Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews

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Solid State Preamp ReviewsHi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsMusic in the Round
Music in the Round #43
Kalman Rubinson  |  Jul 26, 2010  |  1 comments
The debate over which audio component is most important in determining the quality of a system's sound is one that has been with us for decades. Recently, it came up in a conversation I had during a visit to a Manhattan high-end shop, when I was told about a discussion on the topic by Ivor Tiefenbrun (of Linn) and David Wilson (of Wilson Audio Specialties). You don't have to be a seasoned audiophile to predict their respective positions, but when I was pressed to take a stand, I paused.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsMusic in the Round
Music in the Round #60
Kalman Rubinson  |  May 09, 2013  |  3 comments
Yes, more Oppos. First off, let's put aside the expected superiority of the D/A conversion and outputs of the BDP-105 ($1199) and state that the BDP-103 ($499) is itself no slouch in these departments. In two or many channels, the '103 was good enough to let me distinguish among various high-resolution media, and to provide me with satisfying enjoyment of music in even the best of systems.
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CD Player/Transport ReviewsHi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsMusic in the Round
Music in the Round #87: Oppo UDP-205
Kalman Rubinson  |  Oct 31, 2017  |  25 comments
For some months now, I've lived mostly without music. To survive the dust and grit of the renovation of our Manhattan apartment, all electronics had to be covered with heavy plastic, the speakers encapsulated in large green lawn bags, and the listening room partitioned off with a temporary wall. We could listen to music with our little 3.1-channel TV system in the den (eh) or through headphones (not!), or we could decamp to our house in Connecticut, which we did as much as possible. I felt deprived. Now that it's all over, I'm grateful to have it back—and grateful for the improvements in the main system, some of them direct byproducts of the renovation.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player
Michael Fremer  |  May 18, 2003  |  0 comments
Overachievers tend to rankle people after a while. Musical Fidelity, a relatively small British company run by Antony Michaelson, has issued a stream of high-performance, high-value electronic products over the past few years, along with a limited-edition line of pricier designs based on the military-spec nuvistor vacuum tube. With few exceptions, Musical Fidelity products have garnered outstanding reviews worldwide, with consumer acceptance to match. Michaelson is also an accomplished clarinetist, recording and issuing classical-music CDs in his "spare" time.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Nagra D open-reel digital recorder
John Atkinson  |  Jan 02, 1996  |  0 comments
As I write these words, it's the height of the fall catalog season in the Atkinson household. Whole old-growth forests must have died to ensure the everyday stuffed state of our mailbox, which adds to the sense of guilt I feel as I pitch the offenders into the trash without even giving their insides a passing glance. But there are three catalogs I do look forward to receiving, that I read from cover to cover, that I deface with multicolored Post-It notes. The Audio Advisor catalog is, of course, a no-brainer for an audiophile. But the Griot's Garage and Levenger catalogs get equal billing from me. For both offer tools (used in the widest sense of the word) that appear to have been designed by people who actually use tools, who appear to care about quality, and who appear to feel that a product that breaks while it is being used for its intended task is an offense against God (footnote 1).
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsBudget Component Reviews
Oppo DV-970HD universal player
Wes Phillips  |  May 19, 2007  |  0 comments
There's an old Spanish proverb: "If six people call you an ass, start braying." A contemporary corollary might be that if enough audiophiles insist a product is the best ever, it behooves the "experts" to check it out. At least, that was John Atkinson's thinking when he suggested I audition the Oppo Digital DV-970HD universal disc player ($149).
