FS: AVI Series 21 MC4 Reference CD player (early Lab Series)

[nat8808]

Photos to come later...

Up for sale is my AVI Series 21 MC4 Reference 24bit CD player! Mint condition complete with remote, manual and full packing.

If you know your AVI, you'll recognise the Series 21 as the Lab series which is very highly regarded. Yet this is a rare early version styled to match the S2000 series before the style change.

The internals are the same as the Lab Series other than a different transport mech (in comparison it looks sturdier than the later versions) and using a slightly different output board layout with the 24-bit Crystal CS4390 DAC.

Sounds fantastic - very natural and neutral sounding with great detail, wide soundstage, portraying the music effortlessly. The 24 bit DAC also means that music recorded at 20bit+ and downsampled with the right dither algorithm to CD can be replayed at its full 19-bit effective resolution.

Asking £600 plus postage (which should be relatively cheap in the UK) or collected or I could deliver for fuel costs.

[nat8808]

Photos! Forgive the wonkiness.. the CCD in the camera shifted when i dropped it a while ago.

http://imageshack.us/a/img842/9373/sg101533.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img854/2577/sg101534.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img152/5913/sg101535.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img818/3578/sg101536.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img856/5626/sg101538.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img825/1173/sg101530.jpg

For comparison, here are the internals of the facelift Lab S21 that came out a year or two later (from a french review). You can see that the early version actually uses better parts (sturdier mech with more expensive control board underneath - rather than the cheap brown board - separate transformers, extra custom control chip etc). The rear panel is the same and the front panel layout the same too.

http://www.audiotec.nl/_files/hf_avi_cd_player2.jpg

Is suitable for 110V too with an extra jumper connection added (not provided).

[AlanS]

Best of for the sale. The later Lab series CD was/is very neutral I bet this is at least as good.

[nat8808]

Cheers.

I've not heard the later Lab Series but having researched the later, well known version, trying to work out the differences, I actually think this early one is the better model.

From what I remember, AVI had a problem with their original mech supplier and then had to re-design. I'm pretty sure that related to after the S2000 series. My hunch is that this early version is the original design as envisioned by AVI from the ground up and the later Lab series actually a compromise with a different mech (hence why there is less custom control circuitry) but then re-branded with a heavier metal casework.

Would be interesting to hear if there were any differences. I think the well known version uses a slightly later Crystal DAC but certainly doesn't upsample so can't see the lower noisefloor paper specs of that DAC would actually come into play on 16/44.1 CD.