Introduction Long ago, a myth was sold to the audiophile community that CD changers were not at all good for real music lovers. After listening to a first-generation CD carousel, you could understand this myth: the early changers sounded brittle on the high frequencies, limp in the bass and lacked any sense of depth. To compound the damage, most of the early units didn’t even come equipped with a digital output to resurrect their sound via an outboard digital to analog converter. Today, CD changers are loaded with technology and features that make a strong argument for why even a hardened audiophile should consider owning one for his or her music and film playback system. The Pioneer Elite PD-F07 at $500 is one of the best values in today’s AV market, in that it is a very well-built 101 CD changer loaded with many of the slickest features and packed with advanced laser and transport ...

Introduction Unlike many manufacturers who are dropping laserdisc players from their product mix in favor of DVD, Pioneer still offers several models. The most notable are the three carrying the prestigious ELITE designation. Sitting firmly in the middle, is the CLD-79. While it incorporates a well designed 1-bit DLC D/A Converter (DAC), this, unfortunately, becomes irrelevant in a state-of-the art home theater. To take full advantage of Dolby Digital and DTS encoded Laserdiscs you must bypass the CLD-79's internal DAC and use the DAC incorporated in other devices such as digital processors, decoders and A/V Receivers. For this reason, I didn't do an extensive review of the CLD-79's sound quality. I wish Pioneer would just offer a laserdisc transport at a lower price, though I can understand why they feel it is necessary to cover all the bases. The CLD-79 provides two digital outputs (one coax and one optical), in addition to the RF (AC-3) ...

Introduction Magnetic audiotape's days are numbered as CD recording enters a new phase of affordability. While CD Recorders are far from new, the Philips CDR880's $649.00 price tag is impressive. Early adopters are going to love the Philips CDR880, though blank media costs aren't as low as they'll need to be for magnetic tape to vanish into oblivion just yet. The CDR880 not only records CD-Recordable (CD-R) media it also records CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) media. Rewritable discs, however, only playback on the CDR880 or other CD-Rewritable machines while CD-R's are completely backward compatible with all other CD Players. Evaluation If you can handle the hook up of a tape recorder you'll have no problem installing the CDR880. Both analog and digital (coax and optical) I/O's are provided. You can run a direct line from another CD player (analog or digital) to the CDR880, particularly if all of your material is coming from the one source. If you're ...

Introduction The Audio Research CD2 is a single-box CD player from a company best known for their analog products, but many enthusiasts have equal respect for Audio Research’s digital wares. Lets take a look at what this player is all about. On the surface, this player sports the look that Audio Research has made their trademark. The chassis measures 19 inches wide, 11-3/4 deep, five-and-one-quarter inches tall, and weighs in at a lean 17 lbs. It is dressed with the traditional industrial faceplate and black handles, which span vertically on either side of the front face. It has control buttons that are recessed, arranged horizontally across the lower portion of the chassis. The buttons are approximately one half inch square, with a slightly spongy feel. Symmetrically on the face of the chassis are the drawer to the left and the display to ...

Introduction "California, a profit on the burning shore"....... Estimated Profit, Grateful Dead. Like that song of wisdom and spiritual fulfillment coming to fruition, the California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD/CD player is a flier into the promise of what the digital audio and video medium is capable of today and a good measure of what we can expect as the technology matures into the future. Capable of processing 24/96 DVD audio, the CL-20 gave me my first extended exposure to what this new medium is all about......about to turn 44.1kHZ into the likes of a faded childhood nightmare. The CL-20 has HDCD processing, DAC outputs at 96, 48 and 44.1kHz. Other outputs include two Dolby Digital AC-3 5.1, two 24bit/96kHz PCM digital audio, coax and AES/EBU and RS-232 digital interface for future software upgrades. Video outputs are composite and S-video. Well constructed and fairly massive at 20 lbs. the CL-20 cuts a pretty clean profile. The ...