Disc & File Players:
A+:
Antipodes Oladra server/streamer: $29,000
This expensive server/streamer/reclocker from New Zealand is designed for precise clocking, low noise, and high bandwidth. The Oladra can serve as a Roon Core and can be operated with Roon or with another player app like HQPlayer, MPD with MinimServer, or with "Squeeze," Antipodes' own customized version of the Logitech Media Server. The Oladra can access audio files stored remotely on a NAS and stream music from Qobuz, Tidal, and other streaming services. Users can also add up to 24TB of internal storage—Antipodes recommends Samsung PM893 cards—by sliding up to three cards into the storage slots on the rear panel. In order of decreasing sound quality (according to Antipodes), data outputs are I2S on HDMI or RJ45, AES3, S/PDIF (BNC and RCA), and USB 2. There is also "Direct Stream Ethernet," when the data emerges direct from the Server engine, out to a streaming DAC, bypassing the Player and Reclocker. Using a dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC (which doesn't have an I2S input), JVS found that music sounded best when he used Squeeze as both server and player and AES3 or S/PDIF (BNC) for the Oladra's output. Switching outputs from AES3 to USB, which bypasses the Oladra's reclocker, he noted that the sound wasn't quite as warm, color-saturated, or transparent. Overall, Antipodes Audio's top-line Oladra "is among the finest sounding music servers I've had in my system," he concluded. On Paul Miller's testbench, the Oladra's output significantly reduced jitter compared with his desktop PC driving USB-connected AudioQuest DragonFly and iFi Audio NEO iDSD DACs, but offered little improvement with Mytek Brooklyn and dCS Vivaldi One APEX DACs. (Vol.46 No.7 WWW) CH Precision D1.5 SACD/CD player/transport: from $39,000; As reviewed $44,000 ★
Base price is for the SACD/CD transport, which has TosLink, AES3, and CH's proprietary high-rez CH Link HD; two MQA-capable mono DAC cards add $5000. Control is via two coaxial knobs on the front panel or with an app for Android devices. When it's used as a player, all data are upsampled to DXD (24/384), and the analog output is processed with a reconstruction filter optimized for the time domain. Playing CDs, JCA reported that low frequencies had “seismic weight” and that stereo imaging precision and soundstage depth were excellent. He also noticed how good the D1.5 sounded at low volume. With the MQA-CD of Patricia Barber's Clique, JCA wrote that Barber’s voice had a lovely, creamy texture, though as the music got louder, he detected some congestion. In level-matched comparisons of the SACD version of this album, he didn't hear as much creaminess on the vocals, though the presentation was not congested at high levels. JCA concluded that after several months with the D1.5 he never got bored; the music kept surprising him. In the test lab, JA found that with CD data this filter rolled-off frequencies above 15kHz because the review sample’s firmware had selected an incorrect filter; JCA updated the firmware and reported on the behavior with the correct filter in the May 2022 issue. He wrote that with the new firmware, the transformation in the sound of the D1.5, when playing CDs, was qualitative. It “wasn't necessarily—wasn’t immediately—a giant leap forward in absolute sonic quality. It was, rather, simply a major change in sonic character.” Other than the frequency response with CDs now extending to –3dB at 20kHz, the primary measurable difference was the change from a relatively long, minimum-phase impulse response to an extremely short impulse response. (Vol.45 Nos.3 & 5 WWW) dCS Rossini SACD Transport: $29,900 ★
Unlike the earlier Rossini Player, which only played CDs, the Rossini Transport uses a new mechanism from Denon that plays both SACDs and CDs. The Transport outputs audio data on twin AES3 links, to allow it to send native DSD data and CD data upsampled to DXD, DSD, or double DSD (these both encrypted) to a dCS DAC. JA used the Transport with a Rossini DAC and was mightily impressed by what he heard. He consistently preferred the sound of SACDs played on the Transport compared with the same data sent to the Rossini DAC over his network, feeling that the low frequencies sounded more robust. "Once these words have been laid out on the pages of this issue," JA concluded, "I'll have to return [the Rossini Transport] to dCS. It breaks my heart." (Vol.42 No.5 WWW)
Grimm Audio MU1 music streamer: $14,800 plus cost of internal storage ★
