excellent value product. sounds better than some (partly older) cd players around 2000 $. mecanically very stable (with the philips drive). sound can be described as slightly forward (but not aggressive), very lifelike, transparent and almost holographic. and it has an easygoing caracter which is just lots of fun. its bigger brother, the cd 35.2 seems to be a rather warmer kind, according to some reviews.

Well let me say that I recently purchased the cd25.2 from a local in Florida and he modified the units ic and added burson opamps to it and Wow... It replaced my nad 521CD player. My audio equipment consist of the Yaqin 10l tube amp from China, nordost red dawn interconnects, and nordost super flatline speaker cables that run shot gun with nordost jumper cables to the rear of my 705 B&W speakers. There is depth, open sound stage, warmth in vocals. Just an incredible sound. I'm impressed at the impact the music hall CD player has made on my unit..highly recommended.

tHE WHOLE PACKIGE IS STRONG AFTER YOU PITCH OUT THE CHEAP INTERCONECTS.

NONE AT THIS PRICE.

I have listened to this new cd25.2 for more than 4 days now and aready it is begining run wide open although electrontransmigration may still be incompleate,means It is still getting better and better.This is a honest review and my offend some of the thinner skined tubes only snobs,but i'm really ok with that.The CD25.2 is a winner right out of the box! That is after digarding the supplyed audio cables and replacing them with a solid silver cable,This player really benifits from them.I switched several high end cables and found White Zombie Audio's El Chupacabra cables to be the clear winner when evaluating detail,tonal,spacial differances.The best example of what this player can do came from a 1956 Verve recording mastered to c.d. format and very well done I might add.Ella F. and Louis A. I've heard this recording alot and for the first time I could actualy hear there voices reach the walls,floor and a low ceiling the tonal brighness of the wooden floor.This was something new I hadn't heard before.You see things where done very simple back then 2 singers often shared 1 mic while the other would be placed in the middle of the room to pick up the drums,base and piano. The timeing has to be right on to give this kind of soundstage.You could even hear the reed in Loui's trumpit vibrate and sizzle! even with a shared mic you could easily make out brushes on the snare and hear fingers on the bass! I really now know what people mean when they say you can hear the room it is deep but not very wide with low ceilings imaging was outstanding for such a old recording.This player is full of life not dull at all.Vibrato is rich and full to the next snap of a string or fall of a key..the hair stands up on the back of your neck and goose bumps raise up on your arms!It is very flat accross the freq. curve is much like a streight line that bows slightly in the middle .Giving the a slight advantage to the midrange.SWEET! and not a tube in it ,you don't have to break in 6 to 10 sets of tubes to get the set that sounds right,It comes that way right out of the box! you don't have to let it run for 45min. to get it warm enough to sound it's best and it dosen't cost thousends of dollers so I guess you will just have to spend what you saved on more c.d.'s! and it dosen't sound overly cold either but not as warm as tubes ,One glass of wine and you won't notice the slight differance any way!
Build construction is rugged,both player and remote. player is almost silent operation,And guess what when go to a previous track,lets say from track 6 to 5 you don't have to click twice! It won't restart the track your allready on! Love it! The buttons on the remote are a little small but they are rased so it really is'ent a problem for most of us.It dose not look cheap either as the top cover is very heavy aluminum and very well crafted.This is solid state at it's best no inagraded crap on a cheap board but top quality all the way! WAY TO GO!!ROY HALL!!
THIS CD PLAYER IS UNDER PRICED COMPAIRED TO IT'S COMPITION!

Similar Products Used:

TOO MENNY TO LIST.

Mecanical construction
Simply musical
Look almost european
Price

Chinese electronic
Remote very cheap
Weird behaviour in ramdom mode

At first look, almost « British style » minimalist: few buttons and a correct display. Inside construction seems serious; but chinese-made construction is evident here and there. Unfortunately, this unit bug out after one week...

The second unit reveals all qualities of this player: deep bass, precision in middle and sweet high frequencies. Hours after hours of listenings, the raison d'être of this player appears: dynamic, precision and musicality

Bref, un excellent lecteur pour un prix abordable. Seule la fiablilité électronique semble problématique, mais la qualité mécanique y est. À 700$ cad dur à battre comme lecteur CD.

A « little » nice player with great sound !

Customer Service

Very professionnal: rare in electronic world !

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Audio
Harman-Kardon
Arcam

Build Quality
Sonic performance
Upgradable with out voiding warranty
Price for an entry level audiophile CDP that siounds as good as some players costing twice as much.

No power switch on the remote and small buttons on the remote.

I just received my Music Hall CD25.2 CD player and the first thing I noticed was the build quality. I bought this CDP site unseen and based soley on its reviews and I was not disappointed in the least. It has a brushed aluminum face plate and all metal case. It weighs about 14lbs. The transport drawer is whisper quiet and very sturdy. The remote has a metal face plate and rubberized plastic bottom however it still seems cheap. My only other beef with the remote is that the buttons are small and you can't power up or off the CDP. The remote does have a dimmer button to dimm the blue LED on the CDP.

The sound of the CDP is excellent. It has a neutral sound with maybe a slight lean towards the bright side. It has a very open and transparent sound with no weaknesses in frequency response that I can hear. Highs, lows and midrange are excellent. Imaging is excellent and you get a live music feeling from this CDP. My CDP came with and upgraded AuddioQuest AC15 power cord with built in RF filter and AudioQuest Coral interconnects at no extra cost. (One professional review stated the upgraded power cord made the music sound fuller in the mid range, although I'm not completely convinced that power cords make much of a difference).


This CDP made my Adcom GFR-700 receiver come alive and took full advantage of its power and sonic abilities. I wouldnt hesitate to buy it again. One last thing I would like to mention is that there is a company on the net that can modify and upgrade the sound of this player without voiding the warranty. In fact Music Hall has supported this. Its my understanding the mods will give it a slightly warmer almost tube like sound.

Similar Products Used:

NAD 542
Azure 640
Denon 2910 DVD