Shameless plug for Audio Note CD player. Review comes later

About a month ago, I bought an Audio Note CD3.1x/II Red Book CD player from the local AN shop in Copenhagen/Frederiksberg. It was the first one they sold, having just hit the streets. I have been looking at, listening to, and drooling over AN Dacs in this shop for many years, but the cost of an AN Dac + equivalent Transport (higher than level zero) was always the show stopper. The new CD3.1 stands between the 2.1 and 4.1 (forgive me for shortening the model numbers) and costs between $5-$6K in North America, I believe. I have only heard guesses.

Then - shortly afterwards - I went to South Africa for 3 weeks (job related) and now I am back. At the advice of Audio Note, I am in the process of breaking in 24/7 until I reach around 700-800 hours. Once I get there, I will listen to it through my speaker rig (deHavilland UV2 preamp + Quicksilver min-mite monoblocks + LS3/5A V2 speakers by Stirling Broadcast) and my three headphone amps (MAD Ear + HD, SP MPX3 Slam SE, BC SBH) with my K-701s.

The CD3.1 uses a standard Dac 1.1x/II Sig and a Phillips Transport (see the pic). There's plenty of room inside to add to and mod the power supply and the digitial-analogue interface.

I admit, I have been listening intermittently. The long break-in is required both because of the AN coupling caps and Blackgates (I also put these in my Mini-mite power supply) and it is somewhat painful to experience - buyers remorse. But now, after about 500 hours, the sun is peeping through the clouds. I had expected it to sound organic (as I had heard the Dac in stand-alone mode before), but I don't recall the amazing amounts of detail to go with it...and I have a cheap 1970s Russian 6DJ8, not a bank-breaker version of this tube.

After 700-800 hours I will start listening and after 2-3 weeks of getting comfortable with it, I will compare it with my reference CDP, an Arcam CD-192T, which has to be (or had to be) one of the best buys in CD history (but also takes forever to break in). And then I will write up a short summary of my experience and post it here.

Now I will try to upload a picture or two






Why are they so small? Can someone make them bigger?


I hope it works

The Arcam is my reference, now, because I have it lived with it for 4 years. I hope you are right.

Please be patient. I am not an A-B critical listener type. I base my personal evaluations on my overall impressions listening to the the music I love just the way I always listen to it and only after listening for a long time. I don't compare equipment passage by passage. So, I might have to listen for 2 months before I get a good feel for how different the music sounds on two different pieces of equipment.

Stay tuned. I will have something to say in a while. It took me 6 years before I finally got an AN source, and I listened to a lot of other players and Dacs. In the process I developed a very healthy appreciation of my Arcam. (I see they no longer make the 192-T, but the price of the FMJ model has gone down here in Denmark.)

Krmathis, i see you are a Mac digital source guy. So, we inhabit two different source worlds. I have never been able to get excited by computer sources. On the other hand, the Isabella and Isabellina really do have my interest.

This takes time, given the money an d need to sell off some existing gear I like a lot, but I am slowly coming to that conclusion. I like the K speakers and the P2 SE or the SORO SE. But I am not sure I can bring myself to part with my LS3/5As.

I have been listening casually to music since Saturday, both through my speakers and headphones. It's easy to hear differences between the two CD Players. However, I can't put words to them and the differences i do hear are not what I had expected in the first place. Yes, I like the AN more. I need more time to find out what is going on.

Say what? Who added the text that I just erased?

Moved to a new thread