Last year the English Company AudioNote release a 230.000,- € CD Player (only for RedBook standard ) and a friend of mine which is HiFi journalist did audition the Player.
He was absolut thrilled from what he did heard with this player and told me, that he never did hear so good Music from any other music equipment ( Vinyl - Tape - HighRes etc. ) .
I feel the same way about RBS like FiftyKilo. I mainly listen to vinyl and cds. Regarding Audio Note UK, they are going to release a ladder DAC which apparently is even better than the 230k player+dac combo FityKilo mentioned.
Your perspective is unique and I personally find it very intriguing. Where the world seems to be heading towards hi-res digital, there are still some that cling to vinyl and for good reason since even the highest resolution digital recording can never contain the infinite and continuous palate of information found within an analog medium like tape or vinyl. No matter how high the resolution, a digital file will always be made up of discrete and finite bits and the best that a digital file can ever sound is to sound "analog." The finest systems I have ever heard have always been attached to a turntable or reel to reel tape player. If only there were a greater variety of vinyl records to choose from, without question, I would just buy a good turntable and be done with it. As we know, however, because of convenience, analog medium is not the future and so we find ourselves with digital files.
With regards to digital files, I also agree with you that there is plenty of information within standard redbook media that with the right DAC, redbook can sound just as good if not better than much of the hi-res that is available today and with so much more variety to choose from. There have been so many instances when I have listened to a demonstration and was convinced I was listening to hi-res only to find out I was listening to a good CD player. I believe a large reason for this is that so many of the hi-res digital files you can buy today were never mastered in hi-res but rather upsampled from redbook which is really a crime. Presently, any DAC that I am looking at today, I am more interested in how well it plays redbook than how well it plays hi-res. With that said, with proper recording equipment, I believe one day in the future, we will see proper hi-def tracks consistently be better than redbook. Unfortunately, because most people in the world today are content with downloading compressed mp3s to play on their iPhones, there is very little motivation for recording companies to move in this direction quickly.
What intrigues me about you, Ralf, is that you would consider paying 230,000 € for a CD player :normal_smile :. You, my friend, are someone that I will be following because of your bold choices. There are audiophiles that are so wealthy that they have the ability to buy anything and yet they have no understanding or true appreciation of what they have. I do not consider such people true audiophiles but rather collectors of nice things or crowd followers and I am generally not interested in much that they have to say. I would guess that you would never find such people on Head-fi because they probably would not be able to carry an intelligent conversation about their equipment. Yet, someone like you who clearly loves music and who is intelligent and discerning and bold about their choices, enough to ask Joe Skubinski to create a modified Abyss for you, if you say a 230,000 € CD player is worth it, I find myself wanting to hear that CD player as I imagine it will be as good as you say it is. Furthermore, because of you, I am currently in the early stages of conversation with Joe Skubinski about having him modify an Abyss for me similar to yours. In addition to having the ability to handle the subsonics of an organ, I am also hoping he can help me tame the brightness of the Abyss that I am sensitive to.
Not too melow sound to hide détails ? Still precise enough ?
