CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Audio Note CD 3.1x/II

The CD 3.1x/II is a one-box valve CD player from Audio Note (UK) of Hove, East Sussex, and the maker files it under its Level 2 criteria. In the company's player range it sits above the CD 2.1x/II and below the CD 4.1x and CD 5.1x, and the same converter design is also offered on its own as the DAC 3.1x. It reads Red Book CD only, with no SACD, streaming or Bluetooth functions. The US price is USD 6,818, and fascia options are anodised aluminium or black acrylic.

Key specs that matter

An Analog Devices AD1865, a dual 18-bit multi-bit device, performs the conversion. The disc drive is a Philips mechanism with front loading and a 3 beam laser pickup working at 780 nm, modified in-house. The valve output stage uses two ECC88 dual triodes and delivers a reference output of about 3.0 V RMS through stereo RCA sockets, from an output impedance below 2 kOhm. Channel balance is held within 0.5 dB. The chassis is 445 mm wide, 142 mm high and 420 mm deep, it weighs 8 kg, it accepts mains of 100 to 120 V or 220 to 240 V at 50 or 60 Hz, and maximum consumption is 48 W.

Engineering and use context

Audio Note states that this was the first integrated player in its range to use the AD1865, the chip it also fits in its more costly stand-alone converters. The digital section applies no oversampling and no digital filtering, so the 44.1 kHz data reaches the converter without being interpolated to a higher rate, and no brick-wall filter follows in the analogue domain either. That approach is the reason for the valve stage, which takes the current output of the chip and turns it into a line-level voltage. Coupling uses copper foil capacitors that Audio Note designs and makes itself, and tantalum resistors are placed in the critical parts of the circuit. The company says the player was engineered for performance in use rather than for measured figures, which is why its published data stops at output level, impedance and balance and gives no distortion or noise values. Because the output stage relies on valves, the ECC88 pair is a service item that will need replacement over the life of the unit.

Pairing

The output level is higher than the common 2 V line level, so integrated amplifiers and preamplifiers with modest gain are a good match, and inputs of 20 kOhm or more keep the load light for the valve output stage.

Alternatives

The Audio Note CD 4.1x keeps the AD1865 chip and two ECC88 valves but moves to a Philips CD Pro 2 mechanism and gives even the display its own dedicated supply.