Today's Fresh Catch is the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player ($3874.00 USD).
I have thousands of Red Book CDs that I haven't listened to in years. My Red Book CD collection is full of great music, a lot of which is not available on LPs, and I have really missed listening to them.
I have been primarily listening to vinyl on my CTC Garrard 301 or Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD124 turntables, or streaming digital from my Mac computers to my Mhdt vacuum tube USB DACs, all of which really convey the full glory of the music being played in a very satisfying way.
My OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player in my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers based audio-visual system sounds pretty wonderful playing Blu-ray film discs (photo below), but typically just doesn't sound all that musical when playing CDs from my Red Book collection, which has limited my enthusiasm for playing CDs.
Almost every time I got out one of my Red Book CDs to listen to using my OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player I was left feeling underwhelmed with the musicality of the experience.
For a couple of years now, finding a CD player that will play Red Book CDs in a musically satisfying manner has been on my list of New Year's Resolutions, but somehow it has never made it to the top of my list.
Well, now it has made it to the top of my list, in the form of the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player that Peter Qvortrup just sent me to listen to.
A little bit of serendipity has brought about the arrival of the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player here at Jeff's Place.
For whatever reason, the transfers to CD by Peter’s late friend, Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, transcended this issue with the OPPO's musicality on Red Book CDs and sounded positively brilliant, and I enthused to Peter how much I enjoyed listening to Anatoly's transfers (that's a collection of some of Anatoly's transfers to CD in the photo above).
I reported this little Red Book CD conundrum to Peter, which is what got the ball rolling for Peter to send me the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player.
Peter wanted me to hear how impressive Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky's transfers to CD could sound with one of his CD players, as well as how it would make my own collection of Red Book CDs come to musical life.
I was definitely intrigued.
Peter thought the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II would be a complementary match to the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier (which is a popular Audio Note (UK) customer combination).
So the arrival of the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player here at Jeff's Place was the result of a little bit of serendipity that started while visiting Peter Qvortrup at Audio Note (UK) headquarters outside of Brighton, England, last fall, where I heard some incredibly musical sounding digital, in the form 78rpm record transfers to CD by Peter's late friend Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, that Peter played for me over his home system (photo below).
Peter gave me a couple of CDs to listen to that contained more of Anatoly's 78rpm record transfers.
When I got home I decided to give the Anatoly CDs a listen, and even on my OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player that was normally only so-so on Red Book CDs, those Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky 78rpm record transfers to CD sounded remarkably good both musically and sonically.
What was puzzling for me was that when I played back my own Red Book CDs from my collection I was left feeling underwhelmed with the musicality of the experience.
So just what exactly was going on here? Why did Peter's CDs sound so good, and mine so average?
Just a few weeks ago Peter sent me some more Red Book CDs of Anatoly's 78rpm transfers, and the experience was repeated. The CDs Peter sent me sounded remarkable on the OPPO, but my own CDs sounded just so-so, reenforcing my earlier perceptions.
So Peter suggested that he should send me one of his Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD players to listen to, as he thought that would deliver the performance I was missing from my Red Book CDs, as well as get the best out of Anatoly's 78rpm transfers.
That sounded like a great plan to me, and now the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player has arrived.
Just a few minutes ago I installed the CD 2.1x/II into my main music system along with the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier, for which I am quite literally finishing up the feature review right now, which will be published at Positive Feedback in the near future.
I connected the Audio Note (UK) "CD 2.1x/II" Level Two Red Book CD player to my AC supply with the Sablon Audio Gran Corona power cable, one of my favorite power cables.
I connected the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player to the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier with the exotic and great sounding Acoustic Revive RCA Absolute FM interconnects.
I should mention that the Audio Note (UK) "CD 2.1x/II" Level Two Red Book CD player sits exactly in the middle of the Audio Note (UK) CD player product line.
About the CD 2.1x/II, the Audio Note (UK) website says:
"Level Two Red Book CD player. The CD 2.1x/II is essentially a component upgraded version of the CD1.1x, equipped with better parts such as our own custom produced Audio Note (UK) tantalum resistors, Cerafine capacitors and Audio Note (UK) copper foil capacitors, making for a more open, detailed and lively performance in comparison with its more affordable stable mate.
Whilst the rest of the audiophile world continues it delusional and ultimately doomed love affair with the currently fashionable crop of what are claimed to be 'high resolution' computer sources, we at Audio Note (UK) continue to extract even greater degrees of information and quality from Red Book CD, which is still the best, currently available digital music format.
Audio Note (UK) is highly critical of the digital medium as presented by compact disc; we sincerely hope that you too will find this transport breaks free from the 'digital mould' that we are all so accustomed to, and so opens a new window on your CD collection.
It has been specifically engineered for sonic performance rather than technical specification, and fulfills all Audio Note (UK) Level 2 criteria.
Digital, done right.
The CD 2.1x/II uses an in-house modified Philips L1210 dedicated Red Book CD mechanism and a simple yet revealing DAC based around the Philips 1543 16 bit multi-bit digital to analogue converter chip. The analogue output stage is equipped with the quite exceptional 6111WA miniature triode and our own in house designed and manufactured Audio Note (UK) copper foil capacitors. This player, like its bigger brothers, features no oversampling and no digital filtering, making for a highly effective sonic combination all housed in a small and robust chassis."
For technical specifications, Audio Note (UK) lists the following technical specifications for the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player:
"Optical Pick Up - 3 beam laser
Semi-Conductor Laser - 780 nm
Output Impedance - less than 2 KOhm
Reference Output - 3.0V RMS (approx.)
Channel Balance - less than 0.25dB
Unit Weight - 5 kg
Unit Dimensions - 96mm (h) x 445mm (w) x 270mm (d)
Mains Input - AC 100-120V / 220-240V 50/60Hz
Max. Power Consumption - 48W
Note - Due to Audio Note (UK)'s ongoing research and development program, specifications are subject to change without notice."
You can read the user manual for the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player HERE.
I've already started playing some of my Red Book CDs in the CD 2.1x/II this morning after I installed it into my primary music system, and I must say the two that I have listened to so far - Rickie Lee Jones' Pop Pop and Stan Getz's & Joao Gilberto's Getz / Gilberto - sounded very good, and that's with the CD 2.1x/II being cold out of the box with zero run-in hours on it.
That bodes well for the CD 2.1x/II's ultimate performance.
Ok, that's all for now. The feature review for Positive Feedback of the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player is quite a long ways out in my review queue, and I can't even offer a tentative date for the review yet. Perhaps Q2 of 2021 or so, or possibly earlier depending on how things go review-wise in my queue.
Until that time you can expect me to provide multiple sets of listening impressions of the CD 2.1x/II as I re-explore my own Red Book CD collection, and of course listen to Anatoly's remarkable 78rpm transfers to CD.
I'll also be discussing the technical aspects of the CD 2.1x/II with Peter and his Audio Note (UK) staff, getting their take on the performance of Red Book CDs in general, and how they have made the most of extracting what the Red Book CD standard has to offer, as well lots of other interesting insights along the way, per my usual fashion.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