The MU1 is based on an Intel twin-core i3 processor running a Linux-based operating system. It incorporates a Roon Core and is fully integrated with the Roon Server app. It can be controlled by rotating and pressing a top-mounted, bronze-colored disc; a high-precision digital volume control and other functions can be selected with this control. While its Ethernet and USB ports can be used to send audio data from the Intel board to a DAC, the MU1 upsamples PCM data and downsamples DSD data sourced from its AES3 outputs using what Grimm calls a “Pure Nyquist” decimation filter hosted in a Xilinx FPGA. (Measurement revealed that this is an ultrafast-rolloff filter, reaching full stop-band attenuation at half the original PCM data’s sample rate.) JA very much preferred the sound from the AES3 outputs, finding that the upsampling of CD-resolution data reduced congestion, added depth to the soundstage, and increased the separation among acoustic objects. JA recommended the MU1 highly as a streamer, writing that it can also operate as a network bridge with legacy D/A processors that don’t have USB or Ethernet ports. It can also be used as the sole source component with active speakers that have digital inputs, including Grimm's own LS1c, reviewed in our April 2025 issue. A 1TB SSD adds $225; 2TB SSD adds $430; 4TB SSD adds $805. (Vol.44 No.3, Vol.48 No.4 WWW) Grimm Audio MU2: $20,600 without internal storage
This Dutch streaming player features digital and analog inputs and can operate as a Roon Server with internal and external storage. (An internal 2TB SSD adds just $235; 8TB SSD adds $630.) It can also act as an End Point for other Roon servers on the same network. There are balanced and single-ended analog outputs as well as a 6.3mm headphone jack. A wheel on the top panel allows access to the settings menu and volume and input selection. The MU2 can also be controlled with the Grimm UI (GRUI) web interface; once the Grimm’s Ethernet port is connected to the user’s network, this page can be found by scanning the QR code shown on the front panel’s menu display. Playing a 24/96 remaster of Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet from a 2TB drive plugged into the MU2’s USB port, KR noted a definite illusion of the presence of the instruments in his room. “Each was clearly delineated, and the overall balance was neutral, favoring nothing but revealing the full, inherent color and body of the instruments,” he wrote. KR’s conclusion: “The Grimm MU2 is a bang-up success. It combines cutting-edge digital processing and digital-to-analog conversion with a Roon Core and a remarkably transparent volume control and input/output selector. … It offers completely satisfying sound and flawless ergonomics. It is worthy of the very best amplifiers, speakers, and critical listeners.” JA noted that the MU2 offered superb measured performance with both digital and analog sources. (Vol.47 No.8 WWW) Ideon Audio Absolute Stream meta edition (2024) server/streamer: $28,500
The Absolute Stream meta edition can render music files stored on its internal 4TB SSD (an 8TB SSD is also available) or on USB- or network-connected external storage. It can natively stream Internet radio, Spotify, and Qobuz, and adds an embedded Roon core. Features include a CPU that's “highly prioritized for audio playback only, ensuring highly optimized sound quality” and a reclocking circuit that includes “no-compromise femto clock architecture embedded as standard” on an upgradable platform that is said to eliminate jitter. Ideon considers a USB source of data less prone to noise than a network connection; the optional Alpha Wave LAN optimizer ($6900) takes in an Ethernet signal, converts it to USB, reclocks it, and outputs the music data over USB 3.0. JVS found that Ideon’s web-based app had metadata problems with WAV files; it did much better with FLAC. “Never before have I reviewed a standalone streamer/server so accomplished in the hardware department, yet so behind the best in software implementation,” noted JVS, but such limitations aside, he wrote that the Ideon Absolute Stream meta edition (2024), running its own software, delivered clearer, more involving sound than any other music server or streamer he’d heard in his reference system. (Vol.47 No.11 WWW)
Innuos Nazaré server/streamer: $55,000
The Portuguese company’s new flagship server/streamer offers up to 16TB storage via M.2 SSDs (up to 8TB internal, up to 8TB via expansion slot, all seen as a single volume). It is compatible with Innuos Sense, Roon, UPnP Server, and HQPlayer (NAA endpoint only) and works with Qobuz and Qobuz Connect, Tidal and Tidal Connect, Deezer, HighResAudio, iDagio, and Spotify Connect. The Nazaré sits on four OEM IsoAcoustics Gaia footers and features a tuned “PreciseAudio” mainboard with 20 cores and 32GB of industrial-grade RAM and new “PreciseUSB” and “PreciseNET” boards with direct CPU connection. Its power supply includes high-precision “multifilar” toroidal transformers, custom Lundahl inductors, an upgraded NGaN+ regulator with high-performance filters, and premium internal cabling. The back panel features an RJ45 jack for connection to a network and a reclocked USB-A