and accords that flow one into another are characterized by overall coordination and dramatic quality ("Etudes", Op. 10 and Op. 25; Berezovsky; Teldec 9031 73129 2). The aura of the rushing soft tones in the "Second Etude", Op. 25, reveals lightness and intensity at the same time, and with the Shigaraki you can easily appreciate the beauty of music. Everything is somehow more rounded, more intimate, without foreseen or forgotten tones, as it is otherwise common with a digital medium. In short, alluring, charming and mesmerizing!



STYLE AND COMPOSITION

The Shigaraki's capability to convincingly reproduce the colors and shine of real instruments, its transparency, display of reverberation and reflection of sounds in actual space, the effective preservation of atmosphere and texture by complex interplay of musical details demonstrate the ultimate potentials of the present "standard" 16 bit/44.1 kHz digital format. This is a considerable advancement that praises both the engineering creativity and the common sense. The ability of the Shigaraki to reproduce contrasts with great richness and expressiveness of tone surprises the listener again and again. The Shigaraki will certainly help owners with large CDs collections to regain confidence of this format due to Shigaraki's capacity to read even the most minuscule musical details encrypted in the spirals of each and every CD. Even if you for a moment "disregard" the accuracy of description, definition of each form and literally astonishing build up of details, you will most certainly not, and this is most important indeed, forget the Shigaraki's relentless praise of the beauty of music.