fantastic sound one of a kind nothing like it
built with top spec parts
6 disc player oh yes
6922 valve output
xlr digiltal output

not made any more
please sonic start making tube gear again

sonic frontiers i love there equipment. the anthem cd1 i've had for 6 years now and im still over the moon with it, this is a 6 disc player and would i find it very hard to go back to a single disc player and dont want to, big soundstage lots of detail yet warm lots of players have come and gone but the cd1 always has that something that i just can not let go of so i got a new laser for it for whenever it needs a new one, sonic frontiers cd1 6 disc multiplayer with 6922 valve output a real keeper in my eyes
just what you need in hifi something you can live with for years

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musical fidelity fcd valve output
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Great sound, highly functional design, great build and offers extra long-playing time (6 discs) plus remote.

None other than noise at disc loading and the tube-output stage delayed kick-in after power on.

For a CD changer made in the late 90's, this CD player delivers tremendous sound. It sounds at least as good as my one-year old Rega Planet 2000 and blows away my two Sony ES changers. The tube-output stage gives any CD an extra dimension. I connect this changer to my Tandberg 3002 preamp/Crown DC300 amp combo and then to a pair of KLH speakers in my study. The resulting soundstage is unbelievable. The string and the vocal sound so real as if I am actually there for a live performance. The build is terrific and it weighs just a tad under 30 lbs. Thia is real build quality - lots of metal and a 3/8" inch solid aluminum fact plate - compared with most of the cheap CD plyers made in Asia. It is a shame that Sonic Frontiers no longer makes this player. This changer is much sought after by audiophiles in the second hand market for good reasons.

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Sony ES changers

Everything

None

I listened to this CD player in the same setting, and compared it to a Wadia 830, and the Rotel 971. After reading the reviews on the Rotel 971, I figured this would be the unit I would likely buy. After my comparison, the Anthem was far superior to the Rotel! The difference was astounding!

The Rotel sounded very harsh and grainy compared to the Anthem. I wouldn't say it sounded poor, but the Rotel wasn't even in the same league as the Anthem. The Wadia sounded slightly better than the Anthem, but not much beter. On a scale of 1 to 10, if the Rotel scored a 1, and the Wadia scored a 10, the Anthem was a solid 8.5.

And given the diffrence in cost, the Anthem wins hands down! If you are in the market for a decent CD player and have some budget (wife) concerns, this is the one to buy! And it even holds 6 CD's!

I bought mine for $920 used. Please e-mail me if you have any questions. thanks for reading.

Brilliant soundstage,Built like a tank.

Noisy transport.But so what.

This is a very well built unit.hen you open it up.18 screws hold the cover in place.When you look inside you see where the money has been spent.Damping material all over the cover.Very little excess wire.Soild board.No flex and quality parts.This will last a lifetime.Sound is exceptional and very detailed.I replaced the stock tube which is not bad but a good NOS will bring out its best sound.I have a Valvo ECC88 1960's tube instaled.For the true test i brought my wife in who has the golden ears.Her first comment was wow.We have tried very many cd players over the last year and she has allways said it good not bad but never had i heard her say wow.Every instrument plays in its true color.And eveything is in its place very good seperation and air around instruments.A tube output is waht evey CD player needs.A soild investment at 1600 US 2300 Canadain.get a used one you wont regret it if you can find one.High praise to the people at Anthem & thanks to the boys at The Parts Connection for your great choice of an upgrade NOS tube.

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Just about everything. It is smooth, dynamic, and the noise is almost non-exitant.

none

I write this so that others will know of a some very worthwhile tweaks. The Anthem CD-1 doesn't need them, but they are very worthwhile.

I posted below, please read that post for further information about what I listened to when deciding to purchase this CD player. That event occurred about 1 1/2 years ago. About three months ago I tweaked the CD player. It is now a world class unit. I doubt the Wadia 830 would be it's equal.

I performed two tweaks. I replaced the Sovtek tube with a Seimens tube from Sonic Frontiers. This made a little improvement. It was slightly smoother, and much quieter.