output, which JVS used with Innuos Sense for his review. (While there is a second USB output, this is not reclocked.) The Nazaré can be used on its own or with two related products, the NazaréFLOW and NazaréNET, neither of which was available at the time of the review. When used as an all-in-one, the Nazaré’s internal PreciseNET serves as the RJ45 input and takes the place of the PhoenixNET and the improved NazaréNET; the Nazaré’s PreciseUSB boards take the place of the NazaréFLOW’s reclocker stage, I2S via HDMI output, reclocked USB output, and DAC-specific outputs. Compared with the Innuos Statement Next-Gen (no longer available), the Nazaré sounded cleaner, fuller, and better-defined on bottom. The Statement Next-Gen was a little thinner and less refined at the top of the range, and colors he had reveled in with the Nazaré seemed less saturated with the Next-Gen. Listening to Maya de Vitry and Lockeland Strings’ “Watching the Whole Sky Change,” JVS commented that as beautiful as de Vitry’s voice sounded through the Statement Next-Gen, the pristine silence that surrounded it and her guitar through the Nazaré left him mesmerized: “For four minutes, I felt fulfilled.” JVS concluded that if you want to hear everything that a gifted recording engineer can encode on a file, “you’ve got to audition the Nazaré. Even if it isn’t in your price range, an audition will give you a reference to guide future choices. And if it is in your price range, prepare for many new musical adventures.” (Vol.48 No.9 WWW) Innuos ZENith Next-Gen streamer/server: $21,700 as reviewed
The ZENith Next-Gen can be fitted with 2TB of internal storage but can also be used with external network audio data as well as streaming sources, courtesy of the Innuos Sense iOS and Android app. (Sense is also installed in the streamer and can be accessed with a Web browser.) Standard Outputs are three USB 3.2 Gen2 capable of PCM up to 32/768, DSD up to DSD256 by DoP, DSD512 native, and two Ethernet ports (one for LAN connection, the other for connection to a streaming DAC). A USB port can also be connected to an external CD drive to rip CDs with Sense. Roon can be used to manage the music library with music playback left to the Innuos Music Player, which is part of Sense. Music Player can also be replaced by HQ Player. JCA wasn’t satisfied with how Innuos Sense handled classical metadata, so he primarily used the ZENith Next-Gen with Roon. He was impressed with the result. Compared with Innuos’s two-box Statement flagship player, he found the sound very similar, but their virtues were slightly shifted. “The Statement majors in liquidity and perhaps has a dash of extra soundstage depth. With the ZENith, I heard a bit more transient emphasis—a bit more leading edge to percussive notes.” (Vol.48 No.5 WWW) MBL Noble Line N31: $18,500; optional Roon module is $1480 ★
Designed to play “Red Book” CDs and, via its USB and other digital inputs, music files up to 24/192 and DSD64 (DoP), the Noble Line N31 is less a digital-audio Swiss Army knife than a luxuriantly attractive, 40lb monument to the idea of perfecting the playback of audiophilia’s best-loved digital formats. Built around the ESS Sabre 9018 DAC, the N31 offers a full-color 5" TFT display—the MBL player recognizes CD text and displays title information—and features an SD Card slot for firmware updates, a choice of three playback filters, and a remote handset that lights up before the person reaching for it has even touched it. Listening to CDs and even a CD-R through the N13, JA was impressed by the “sheer tangibility” of the MBL’s sound, noting that, with its Min filter engaged, the N31 “gracefully reproduced” one “overcooked” track, and that the differences among its three filters were “greater in degree than with other DACs.” Through the MBL's USB inputs, even iPhones and iPads, their own volume controls disarmed by the MBL’s USB input, offered “excellent” sound quality. JA originally raised an eyebrow at the lack of a network port and the fact that the player's filters can’t be selected via the remote handset, but both of these issues have been addressed in 2020 production with the optional Roon Ready Input Module. As with USB, the networked MBL rendered music with an excellent sense of overall drive and low-frequency impact, JA found, with low-level recorded detail well-resolved. JA concluded his original review by saying that digital sound “doesn't get any better” than what he heard from the N31. He also noted that the MBL offered 21 bits of resolution—the current state of the art of digital audio. This prompted JA the measurer to agree with JA the listener: “Digital audio engineering doesn't get any better.” (Vol.41 No.2, Vol.43 No.12 WWW)
Totaldac d1-streamer-sublime music server: 9100
