Has anyone seen or heard one yet? Are they available yet? How does it stack up against things like the CDX/XPS or the CDS-II/XPS?
Just continuing my cd source research...
TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."
Posted on: 29 June 2002 by Top Cat
Hi folks.
Finally had a chance to hear one of the first Opus 21s to hit the UK. I'll keep the post brief as I will be borrowing one for a home demo soon, but suffice to say that it is one great machine beyond anything one would expect for the £2850 price of admission.
It's a two box design, with transport and DAC in one box, display and PSU in another. Either box is approximately Nait width, maybe a little wider, and is pretty snazzy looking. The display being on a seperate unit, it's a strange affair, and I kept finding myself looking
at the wrong bit. Ah well...
In terms of standout points (leaving the sound aside for a moment) the biggest obvious difference over regular cd players is the transport itself - it's derived from a CD-Rom (or is it DVD-Rom) and the access time between tracks is almost instantaneous, which doesn't really
sound that impressive until you try a conventional player - it's one heck of a deck in this respect.
Sonically, it is difficult to tell. It's considerably better than a CDX, but costs more. I heard it in the context of an unfamiliar
system, so judgement has to be reserved, but its performance was at least the equal of that of the CDS-II/XPS when auditioned in my own system. Without a side-by-side, it would be difficult to judge, but I believe that a home audition is going to be interesting indeed.
Biggest things I noted were a complete, unshakable control over the music. Unlike most cd players, it's a musical performance which exudes, rather than a facsimile of a musical performance. PRaT, all there and as good as I've heard. Tonality second to none, detail beyond
anything I've yet heard.
Just a taster, and I don't want to jump to conclusions, but at the asking price I think the competition should be very scared indeed...
In my opinion thus far, it is the best cd player I've heard. Certainly by far and away the best I've heard under three grand by a considerable margin, and the unit I heard wasn't even fully broken in...
More soon. My, my, could my cd player search be over???
TC '..'
"Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."
Posted on: 30 June 2002 by Top Cat
Not using the O21 yet, will be eventually using a DNM 3D Six preamp (or Twin if funds don't allow the Six) using DIN:DIN unbalanced Nordost SPM.
I can't wait to get to hear the CD player again - I've never been this excited about any cd player before - it's breathtaking compared to the competition. Can't wait to hear one that's been fully broken in (knowing my luck it won't sound as good
)
TC '..'"
Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a Muffin..."