The second tweak is for those who are somewhat skilled. A soldering iron and some delicate hands are necessary. I replace the 5 Solen Capacitors in the output stage with Audio Cap PPMF units from Reliable Capacitor. I had to wait for the correct capacitor values, but the wait was well worth it. The Solen was "the capacitor" 15 years ago. They are still offered in some very serious audiophile stuff. At about $3 each they are a very good bargain for manufacturers. Through my endeavors with loudspeaker building I learned about improved capacitors. The folks at Reliable Capacitor offer the PPMF. It is a significantly audible improvement in crossover networks. Replacing the 5 Solen capacitors took me about 2 hours. I have never made a more worthwhile tweak in my three years of playing with this stuff. It is about the same audible improvement as moving from lamp cord to Goertz copper foil wire. The soundstage was completely black (no noise), and the dynamics - wow!

This CD player was darn good when I purchased it, but it is truly a world class machine now.

Sincerely,

Dave Ellis

From the very first day I auditioned the CD-1 I knew I was listening to hi-fi at it's best. Product quality, sound quality, and that great tube sound all wrapped in a single package for under $2000. My previous digital rig was a McCormack SST-1 with an Audio Alchemy DDE v3 D/A and DTI v2 anti-jitter device. After my initial break-in, the Anthem literally blew my socks off as the soundstage's height and width was more expansive than what I heard from the separates gear. After listening for a few months I finally sold the McCormack and Audio Alchemy gear. My next step was to upgrade the stock tube to something more musical - after a few auditions I found a Phillips JAN tube that made the midrange more liquid and added the extra warmth that I was looking for.

All in all the Anthem CD-1 is a great unit and something that I would highly recommend to all who are looking for a great CD player.

The rest of my system consists of an Audible Illusions M3A preamp, a VTL ST-85 tube amp, Kimber Kable Silver Streak interconnects, Kimber Kable 8TC biwire speaker cable and B&W Matrix 804 speakers.

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McCormack SST-1 and Acurus ACD-11

This is a preliminary review of a modified Anthem CD-1 CD player. I also own an Anthem Pre-1 that was also modified, that I will post a review for. Also, I will do a formal review once all of the new parts have broken in. The mods that have been done on this CD player over the past few years include:

1. Seimens NOS 6922 gold pin output-buffer stage tube
2. Entire bottom of chasis damped with mortite compound ( also makes a great damping material).
3. Shun Mook Iso Cubes
4. MIT Z-Cord II with Watta-Gate IEC, and Hubbel Male AC plug.
5. (The latest, and most impressive). The replacement of every Solen capacitor with Rel Caps --AudioCap Theta's. These are expensive capacitors, and according to some, probably the best made caps in the entire world.

The latest mod / tweak:
Within 1.5 hours I managed to safely remove, and replace all of the Solen caps with Rel Cap AudioCap Theta's.
The Theta's are very large caps. Placing them within the confines of the circuit board was problematic in a few instances, but I figured out ways to make things
fit. When I plugged everything back in, nothing worked! The CD player was blowing fuses, left right- and-center. I called Sonic Frontiers, ready to ship them the unit to fix up some bobo that I had made. Then their technical support person gave me a couple of ideas to try before giving up.
It turned out that one of the wires was pinched under a screw that was holding the main circuit board in, hence causing a direct short. I quickly fixed the problem, put everything back, and tried again.

The Sound:
Words cannot describe the overall improvement in my system. Well recorded CD's have a rap-around effect (almost suround-sound-like), that I have never heard before with the Anthem CD-1. I have heard this effect on much more expensive CD players, like some models from Meridian, and Sonic Frontiers. Low level detail improved quite a bit. More so than having a dedicated 20 AMP isolated ground, and MIT Z-Cord II! Another change was a persevable increase in base-slam, and soundstage depth! I would never have thought that I would be hearing some of the things that I am. Verly slight (small details, and aural queues) start popping out of my music that I have never heard. Top end detail has improved, without sounding etched, or as if someone cranked up the treble. In other words, music seemes more natural, and visceral. But by-far the largest most discernable improvement was the improvement in sound stage depth, and width. F*&ken unreal, is all I can say! The focus and transparency just blows me away! I cant wait for everything to settle down, and break-in, so I can hear what it will really sound like.