This French streamer/server offers a network input and digital outputs and functions as a Roon endpoint. It tops out at 24/192, and it passes DSD via DoP. AH used the d1-streamer sublime to audition Totaldac’s d1-unity—see Digital Processors. When he replaced it with his usual combination of Sonore ultraRendu and Denafrips Iris digital-to-digital converter, the sound was possibly a hair more forceful but also audibly less refined and purposeful. “The meaning of the music was less obvious, and everything sounded just a bit more mechanical,” he wrote. (Vol.46 No.12 WWW) A: Advance Paris X-CD9 CD player: $1399
This French player uses a Sanyo CD mechanism and two new old stock, Raytheon-branded, 5744 subminiature signal tubes to buffer the output of a Wolfson WM8762 DAC. CD data are upsampled to 24/96 or 24/192—this is not defeatable—and there is also a USB input: the X-CD9 could play WAV and MP3 files sampled at 44.1kHz via USB but couldn’t play AIF or AAC files or files with higher sample rates. Listening to a 10-CD set of vintage Billie Holiday recordings, KM noted that the X-CD9 captured Holiday’s nuanced phrasing, feeling for elastic tempi, and the richness of her sinewy voice: “With the X-CD9, I felt I was missing nothing. It captured every inflection, every swinging sigh. I felt the tow of her enigmatic genius.” With a classic Charlie Parker CD, KM wondered if he could have craved more rhythm, swagger, or a bigger, bolder soundstage? “Maybe—but the dead-silent background, precise imaging, and digital precision more than made up for any shortcomings—sins of omission, not commission.” He concluded that the X-CD9 “delivered all the high-level performance parameters you’d expect from a CD player in 2025, for a price affordable to all but the stingiest audiophile.” On the test bench, while the Advance Paris player’s error correction was one of the best JA had encountered, both the single-ended and balanced output impedances were awkwardly high, the measured resolution was low—and different with disc and USB data—and the noisefloor was modulated with high-level, high-frequency signals. (Vol.49 No.1 WWW) Hegel Viking: $5500
This slot-loading player uses the well-regarded AKM4493SEQ DAC chip and doesn’t have any digital inputs. It just plays CDs. It does, however, have a coaxial S/PDIF digital output, which JA found featured very low jitter. HR played CDs and was impressed by what he heard. “CDs exhibited more crystallized forms than similar recordings played back from Tidal at CD resolution. The Viking projected images with more-distinct outlines than Tidal’s 16/44.1 tracks. Those more-distinct forms felt more relaxed and less edge-sharpened than similar recordings of the same program at higher sampling rates on Qobuz,” he wrote. HR concluded that the Viking “presented every CD with enough verve, transparency, and natural detail to make each disc sound distinctly different, which shows that the player’s sound was not swamping the disc’s sound. This ability to disappear and put the character and vital energies of recordings up front made the Viking exciting to use, and that is my highest compliment.” (Vol.46 No.12 WWW)
Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II Roon Core: $4995
The small Brooklyn Bridge II streaming D/A preamplifier offers digital and analog inputs, including an MC/MM phono input, balanced and single-ended analog and headphone outputs, and incorporates a Roon core. All its owner needs to add to create a complete system are some file storage, a power amplifier, and a pair of loudspeakers. TF found the touchscreen too small for easy use, instead controlling the BBII functions with the Roon app. (Roon identified the Brooklyn Bridge II as a full MQA decoder and renderer.) He found that the single-ended outputs picked up some hash from his Mesh Wi-Fi network, though JCA and JA didn't encounter any Wi-Fi–related problems in their own systems. In the test lab, JA noted that the Mytek runs very hot. The DAC circuit offers between 18 and 19 bits' worth of resolution, he found, and commented that the analog output stage coped well with punishing loads. He was less impressed with the phono input, finding that even in MM mode, the noisefloor suffered from supply-related spuriae, these presumably radiated from the power transformer packed into the small chassis. The levels of these spuriae were unacceptably high in MC mode, decided JA—who only heard broadband noise in MM mode. TF was also bothered by the Mytek's phono input, finding that even in MM mode, "there was enough hiss and hum to be audible at the listening position, through all outputs: balanced, unbalanced, headphone." Hum aside, however, he wrote that LPs "sounded vivid, the tonal balance was right, there was plenty of headroom." Playing back files from his NAS drive, TF wrote that "the BBII sounds damn good. ... Its character was uncolored and revealing. ... The BBII is a fine DAC, in the top tier of its price range." (Vol.46 No.9 WWW) Shanling ET3 CD transport: $899 $$$
