Resolution Audio's Opus 21 has been a reference CD player since it's introduction at the turn of the century. This small two-box unit gave more detail, dynamics and sheer musicality than most.

Now, it’s replacement is available and ready for your audition at Wellington Audio.  Because not only does this new player look incredible, it also manages to up the sonic ante to an unprecedented degree.  And not just for CDs, plug your laptop in or even your home network and it can do remarkable things for music stored on a PC or NAS drive.  Hence the Music Centre, this is not just a cd player, it's a fully featured UPnP 'renderer' with an asynchronous DAC that can do for digitally stored media what the Opus 21 did for CD.

The Cantata came about because Resolution Audio’s Jeff Kalt wanted to build an iTunes client into the XS (extra sources) box that forms part of the Opus 21 series. He ended up being frustrated by the limitations of air tunes – specifically its 16-bit/44.1kHz maximum resolution, so he started working on a streamer, CD player and USB DAC that turned into the Cantata.

While this unit retains the same 1704 multibit ladder DAC as the Opus 21 and the same basic circuit design, it doesn't have many other similarities to its predecessor. The most obvious change is the casework, which is both radical and beautiful.

Machined from solid aluminum, it is designed to offer a significant improvement in resonance control over the sheet metal Opus 21, while also offering a large heat sink for the components within the player.

The significant technology is the degree of isolation that has been achieved inside this machine. Resolution Audio has effectively floated the DAC, so that it only grounds to the amplifier and is magnetically isolated from the power supply, internal transport, display and all of the digital sources (including USB and the host computer).

You will never hear a digital source that can deliver as much of the sonic envelope as the Cantata. It reveals all the decay of each note and provides an incredibly three-dimensional picture of the music. This really is one of those components where you have to start going through your music collection to hear what else is on each disc, something that happens very rarely.