I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with this modified player and something else. I would like to compare it to a BAT, or Cary Audio; both manufactures making excelent CD players (at a lot more money). As a previous poster (who informed me about this tweek / mod), I would recomend this mod to anyone who owns an Anthem CD-1, and doesn't mind doing a little soldering work.

I normally would't give a 5/5 rating, but considering what I paid a few years ago for this player, and how good it sounds almost 4 years after I purchased it, I'm not sure how much better something can sound. I have heard many more expensive CD players (all out of context in other systems), and my Anthem now gives me most of what the "big boys" have to offer. If I get a chance to do a direct comparison (in my system), I will post the results here.

For those of you who have been waiting for an "audiophile" CD changer, the wait is over! I recently purchased the Sonic Frontiers Anthem CD-1 ($1475) and I am duly impressed. When I first heard it at the store, I was amazed you could get such quality at a somewhat still reasonable price point. This player projects a very detailed sound stage. Both in depth and width. You can hear each guitar string as the pick slides across it. And the bass is tight and controlled. Sonic Frontiers has utilized a tubed output buffer in this design which seems to take away that digital "sheen" you can usually hear from CDs. And this unit comes with an HDCD chip to boot. Highly recommended if you're looking in the $1000 to $2500 range. And it has the convenience of handling 6 discs at a time. If money's no object then this rates a 3.5 but, if you have a budget to stay in, it gets a 4.

Sonic Frontiers obviously believes that convenience and high end audio can coexist. There is not many multidisc high end CD players available, yet the CD-1 does fulfill my desire for good music reproduction and multidisc convenience.
Excellent construction, beautiful reproduction of music - good soundstage, midrange is wonderful, possibly a bit reserved in the low end, but "just right" in the high end (not in your face, nor hiding). I compared it to single disc players from Classe, and Copland in similar price range (A-B comparisons in my home using my system). I also compared it to Arcam, Marantz, and Nad players at lower prices.

Its a HDCD player with good 20 bit decoders. HDCD discs show sound quality improvement most noticeably(IMHO) with female vocals and brass instruments. Joni Mitchell, and Nancy Wilson HDCD's are wonderful. Time Out by Dave Brubeck also demonstrated HDCD advantages. In general, a smoother sound, less tiring.

It took a few weeks to "break in" - something I'm technically skeptical about, but noticed it anyways by comparing it to our Sony DVP 7000 player every 20 hours of play. Most changes were noticed in the first sixty hours. So you may want to listen to a demo unit thats been running for a while.

Ergonomics are good, with reasonable behaviour when playing multiple discs (when repeat is OFF, player moves through discs from 1 to 6 and then stops). Quick to determine if disc is loaded or not. Minor grips are noise of transport (clanky), and that the "remaining time" display shows remaining time for disc not track. I may add sound damping material in the unit to soften the transport noise. Transport is the Sony shelf unit used by other companies (Arcam). Seems well built, works flawlessly, doesn't mark discs like some stackers do.

It has a single tube that you can substitute with other versions to customize the sound. SF chose to use a low noise version that is in production today.

My system is Sonic Frontiers Line 1 pre-amplifier, Bryston 3B-ST amplifier, Mission 770 speakers, Mission 775SM turntable, Monster Cable (550i), and Goertz speaker cable. My room is fairly lively, wood floors with one area rug, roughly 30x12, speakers on one end. Room opens into large hallway half way down its length.

I've had it since the end of January 1998, and I'm very pleased with it - so is my spouse. Value aside, I would rank it as a 3.5 star compared to some of the better "cost is no object" single disc players I've heard. Accounting for value it gets five stars from me (note it seems a bit expensive in the UK, ok in Canada and US, must be those trans-atlantic middle men).

I have never felt so confident that I have made a good purchase! I have never owned any piece of audio equipment that had a valve component. This CD player sounds awesome!