CD / SACD players and transports — Soulnote S-3

The S-3 is a Super Audio CD player built in Japan by Soulnote with silver and black versions available. Beyond SACD and standard CD, it also reads CD-R and CD-RW media burned at home and doubles as a D/A converter for external digital sources. The central idea of the design is to keep the clock of the drive mechanism synchronised with the converter, which Soulnote treats as the core of its disc playback approach. The data below refer to the current ver.2 production.

Key specs that matter

The analogue stage feeds both XLR and RCA sockets, delivering 5.6 Vrms balanced and 2.8 Vrms unbalanced. Frequency response is stated as 2 Hz to 150 kHz within +0/-1 dB, signal to noise ratio as 110 dB and total harmonic distortion as 0.008 percent. Digital inputs comprise two USB Type B ports accepting up to 768 kHz PCM and 22.6 MHz DSD, a coaxial S/PDIF input and an AES/EBU input, both of those limited to 192 kHz PCM and DSD64 via DoP, plus a ZERO LINK connection. A 10 MHz BNC socket accepts an external master clock. The chassis measures 454 x 174 x 393 mm, weighs about 27 kg and draws 50 W from the mains.

Engineering and use context

Four ES9038PRO chips, two per channel, form the converter, and Soulnote says they supply a current output of 120 mA per channel. The following analogue section uses the Type-R circuit, a fully balanced voltage amplifier built from only four bipolar transistors and eight resistors with no feedback in its topology. Timing comes from an LMX2594 DDS master clock rated at 45 fs jitter, which drives both the converter and the SACD mechanism so that the two run in complete synchronisation. The owner can choose between a non-oversampling NOS mode, which avoids the pre-echo and post-echo of a conventional digital filter, and a 32-bit 8x oversampling filter. ZERO LINK is a proprietary synchronisation protocol developed together with SFORZATO to remove asynchronous operation between linked units. An optional paid upgrade called S-3 Reference, priced at JPY 330,000, brings the player closer to the D-3 converter with naked foil resistors and Soulnote custom relays.

Pairing

The balanced XLR outputs suit Soulnote integrated amplifiers such as the A-3, which offers three balanced inputs, keeping the whole chain balanced from converter to power stage. A computer or network transport can be connected through USB, and a separate reference clock can be added later through the BNC input.

Alternatives

Soulnote currently offers no other SACD or CD player besides the S-3, so there is no alternative disc player from the brand.