I lust after many things in the world of audio hi-fi equipment, I think most of us do. Lately it's been CD players, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford (well, used at least
) some of the models I'd previously lusted after, most notably the Naim CD5i-2, which I'm listening to this very moment. That one was a mini-dream come true.
Just for fun I thought I'd ask which single CD player you all would want, if cost were no object, etc. I'll tell you mine, it comes to mind without hesitation:
The Meridian 808.2 Signature Reference CD player, which is relatively new. What makes it so special? Apparently (because I'm basing this off of a TAS review written by Robert Harley for their August 2009 issue) Meridian has found the solution to an aspect of CD playback that (again, apparently) is responsible more than anything for the dreaded "CD sound," which can be edgy, bright, flat, brittle, and lifeless in the worst cases, among other things. The culprit is said to be pre-ringing, which is introduced by the brickwall anti-aliasing filter in the CD players A/D converter. Harley explains that this issue, unique to digital audio, is the result of the digital impulse being spread over a horizontal time axis (if it were illustrated, which it is in the article), thereby causing part of the signal to occur microseconds before the actual event. In other words, part of the music is happening almost instantaneously just before it's actually supposed to. Because nothing like this occurs in nature, Harley says, it is quite audible, and our brains interpret it as sound that's clearly a reproduction, often in the worst way.
With this model Meridian introduces what it calls an "apodizing" filter, which they claim eliminates pre-ringing that was previously thought to be a permanent part of the already-mastered CD, and therefore an unfortunate fact of life. This is such a big deal that Harley declares it "the most significant product in the history of the compact disc."
Well I've never heard this CD player, and it's unlikely I ever will, unfortunately, since the cost of entry is about $17,000 (AHHH!!!), but man do I wish I could afford it. Compared to other extremely upper-level CD players, Harley noted some things that the others do differently, perhaps even a little better, but it hardly seems like I would be missing anything if I had one. It's like one's entire CD collection has been remastered, Harley says, with "newfound spatiality, bloom, air, dimensionality, and ease." While not working wonders with poorly recorded discs, he claims it at least removes many of the most egregious problems.
So there it is, my true "dream" CD player.
I want to hear about yours, but note two things: One, just because I've named an incredibly expensive model as my choice, don't hesitate to tell us that yours is a 1985 Pioneer model. This isn't about money, just pretend that's not even an issue. Second, I've gone somewhat in depth describing what gets me so excited about the Meridian CDP, but if you only feel like stating the model, that's fine, though I would like to know why.
EDIT: Picture of the 808.2 added.