General Asylum: REVIEW: Arcam CD72 Compact Disc Player CD Player/Recorder by Jim P

Review of the Arcam CD72, sorry about length.
1st Iâ€™d like to say thanks too all who in the past have given suggestions and help for system advice. This is my first good CDP. I have been told many times here that I needed to get a better front end digital source and this â€œupgradeâ€ really is paying off! I've had it 7 days(160 hours) and have had it playing nonstop on repeat to burn it in. Now I really want to stay up grabbing cd's, Finally! Decay of notes is natural. I'm hearing the sound of notes, percussion and voices(hehe) fade into the venue. This is my 1st CDP that lets me hear lots of low level detail, pretty cool! Drum sticks sound like sticks hitting cymbals, fancy that. Huge amount of emotional involvement, Iâ€™m not going to get mushy but when I hear beutifull music reproduced well it brings on a welling of emotion to put it politely, 1st time my system has done this. I was struck by the beutifull sounds that I have in my living room. The Arcam is fairly heavy for the size, 4.6kg and looks substantially better than the 7SE IMHO. Actually I was going to buy the 7SE but the local dealer isn't carrying them anymore,discontinued? The front face plate looks thick and build quality is what I would expect for the price. There's no plastic like on the Alpha series, all metal now. The display can be turned off so you donâ€™t get any interferance, my wife thought I was joking. I canâ€™t tell the difference on or off, could be related to the rest of ancillary equiptment or lack of bionic ears. ;-) Deals with all types of music like a champ but really brought symphony's to life for me!!! Simply amazing to me, Iâ€™ve invited a few friends from our local college orchestra over and theyâ€™re bringing some tunes! Very good high end extension, airy, lively, no listener fatigue after long listening sessions, some may like, some may not, not a polite cdp. As anything audio YMMV. Very detailed, now I donâ€™t want to sound like itâ€™s analytical because I donâ€™t think it is but here are the differences between my Sony DVD player and the CD72 Iâ€™m hearing. When listening to Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony playing the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture I can plainly hear musicians phraseing, breathing to the line, especially the woodwinds, hey, string players do this too, very breathy at times, not inapropriate considering the delicate lines of the program material, the bows wood clicking against the string in ff passages, page turns etc, this player resovles detail very well. From a string players perception,WE LIKES IT! Some might find it a little much? Definately not a dull player IMHO. Bass is very solid with good weight, transients were sudden like, I love the dynamics on tap. I've read in other opinions(HiFi Choice) of the Arcam 7SE that the bass was a little lean, since I havenâ€™t heard the 7SE i canâ€™t reference that comment but the bass is deep and natural with good weight to me at least as far as my speakers allow. On Tchaikovsyâ€™s 1812 the bass has GREAT impact to these ears. You can really tell the difference between a wooden stand up to an electric, or synthed line. My CDPâ€™s got wood ;-) , seriously, my dvd player makes the difference not to clear on some recordings. I canâ€™t comment on really deep bass, below 30hz, due to speaker,sub limitations. Brass has the right amount of bite, YAHOO! I love the sounds of a blazing brass section in a symphony UNLESS Iâ€™m right in front of them playing a piece like The Firebird Suite. During the Dance Infernal they can blow the poor string sections off stage, actually scary the first time I played this in rehearsal, the string players were in shock,â€they can play that loudâ€? LOL! The midrange sounds great, vocals sound as good as the program allows, or in case of some rock/metal as bad as the cd! Diana Krall,Sarah McLachlan sound Damn sweet breathy, sexy! I canâ€™t make a really certain statement about the CDPâ€™s ability to place players or soundstage to the nth degree due to my speaker placements in a VERY large German Shrunk. My speakers are in the shrunk, but note that there is no back to the speaker shelves so they have about 2' of room behind them. It has improved the ability to hear the acoustic environment though and the musicians are pretty easily placed if itâ€™s in the program. Depth was nice as well along with a very wide image. The tray mechanism is smooth and quiet, it doesnâ€™t â€œclunkâ€ into position like my Sony DVD player,even though it is a Sony mechanism it's of better quality. I like the removable IEC cord. Itâ€™s very stout and flexible. Kind of sad that it over twice as thick than either my Yamaha 2095 or my Integra dual mono amps! At least Arcam was on the ball here! I would have liked to have gold plated outputs on both the RCA line outs and the digital coax, I donâ€™t see why this was left out. The remote is a little too busy, it can operate both the Diva CD72, CD92, DV88DVD player as well as the rest of the Diva range home cinema line. Itâ€™s well built looking and fits nicely in hand but with so many buttons you need to look,43 buttons in all. I guess more time with it will help. No backlighting,(hey itâ€™s for the DV88 DVD player too). The buttons are small and are hard to read in low light and even normal light, I listen to most of my music at night, less distractions and a lot quieter! So in a word, awesome, yes, I like it a lot! I've heard better but not for the money. It can be upgraded to CD92 status for $900. It has Optical and Coax out for digital and 1 set of RCA line outs. I canâ€™t find many faults save those listed above, Iâ€™m new to the higher end of audio so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems to due everything well for me and looks great to boot. The player can be had in either silver or black(go Raiders). I picked up the black because they were unable to get the silver until April. Any suggestions as to improve my reviewing as well as my set up will be appreciated, even viola jokes!

Jim P.
ps, GO RAIDERS!

REVIEW: Arcam CD72 Compact Disc Player CD Player/Recorder Review by Jim P at Audio Asylum