CD / SACD players and transports — Luxman D-03R

The D-03R is a disc spinner and DAC in one box, built by the Japanese company Luxman, and it follows the D-03X in the same 440 mm wide chassis. Luxman describes it as a unified trinity of drive mechanism, digital processing and analogue output, pairing a dedicated disc drive with inputs for computer and other digital sources.

Key specs that matter

Two ROHM BD34352EKV converter chips run in dual-mono configuration, one per channel. Supported discs are CD and MQA-CD, and full MQA decoding works on the disc and on every digital input, with a bypass function. The USB input accepts PCM from 44.1 to 384 kHz at 16, 24 or 32 bit and DSD from 2.8 to 22.5 MHz. The S/PDIF pair, coaxial and optical, carries PCM between 44.1 and 192 kHz at up to 24 bit plus 2.8 MHz DSD over PCM. Analogue output is 2.4 V through RCA at 300 ohm and through Neutrik XLR at 600 ohm. For CD, response runs from 5 Hz to 20 kHz within 1 dB, distortion is 0.002% and IHF-A weighted noise sits 110 dB below full output. Through the digital inputs, bandwidth extends to 47 kHz at minus 3 dB, distortion falls to 0.001% and signal-to-noise rises to 118 dB. The player draws 16 W, measures 440 x 133 x 410 mm and weighs 13.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

The single-laser CD drive sits inside a rigid steel enclosure on a 3.2 mm steel mounting base, placed at the left of an asymmetrical layout meant to shorten signal flow and isolate vibration. The output amplifier is fully balanced with differential current-to-voltage conversion. Each input has its own low-jitter circuitry, and an ultra-low phase noise master clock module governs timing. Power passes through dual-stage regulation with separate circuits for the mechanical, digital and analogue blocks, and the DAC supply capacitance is doubled to two 6,600 uF block capacitors. The AC inlet is mounted inverted for secure cable contact. A large high-resolution OLED display offers a zoom mode, four dimmer levels and automatic brightness adjustment.

Pairing

Its pair of analogue output types suits an integrated or preamplifier with either input type, and rear control input and output terminals are provided. An aluminium RD-28 remote with a numeric keypad comes in the box, and the free LUXMAN Audio Player software for Windows and macOS plays FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, MP3, DSF and DSDIFF files over USB.

Alternatives

The Luxman D-07X adds SACD playback with dual ROHM BD34301EKV converters and USB support up to 768 kHz PCM.