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Review Update After 3 Days of use

After 3 days the unit has really come into it own. The HDCD feature is just a great addition, I am finding disc that have no label saying HDCD mastered, yet they are.

The Beach Boys 30 greatest hits (Elvis started another fad), is mastered using HDCD, I you tell you this I have never heard the Beach Boys Sound this good, the layers of harmonies, musical textures and rhythms never was so apparent.

SACD cd's is out-of-this-world, no need to say more, you name it and SACD through this unit does it. Red-Book is dam good also, some just outstanding to the point of sounding as good as SACD. The 24 bit ones are just superb. Even sound of the older 16-20 bit cd's that were mastered right is killer.

My wife said listening to the Beach Boys the other night, this is almost a spiritual experience, I never heard them sound this good, you can hear each voice as a separate person., and the bottom end at times shook the room.

I put on a few crap cd's and they still sounded like crap, so this unit is not colored at all to sound romantic, but when the recording is well done, Like the 50's Sinatra and Elvis, the sound is so real and organic and musical with the warmth of the tubes used back then that you wish all recordings were this good today.

The highs are open and transparent, the mid-range is killer, the mid-bass perfect, gives weight to the music, so many players miss this part of reproduction, makes things sound thin without proper weight, they trick you into thinking what great detail, but it not right, and the bottom end is full and tight when the music calls for it.

The only thing I think they could do without is the up-sampling feature, to me it just makes things sound thinner on most discs I have tried the settings on; the normal settings sound the best. I think they could do without this feature, I think this is more a current hip thing to do, but sonically I just don’t hear an improvement, any one who cares to comment feel free to do so, perhaps someone from Cary?

Also HDCD recordings should be left in the 44.1 mode, that how it was designed to be used.

So far as far as sound reproduction goes I can find no fault, I do wish the owners manual was better written, they do not discuss the up-sampling features at all, and this is a big part of the design. They need to educate the user.

The player is a winner, the best I heard in my life on red-book was the Linn CD 12, I never would pay that much for a unit (20k), now for $6,000 you can have the same quality of sound (Red-Book) with the added features of SACD and HDCD, making this unit a steal for the money.

Go, no RUN OUT and Buy this Unit, al least go audition it, this baby is going to be a classic, I won't be looking back for awhile, my search is over, finally a player that brings out the best in the digital format, it took 20 years but it was worth the wait.

Cary well done!

Phil



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  • Review Update After 3 Days of use - PhillyB 09:11:33 10/28/05 (0)


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