CD Player/Transport Reviews

"Hello, Star Trek Enterprise here ........... How can we help you?"

"Ahoy ahoy, Alexander Graham Bell here .......... Beam me up Scotty"

I wonder how many of these will sell? In a world where people are buying more and more streamers and DACs, CD players aren't flying off the shelves.

save for the shortage of transport spare parts; which is really a shame, since well designed cd players can wipe out almost anything out there sonically speaking.

Really? I lasted about 30 seconds before I had to bail. Someone is in serious need of vocal lessons.

Not very good on the bench there JA. Kinda had to bite your tongue a bit in the conclusion.

And what with not getting digital inputs for this kind of money, that stinks.

Cheers George

Not sure why this kind of product is reviewed in Stereophile. I doubt that any potential purchaser even reads audio magazines, they are the type that relies strictly on the recommendation of the sales person. If it looks cool and is expensive, then it must be great. Anyone that cares even the slightest bit about measurements would not consider this player for even a second.

... the combination of an ineffective anti-aliasing filter and a rolled-off high frequency response - to impress a Stereophile reviewer?

Would the reviewer have been half as impressed if instead the unit was packaged in a relatively plain black box and the remote control was made of plastic?

"Don't review (audio) equipment with your eyes" ............ John Atkinson :-) .........

If you bought one of these, your photo should be next to the phrase in the dictionary, "more money than brains".

Yes, it's pretty, but it's performance no better than any disc player you can buy for 2.5% of its price. That it only plays CD's is stupefying.

This unit is absurd in the worst way.

Outstanding! works as always- AD
I enjoyed how you compared this player to your road-tested Sony ES spinner. I had no idea that the Philips CDM PRO12 transport was still in production? Which other brand(s) still incorporate this veteran transport into their spinner designs?

It's really fascinating that Art found such small differences in the filter settings. This is consistent with some other observers trying different filter shapes in other systems. Other factors in the player and system characteristics are probably more of a factor in the overall experience. But, a difference is a difference.

Still, how does this square with the night and day differences some observers are reporting with MQA processed recordings?

It's a ROLEX kind of product, isn't it?

Maybe a ROLEX Presidential extravagance expressly for people like our own Agent Orange in Washington.

I have to admit that I'd love to own and "Show-off" all that Chord Stuff that's so darn striking and industrially beautiful, who wouldn't ?

Back in the Day, I kept a Gold Mitchel Gyrodek in my Esoteric Audio Store Front Window.

If you love your Audio Gear more than your Wife, this CD Player is a dam good way to prove it.

However, now-a-days, I'm rather inclined to the LG Phone method of Audio advancement and rely on a Porsche 718 Hybrid for showing off.

I'm not showing off, I'm investing in my Grandchildren's future Quality of Life.

I vote for the PS Audio Player

Tony in Michigan

ps. it does make for one hell of a Front Cover !!!

The bulk –if ever was one– of unnecessarily expensive US/EU-made audio gear is actually being sold to Asian markets; opposite is the trade route case for plebeian electronics..

Noone can say, you didn't: "I asked—no, begged—for the opportunity to write about the DreamPlay One. "
I'm shure you enjoyed listening as writing the advertisement.

Stereophile could come up with an yearly calendar (just like Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue) with exotic, good looking audio equipment :-) ...........

"the maximum balanced output level was twice the unbalanced, at 4.92V"
The peak in Fig 1 is over 1V higher than this - might it make music more dynamic than the digital representation or is it that it can't sustain it's true max during the max output test?

That costs more than any of my first 3 houses. And it is not the best C D player ever made?? Wow! I am so glad JA tests things.

Thank you JA for testing and measuring the audio equipment ............

I know I'm not in the market for $45,000.00 of digital replay. That said, I'm always interested in assaults on the state of the art. In one regard this Blingy collection of audio objects appears to be SOTA. The impulse test, without ringing fore or aft, appears perfect. Art Dudley liked the player best with the slow roll-off filter, the mode that produces that perfect impulse test. I think there's something to that.

However, the product is prima-facie absurd.

