Original 2008F HDCD Player

[Haselsh1]

This is my Original 2008F HDCD compact disc player that was imported by me from China in 2006. After one year of use, the mains transformer burnt out and was replaced by a genuine UK mains unit. It has performed perfectly ever since however now it plays via a Beresford Caiman DAC that I bought early in 2010.

As a standalone CD player, the Original 2008F has a selectable digital filter which is either sharp or soft and is stunning with HDCD encoded discs. As a standard CD player the sound is quite coarse and confused hence the Beresford Caiman DAC to sort things out.

[Haselsh1]

My Dali Ikon 1 Mk1 loudspeakers. These loudspeakers are stood on Atacama stands and have a bass/midrange driver, a silk dome tweeter and a ribbon supertweeter. The sound is mainly one of detail and resolution with the ribbon supertweeter giving the sound a lot of 'air' and 'sparkle'. The bass is apparent for its detail rather than its extension.

All interconnects are Van Den Hul D102 MkIII HB

Speaker cables are NVA LS5 in 1.5 metre lengths

[Haselsh1]

By the way, the CD player originally cost £350 plus import duty with the new toroidal transformer costing £85 fitted.

[Jac Hawk]

nice very nice shaun an the pics are superb too

[Haselsh1]

This my replacement for the Croft pre/power I used to have until all of my finances and my business went belly up last year.

[Haselsh1]

I have to add also that the Croft could do with learning a serious lesson about build quality from Sony. In terms of sound differences, the only audible difference to me is the level of detail that the Croft uncovered. The Sony sounds far more powerful than the Croft did but of course, it isn't.

The Croft had a fabulous phono stage and the most amazing detail retrieval but was extremely poorly made in comparison to the Sony. The Sony is also slightly thin sounding when compared to the Croft but that extra warmth was only due to the Croft preamp as when my Caiman was linked straight into the Series 7, the sound was truly awful, being very thin and strident.

[Haselsh1]

Well, I am now the owner of a Project RPM4 turntable onto which I have grafted my Ortofon OM30 Super cartridge. It is now nine months since I last had the ability to play vinyl and having just listened to my favourite Marianne Faithful album, I can honestly say that it is everything I expected of it.

I just love the inky black silences and the gorgeous dark depth of the analogue sound. The midrange is truly glorious with Ms Faithful's voice forming resplendant poems and delicacies. I love this album. It is one of my best vinyl albums and I am over the moon that I can now listen to it again.

[Macca]

I'm jealous as I have no vinyl replay at the moment

I guess you are not missing your Croft set-up then Shaun?

[Haselsh1]

I'm jealous as I have no vinyl replay at the moment

I guess you are not missing your Croft set-up then Shaun?

Macca, I definitely miss the sound of the Croft but the build quality was something I shall never miss. Also, the ridiculous sensitivity of the input and the two volume controls I shall never miss.

The Croft has this ability to show you detail in recordings that you never even knew were there and leaves you completely gobsmacked at the sounds that emanate from your hi-fi. I for one really do miss that. It was one of the finest sounding amplifiers I have ever heard but only when in combination with each other. When I put my Caiman straight into the Series 7 without the Micro 25 pre the sound was truly bloody awful and only became glorious again when the pre was reintroduced. So for the future, I may buy a Micro 25 pre and use it with a different power but then again, I may do something completely different.