CD Player/Transport Reviews

Sidebar 1: Steve Stone's System

I used the following equipment for the SOTA Vanguard CD player review: For analog source comparisons, a Thorens/Chadwick 125 Mk.2 turntable mounted with a Graham 1.5 tonearm, with armtubes fitted with Denon 103 C/van den Hul, EMT/vdH, Fidelity Research FR-1 Mk.3 vdH, and AudioQuest BH-200 cartridges. In my large-room system, I used a VPI HW-19 Mk.5 with a Bright Star TNT base and a Souther Tri-Quartz arm mounted with a vdH MC-1 cartridge.

Preamps: Denneson JC-80 Mk.2 gold, Atma-Sphere MP-1, and the Vendetta SCP-2A phono preamp. Power amplifiers: Electrocompaniet AWD 100 and AWD 250, Parasound HCA-2200 Mk.2, VTL Deluxe 300, and the Atma-Sphere MA-1. Loudspeakers: Maston Audio Deluxe Reference Monitors, Apogee full-range ribbons, Green Mountain Audio Diamantes, and Vision Acoustics Soloists.

Interconnects: Straight Wire Virtuoso, AudioQuest Diamond, and Wire World "Eclipse" (both balanced and single-ended). Speaker cables: Straight Wire Maestro bi-wire and Wire World "Eclipse." Other accessories included RoomTunes CornerTunes, EchoTunes, and Ceiling Clouds; ASC Tube Traps; RoomTunes Just-a-Rack; Arcici Superstructure IIs; Audiostream equipment rack; CWD equipment cabinet; Bright Star Big Foot and Little Rock (for CD player); Sorbothane pucks (for amplifiers); Target speaker stands (for amplifiers); Fluxbuster; Shun Mook wooden pucks; The Original Cable Jacket wraps; Music and Sound ferrite beads; AudioQuest ferrite clamps; Chang Audio Lightspeed model CLS 6400 ISO power-line filter; AudioQuest record brush; Nitty Gritty record-cleaning machine; Radio Shack sound-pressure meter; SOTA record clamp; Kleenmaster Brillianize CD cleaner; and the collected works of A.A. Milne.—Steven Stone