CD / SACD players and transports — Accustic Arts PLAYER IV

The PLAYER IV is a CD player loaded from above that also contains a digital-to-analogue converter. It is handmade by Accustic Arts in Lauffen am Neckar, a town close to Stuttgart in southern Germany, and it replaces the earlier PLAYER II MK2 in the company's range. Besides spinning discs, it can act purely as a DAC for outside sources. The UK list price was GBP 19,800 and the New Zealand price NZD 35,995 including GST, and the front and chrome or gold trim come in silver or black anodised combinations, giving four versions in total.

Key specs that matter

At its centre sits the CD-Pro8 transport, the successor to the Philips CDPro2 mechanism, which handles pressed CDs and the writable CD-R and CD-RW formats. Digital inputs number four - a pair of 75 ohm coaxial RCA, one optical and one asynchronous USB 2.0 socket rated for 32 bit at 384 kHz and DSD512, so a computer can send ALAC, FLAC, AIFF or WAV files. The analogue side offers balanced XLR at 2 x 33 ohm and single-ended RCA at 33 ohm. Distortion (THD+N) is quoted at 0.0001 percent, and channel crosstalk stays below 106 dB with a digital 0 dB signal. The housing measures 165 x 482 x 375 mm, height first, and Accustic Arts gives a weight of approximately 23 kg.

Engineering and use context

The transport is embedded in a heavy aluminium block shaped to limit resonance, and this drive assembly sits in its own solid aluminium sub-chassis inside a cast metal outer case with extensive mechanical decoupling. After the lid is opened, the disc is held down by a puck of chromed brass with a built-in magnet. Conversion follows the upsampling approach carried over from the PLAYER II, with the analogue and digital circuits kept physically apart in the case to improve signal-to-noise ratio. Power comes from two independent supplies, each with its own 25 VA toroidal transformer made in Germany. The front panel is microlised aluminium, and an Accustic Arts remote is supplied.

Pairing

Since the output impedance is very low, the player can feed long cable runs and preamplifiers or integrated amplifiers through either XLR or RCA without concern about the load. The four inputs let a network streamer, a TV or a PC share the internal converter, which makes the PLAYER IV a single hub for discs and files.

Alternatives

The Accustic Arts PLAYER III is a tray-loading CD player and DAC from the same company in a 130 mm tall case weighing around 13 kg.