This is my wish list for a disc spinner in the 21st century. First, it has to play everything. As physical products are preterite, they will have to be treated as "special cases" from here on out. Second, I would want all the disc data moved to a solid state memory. I would use the data from the SSD instead of the disc drive. I would design the disc player/storage locker to be accessible to DAPs so one could smoothly and easily move sound files to the DAP. I would separate the disc drive/"storage locker" from the DAC. I would include HDMI as an output option for obvious reasons. The DACs I'd come up with would come in "Plain"—just 2 channels output, no bells & whistles—& "Peanut", with streaming options built in. There would also be a "Surround" flavour. All the DACs would have USB and HDMI inputs in addition to the usual suspects.

I could imagine a $45,000.00 version of some combination of these boxes making sense. But a $45,000.00 CD player that only plays CDs? Pricey bling.

Over the top audio bling with a nouveau riche design sensibility. The audio equivalent of a McMansion.

Test it playing CDs against the corresponding vinyl release (using originally analogue recordings of course) on any decent ~ $3k turntable. Then, tell your readers on the basis of sound-quality whether they wouldn't be better off buying that turntable and $40,000 of Mint vinyl. I gave my entire CD collection to goodwill for this very reason and am currently rebuilding my vinyl collection. This comparison should be made every time such super-expensive digital audio is gushed over in a magazine ostensibly dedicated to audiophilia...

unabashedly contemplative comments based on purely impersonal interest for someone else’s hard earned blood money ;-)

From the review ...
"Clauzel said that the Elektra also contains 'specific ultra-low-noise regulation'dedicated to the player's DACs—a dual-mono pair of Asahi Kasei Microdevices AK4497 chips, implemented without digital oversampling."

This does not make sense. The AK4497 DAC is a delta-sigma design. It HAS to use digital filtering (oversampling). Nowhere in its datasheet does it mention non-oversampling.
The datasheet does note:
"six different digital filter types are selectable according to the user audio and system preferences."

Refs:
https://www.akm.com/akm/en/product/datasheet1/?partno=AK4497EQ

Sorry! ;->

this reviewer is delusional. CD players do not have "sound quality" This review is the reason the audio press is a laughingstock. What is it that this fool doesn't understand about one's and zero's? Every correctly designed modern CD player sounds EXACTLY the same.

I read in the latest edition of the Sound & Vision magazine that, some automakers are not including CD players in some of their latest models (sad) ............

I have, in fact, posted to catholic websites (after having been a catholic for twenty years) and presented logical,factual, historically based arguments which challenge certain catholic doctrines,such as the perpetual virginity of Mary. I don't think that makes me a troll.If that were true it would lead logically to the conclusion that no one should ever be permitted to challenge the status quo. Your example of the transubstantiation and communion are not analogous in this comparison because those things are purely articles of faith. They can not be proven or disproven. But it can be proven, using biblical and historical references,that Jesus had brothers and sisters.His brother James founded the Jerusalem church. I will admit that my post was disrespectful and antagonistic.I apologize for that. I should have made a more nuanced argument.

Nuance?

It's insulting.

You can't unread what you wrote here.

"Only two things are infinite .......... The universe and human stupidity ........... I am not sure about the former" ........... Albert Einstein .........

one more time; it was about 15 or 20 years ago that CD players became essentially perfect in their reading and transmission of a digital binary number stream. This means that if the player is outputting a digital signal to an external DAC, then they will all sound the same.I understand the compulsion of those who have spent thousands on a CD player to defend their purchase.They're mitigating buyers remorse.I also spent more than necessary.I bought an OPPO 203. I bought it for it's physical build quality.Cheap players usually don't last very long.

... why this CD player got such an enthusiastic review from Stereophile, and for that matter its sister publication HFN/RR, when the frequency response reported by both publication rolls off like a cassette recorder with cheap tape.

I’m not immune to the idea of spendy CD players (I own one that was class-A-rated by Stereophile when it was in production, and incidentally has a flat response) but this is just ridiculous.

Perhaps the most common topic of discussion at shows is, “Who has the best sound?” Consumers are looking to be wowed as are reviewers. Awards are given and reputations are made. New technology trickles down to more “affordable” products, but inevitably, the things that differentiate the top components from their lesser siblings are the costly bits: the more robust power supply, the extra isolation, the added mass and machining, the larger more expensive drivers, etc. If all components were equal and their sole value was in their utility, then we could all stay home and none of this would be necessary. Should manufacturers cease to push the envelope? Should price limits be imposed? Should designers leave their creativity behind? Finally, would Stereophile be doing its readers a service or disservice if it ignored high dollar state-of-the-art components?