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Philips SACD1000 SACD/DVD-Video player
Chip Stern  |  Apr 26, 2001  |  0 comments
I suspect that the faces of many of the readers who thumb through the pages of Stereophile must resemble those peering out of some Norman Rockwell representation of Americana: little children, their noses pressed hard against the display window of an urban department store in the weeks preceding Christmas, eyes aglow at the sight of some epic model train or exquisitely detailed dollhouse. So near, yet so far.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Pioneer DV-AX10 SACD/DVD-A/CD player
Jonathan Scull  |  Feb 17, 2002  |  0 comments
At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2001, Pioneer announced the US launch of the DV-AX10, the first of their long-awaited "universal" disc players, previously available only in Japan. Right out of the box, it plays SACD (two-channel only), DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, CD, and CD-R discs. For two-channel operation—which is exclusively how I examined it—and via its easy-to-navigate menus (footnote 1), I set the DV-AX10 to two channels as the default for all modes, including SACD. Except for hybrid discs, which I'll come to presently, the DV-AX10 is, blessedly, a set-it-and-forget-it machine.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport ReviewsAudacious Audio
Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 17, 2010  |  1 comments
Playback Designs was founded less than three years ago. However, with the release in 2008 of its MPS-5 Music Playback System—a slim, full-featured SACD/CD player and DAC that costs $15,000 and is built in the US—the company has since established itself as a significant player in high-performance digital audio.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player
Jonathan Scull  |  Nov 12, 1999  |  0 comments
Rarely have I anticipated the arrival of a review component as I did the Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD player. I'd first heard the machine itself with the enthusiastic audiophile hordes at Chicago's HI-FI '99. I'd also been lucky enough to enjoy a few of the Direct Stream Digital-encoded recordings Tom Jung had made for DMP right off the hard drives of a prototype DSD processor via Ed Meitner electronics. (See my interview with Jung elsewhere in this issue.)
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Sony SCD-777ES SACD player
Chip Stern  |  Apr 12, 2001  |  0 comments
Having the Philips SACD1000 in my system promoted me to spill some ink about the Sony SCD-777ES. In the months I've had this SACD player in my system, my experience of music has been enhanced to the point where I feel more and more confident about the aural judgments I'm called on to make—because I'm convinced that I'm listening to a digital source on which I can bet the ranch.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Sony SCD-C333ES SACD/CD player
Jonathan Scull  |  Oct 10, 2004  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2001  |  0 comments
John Atkinson flapped his bushy eyebrows at me and smiled slyly. "Hey, J-10, why don't you do the Sony SCD-C333ES SACD carousel player for April?" Usually, when JA gets that look on his face, I seek shelter. The phone bripped suddenly in my office, but I knew it was too late. "Oooo-kay..." I smiled back, thinking of Stereophile's recent covers and the hubbub, bub, thick as it comes, that they'd produced. (See "Letters" in the February and March issues.)
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Sony SCD-C555ES SACD changer
Larry Greenhill  |  Oct 16, 2001  |  0 comments
It was a late Friday afternoon in May and I wasn't having much luck getting into Sony's multichannel SACD demo room at the Home Entertainment 2001 Show. Surely, as a member of the audio press and a freelance writer for Stereophile, I should have no trouble. Not this time. After several polite "Nos," a Sony consultant managed to snare for me the last ticket of the day.
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Sony SCD-XA777ES multichannel SACD/CD player
Kalman Rubinson  |  Jan 13, 2002  |  0 comments
"Sony. Sony. No Baloney."
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Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Sony SCD-XA9000ES SACD player
John Atkinson  |  Dec 21, 2003  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2003  |  0 comments
Sony's first flagship Super Audio CD player was the two-channel SCD-1, reviewed by Jonathan Scull in November 1999. (The $5000 SCD-1 had balanced outputs; the cosmetically different but otherwise identical $3500 SCD-777ES had unbalanced outputs and was reviewed by Chip Stern in April 2001.) Sony's second-generation flagship player, the $3000 SCD-XA777ES, was reviewed by Kalman Rubinson in January 2002, and added multichannel capability with channel-level adjustment and bass management. Sony's third-generation flagship is the SCD-XA9000ES, also priced at $3000, which adds time-delay adjustment for its multichannel analog outputs and is presented in a smart new styling that Sony calls "Silver Cascade." The disc drawer and the most frequently used controls are on the angled top half of the brushed-aluminum front panel; in the lower half are the display, the headphone jack and its volume control, and the multifunction control knob.
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