Stereophile Class A+ universal player

madmax

I had never heard of Class A+ from stereophile. Must be very good. Nice player!

http://www.teac.com/esoteric/NewEsoteric/DV-50S.html

polkatese

at this price, the operative word better be "excellent", "out of this world experience"

thanks for the link, Max..

F1nut

Stereophile created the class A+ a few years ago mainly for the SACD technology, but it includes some other hi-rez gear. Other past SACD players include Accuphase, Classe, Meridian, Musical Fidelity and, believe it or not, the Sony XA777ES which I owned and would not put it in that class.

dorokusai

Stereophiles Class A list is meaningless to the well informed. The sheep like that stuff however.

madmax

Originally posted by dorokusai
Stereophiles Class A list is meaningless to the well informed. The sheep like that stuff however.

I've always given a lot of credit to their ratings. I think typically most equipment given their "A" rating is pretty outstanding. I'm feeling a little sheepish here.
madmax

HBombToo

Sheeep??? I got to go get my velcro gloves and platform boots:D

HBomb

dorokusai

Originally posted by madmax
I've always given a lot of credit to their ratings. I think typically most equipment given their "A" rating is pretty outstanding. I'm feeling a little sheepish here.
madmax

That's cool. I just don't feel a magazines' rating is needed to determine whether something is good or not. What ever happened to independent thought and decision making?

If one buys something completely based on an article or bullet statement from a magazine or publication, I feel sorry for them.

madmax

Originally posted by HBombToo
Sheeep??? I got to go get my velcro gloves and platform boots:D

HBomb

I gotta run... Very fast...
madmax

PolkThug

Originally posted by HBombToo
Sheeep??? I got to go get my velcro gloves and platform boots:D

HBomb

Ewwwee!

LuSh

Just my two cents.

There are only two magazines I can bare to read. One of which I subscribe too.

UHF magazine - Ultra High Fidelity is the best magazine I've ever read. The reason I'm so inclinded to read it is because of the way they do their tests. They have 3 reference systems. 1 for a large 2 channel room, a second for a smaller 2 channel room, and a 3rd for home theatre (they mainly focus on high end two channel playback) All reviews are done by 3 people. The only item in question is a single unit.

Some mag's like Stereophile or worse yet, Sound and Vision have no reference point and 10-20 reviewers. That means you can't tell if the unit sucks or the associated equipment sucks. Worse yet, If I have to review two units for an upcoming issue like an amp and speakers, I'm liable to listen to both together. Not allowing either to be fully explored. UHF at least goes the distance by taking out one reference unit and replacing it with the one in question. I always will trust 3 ears then 1.

You can read all about UHF with some online articles at www.uhfmag.com also listed on their site is there reference systems. Most the the stuff they review is true high end. This might scare some people off. The typical cd players range between $2-5k they do slip in stuff that is below $1k every now and again. Regardless of your budget you'll learn the in's and outs rather quickly. One of the last magzines you can still learn from. They prefer content over advertisments.

The second one I read on occasion is TAS. The Absolute Sound preaches most of the values I've come to learn and expect. Although I think the editor is a bit of a nutcase. Their point, counter point articles of interesting sometimes.

Another reason I like UHF is because it is truely international. Its a Canadian magazine, but alot of the gear they review is from all over. Unlike EVERY SINGLE uk magazine on the rack which just review uk stuff, and even the likes of TAS and Stereophile don't review all that much outside of the US. UHF reviews stuff from Switerland, Sweden, Canada, the US, Japan, China, Germany you name it. Their reference system has a CD player from Scotland, a preamp from Sweden, an amp from Canada and speakers from England. Not many reviewers are humble.

dorokusai

Those are two great publications to read and gather information from, I agree completely.

sowen010599

I dunno, SGHT has had some crap reviews, I have never seen them pull any punches. A couple months back, they reviewed some in-walls, and if they weren't that good, they'd let you know.

F1nut

Publications like those mentioned here are a good source of info that many might not have access to otherwise. When used as a tool in conjunction with as much other research as possible I think it's very feasible to make a smart purchase based on written info only. Of course, it's always best to demo gear in your home, but that's not always possible.

One thing about reviews is that one often needs to read between the lines and understand what comments like, "good in it's price range" or "not overly bright" mean. Generally speaking, the gear on Stereophile's "A" list is top notch stuff, but that doesn't mean it will work in your system either.