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Review 2 of 7
Price Paid:
$450.00
from Lyrics audio Summary:
I''m completely satisfacted with this CD player. It''s particulary good-looking, "handsome" and it has an intriguing design: the exquisite aluminium front panel (in gold) and its heavy-weight (7.4 Kg) contribute to make it fashionable. It appears to embody the kinds of engineering prowess and integrity that are more common at higher price-levels. I''ve had a look internally, and I''ve to say that it has features to satisfy the gadget freak (and the audiophile alike):two Burr Brown PCM61P (18bit)in conjunction with discrete two-bit converters that use Lambda Super Linear topology, so it operates up to 20-bit precision thanks to the exclusive Alpha processor; very good condensators (in excellent quantity) Elna Silmic, all discrete components, separate digital and analogue sections, a sturdy loading mechanism (positioned at the center of the unit) highly resistant to vibrations.
Regarding audio pereformance, I''ve noted excellent bass extension (expecially with electronic,disco,pop music), also a quite focused and heavy-hended bass (it has more bass then all previously owned and listended CD player); the midrange is very natural and balanced, if not maniacly accurate, but tight, very coherent and precise. The highs are sweet and linear, soft, smooth and not unpleasant, harsh or overtly "digital" at all! Soundstaging is superb, (thanks also to my fantastic KEF Q series...) the different instruments are all in their right places and I can imaging the stage perfectly.IN general there is a sense of rightness all over the frequencies, and there is not any coloration introduced in the sound, only the context of the cd is reproduced in a quiet, manner, but when it wants, with the right kick!(the percussions are superb)! I completely agree with Kenneth Skog and Leon Toepoel about the fact that bad and raw recordings sound unpleasant and a bit harsh, the highs and mids can become a pain to listen to at high volumes for many hours, but this is coused by the tendence of this player to project all is inside the cds, either bad or good things...
It can menage very well all kind of music but it is fantastic with melodic rock (with not many instruments = Led Zeppelin, Deep Puprle, Santana, ecc, pop music (all different varieties), techno, jazz, blues (great with these three last), but also complex orchestral and vocal materials are handled with aplomb everywhere Strengths:
Heavy, solid, physically massive player;a lot of great, versatile and ergonomic (also for tape recording-editing) features like display dimmer in four steps, music calendar, pith control, fader, auto-space between selections.
Focused, informative, cultured, detailed,if not too analitic, reproduction, good dynamic control good resolution throgh all the frequency, rightness and realism in the soundstage, crystal clear highs and stunning bass extension. Overall balance is exceptionally good, openess is quite right
Reads also ruined compact disks, CD-RW... Weaknesses:
Could be a little hard-listening and too digital with bad recordings, maybe not so warm and smooth in mid and high frequencies as others players, but still natural, articulate and precise, without digital nasties.
Of course, not at the level of detail, openess and realism of players that cost 1500 $ or +. Similar Products Used:
owned a Marantz CD 5000, a Pioneer and a Technics (don''t remember the model), and a Philips CD880, auditioned also Teac,Arcam,Cambridge Audio,Sherwood,Marantz different players before purchasing. I h
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