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We bought an EAR Acute, but this one, unlike the first one, has a chrome faceplate. I just added some more info about it on my blog below.If you ever get to hear an Acute with the right tubes and adequate downstream components, maybe you'll do what my friends and I did: laugh out loud. The Acute does such a great job at preserving the music's believability, it makes other CD players sound plastic, broken, crude, and colored. Shoot. Even with throwaway cords, the Acute sounded fine going into the modest Naim Nait 5i. Finally, CD sounds like people singing, programming synthesizers, and playing instruments.
Having a quality source such as this makes the job of everything downstream so much easier.
We currently have some Nordost Valhalla on the Cable Cooker. I can't wait to unleash these cables on the Acute.
-Lummy The Seahorse
Follow Ups:
Being the owner of a pair of EAR 509 amps I enquired about reviewing this player, but Mr De Paravicini turned out to be not the kind of person I can have any sort of regard for so it didn't happen.Now I know the player is basically a modded Arcam I don't have that much regard for his design philosophy either as when other audio companies modify players such as Heart, APL or Modright, they do make it clear that a player is a modded version of another companies model.
Best Regards,
Chris redmond.
Lummy,How much more does the chrome faceplate version cost over the normal one?
I heard the Acute and agree 101% with the raves BUT just can't stand the looks. Saw the chrome with gold knobs version on Audio Revelation's website and now die die must buy!
It's a $400 upcharge. I chipped in for it, and my co-workers are glad I did. We originally tried an Acute with silver faceplate, which was okay, but kinda drab. The picture I have on my blog of the chrome Acute doesn't do it justice. Guess I gotta turn off the flash. Same thing happened when I took pics of my EAR 324, also in chrome.The chrome Acute looks like it'll fit right in with our 70s disco parties. The gold-colored buttons and knobs, coupled with the amber display [which, BTW, can be turned off], make me want to play "Don't Leave Me This Way," and point aimlessly.
The Acute does not NEED expensive powercords and interconnects, but do treat it well, and it'll respond in kind. Have fun tube rolling; the Acute is sufficiently hi-rez, that the right tube can tilt the sonic balance in your favor.
Seriously, if you have at least a half-way decent system, sticking the Acute at the front will make you laugh. I mean hey, my colleagues and I have several good CD players at our disposal, but the Acute simply sounds so much more like real music, that we grin, and keel over laughing. Even my infant son's children's music sounds, well, more natural, that we on occasion snap to attention.
The face plate and shape just looks like the old EAR 834 integrated amp of 10 years ago which I did enjoy at the time
Glad to hear it sounds great, but I'm disappointed to see the price blowup along the usual audiophile lines.Starting out as Arcam CD73 ($700-800?)+mods=$5700 ??
The "mods" are extensive, yes, adding tubed output stage and input/output transformers, but $5000 upcharge?
It would have been much better for us audiophiles if it was marketed as Arcam CD73 "Paravicini" special edition or something in a plain chassis for say $3000 IMHO.
"Glad to hear it sounds great, but I'm disappointed to see the price blowup along the usual audiophile lines."Especially if it also has non-defeatable ASRC..... (It seems like the ASRC sources that have had any degree of sustained satisfaction all have tube output stages.)
Don Allen could probably upgrade the same player to similar effect and save you at least a couple grand. (Although his designs wouldn't mask the ill effects of ASRC.)
that EAR Acute is one of best digital sources money can buy, actually the best CDP he has ever heard.But what really makes me curious is his recommendation for CEC TL-51XR. According to Larry, more than 90% of Acute performance, for 20% of the cost.
I normally don't pay much attention to reviewers ravings but Larry has an extraordinarly similar taste in audio to mine (ATC, EAR) so I am now more curious about CEC than EAR CDP.
That Mutine is the North American importer for CEC would scare me off. In my dealings with them they were incredibly unprofessional.
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