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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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Source Components Forum Topics: |
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Classic Audio Sources Reviews |
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CD Players
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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Written by
Todd Whitesel
When people learn that I write reviews of A/V equipment, invariably I get asked, “Do you get to keep it after you're done?” I always chuckle and say, “Sure. If I pay for it.” Accumulating shelves full of gear is not my goal; rather, satisfaction comes from sharing my hobby and passion with others. If I uncover a piece of equipment that I believe is otherwise hidden from the public, share my findings and offer another option to outfit a system, then that's a success.My philosophy stems from frustration with brick-and-mortar shopping. Outside of major metropolitan areas, there are few – if any – places for consumers to experience or experiment with gear outside the realm of the Sony's of the world. Nothing against Sony, but there are hundreds of other manufacturers' products that shoppers will never know about unless ...
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Thursday, 29 October 2009
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Written by
Todd Whitesel
The bug struck me late 2003. I was at a bookstore looking through magazines when a cover lured me in with its display of speakers and amps and CD players – the components of the year as judged by that audio publication. Thumbing through it, I was astonished by the number of manufacturers represented that I had never heard of. My jaw also dropped looking at the price tags of much of the featured equipment. Certainly it would be sweet to have 50K (or more) to drop on a system but my budget was more modest. I bought the mag, took it home and studied it for probably two months, getting familiar with the various players in the audiophile world. I remember among the editors' budget recommendations was a CD player from Rotel – the RCD-1072 – that was praised ...
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Tuesday, 01 May 2007
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Written by
Ken Taraszka, MD
Introduction
The
format war for high-definition discs wages on, but for now, DVD is
still the reigning king of home video formats. We all have years of
back catalogue DVDs in our collections, and a solid player is of
paramount importance to any theater. High-resolution audio in the form
of SACD and DVD-Audio are still prominent and Denon makes several
levels of players capable of spinning CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and SACD
discs, with their top of the line spinner being the DVD-5910CI priced
at $3,800. The DVD-5910CI is designed to be the primary source for a
high-end home theater or whole home distribution system and, as such,
offers connectivity not often found on consumer level goods. The “CI”
stands for Custom Integration. This is Denon’s way of identifying their
products with connectivity and control features for home integration
and theaters using advance control systems.
This flagship DVD player in the Denon line offers a
vast array ...
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Thursday, 01 March 2007
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Written by
Brian Kahn
Introduction
Believe
it or not, the market for high-end CD players is alive and well.
Despite the introduction of new high-end formats such as DVD-Audio,
SACD and now HD-DVD and Blu-ray, the fact remains that there is more
music available on CD than on all the new high-resolution formats
combined. The music lovers who have a large collection of music on CD
still need high-quality players in order to fully enjoy the music that
they have spent so many years amassing.
The CDP-202 ($6,500) is the latest and greatest of the
stereo-only “CD player” options in Classé’s Delta series of products.
The Delta Series is the first new product series from Classé Audio
since Classé became part of the B&W group. I place CD player in
quotes when describing the CDP-202, as it will actually play just about
any non-high-definition disc format other than SACD.
The new Delta Series CD player screamed “well-made high-end ...
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Saturday, 01 April 2006
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Written by
Ben Shyman
Introduction
When
Lexicon first introduced the RT-10 Universal Disc Player in 2003, it
was considered by many an ambitious project. Subsequently, the Proceed
Audio brand was discontinued and the Harman Specialty Group (HSG) was
formed. Harman International formed HSG on the cornerstone of three key
brands: Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Revel. The RT-10 would be
scrutinized by home theater industry experts and consumers alike, not
only because it was HSG’s first foray into source componentry – the
Mark Levinson brand did not and still does not manufacture a video
source component although the No. 51 will be available soon – but also
because it came on the heels of Proceed’s $6,000 PMDT universal
transport, which had a litany of reliability issues until it was
eventually discontinued. In addition, Lexicon would enter this
high-stakes reference-quality segment of the market by designing the
RT-10 as a hybrid player featuring two new technologies: Super Audio CD
(SACD) and DVD-Audio ...
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