The top-loading ET3 uses a Philips SAA7824 CD drive and a Sanyo HD850 laser pickup. As well as TosLink, AES3, and S/PDIF (RCA) digital outputs, the ET3 supports Wi-Fi streaming, AirPlay, Bluetooth, and MQA, and it can input and output audio via a pair of USB-A interfaces: one for connecting an external SSD, acting as a server for FAT32-formatted NAS drives up to 2TB to play DSD files up to DSD512 and PCM files up to 768kHz; and one that’s a wide-band, asynchronous digital music output. Playback can be controlled with an app for Android and Apple iOS, called “Eddict Player,” and a CT7302CL upsampling chip can convert the outputs to DSD or high-rez PCM. With its upsampling bypassed, the Shanling played “just-right crisp,” wrote HR. “Detail was beguiling. Vocal and instrumental riffs I’d never noticed before now preened for attention.” Upsampling to 24/192, the sound became bigger, bassier, and more punchy-plucky. More glossy and edgy. But it seemed fake and unevenly lit, decided HR. While he found that oversampling to DSD was enjoyable enough it was “ nothing special compared to the vivid precision of the ET3’s NOS output.” (Vol.48 No.10 WWW) TEAC VRDS-701T CD transport: $3299.99
TEAC’s transport uses a CD mechanism that floats free from the chassis. The benefit offered by this mechanism, which clamps the optical disc on a turntable of the same diameter, is said to be that the surface blurring caused by rotational vibration and warping is suppressed and that the relative optical axis accuracy between the optical pickup and the disc’s pits and lands is increased. The TEAC has two S/PDIF outputs, optical and coaxial, and a word clock input. Using the transport with Linear Tube Audio’s Aero R-2R DAC—see Digital Processors—HR noted that the sound was dense and precise in a way he’d never previously heard from digital. “By ‘dense,’” he wrote, he meant “a tangible corporality effected by seemingly infinite quantities of small, tightly packed molecules of musical information.” HR concluded that the VRDS-701T transport was a revelation. “It made digital more compelling than I thought it could be. I never anticipated this much drive, density, inner detail, or tone truthfulness from a digital source.” (Vol.47 No.9 WWW)
Wattson Emerson Digital: $1750
See Robert Schryer's review in this issue. (Vol.49 No.4 WWW) B: Sparkler Audio S515t “ballade II” CD transport: $1575 $$$
Although this top-loading Japanese transport uses a TEAC mechanism, HR found that the Sparkler was less reserved and inner-detailed than TEAC’s own VRDS 701T transport with both feeding data to a Denafrips DAC. Nevertheless, the Sparkler sounded enriched in presence and immediacy. The jump, glimmer, and sparkle were less present when spun by the TEAC than they were with the ballade II, he commented. The Sparkler’s sound is best described as “alive with drive,” wrote HR, concluding that this small, smart-looking, reasonably priced CD transport “brings digital a big step closer to analog.” (Vol.48 No.3 WWW) Deletions
Melco N50 digital music library, not currently distributed in the US. Burmester Musiccenter 151 MK2, not auditioned in a long time.
This expensive server/streamer/reclocker from New Zealand is designed for precise clocking, low noise, and high bandwidth. The Oladra can serve as a Roon Core and can be operated with Roon or with another player app like HQPlayer, MPD with MinimServer, or with "Squeeze," Antipodes' own customized version of the Logitech Media Server. The Oladra can access audio files stored remotely on a NAS and stream music from Qobuz, Tidal, and other streaming services. Users can also add up to 24TB of internal storage—Antipodes recommends Samsung PM893 cards—by sliding up to three cards into the storage slots on the rear panel. In order of decreasing sound quality (according to Antipodes), data outputs are I2S on HDMI or RJ45, AES3, S/PDIF (BNC and RCA), and USB 2. There is also "Direct Stream Ethernet," when the data emerges direct from the Server engine, out to a streaming DAC, bypassing the Player and Reclocker. Using a dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC (which doesn't have an I2S input), JVS found that music sounded best when he used Squeeze as both server and player and AES3 or S/PDIF (BNC) for the Oladra's output. Switching outputs from AES3 to USB, which bypasses the Oladra's reclocker, he noted that the sound wasn't quite as warm, color-saturated, or transparent. Overall, Antipodes Audio's top-line Oladra "is among the finest sounding music servers I've had in my system," he concluded. On Paul Miller's testbench, the Oladra's output significantly reduced jitter compared with his desktop PC driving USB-connected AudioQuest DragonFly and iFi Audio NEO iDSD DACs, but offered little improvement with Mytek Brooklyn and dCS Vivaldi One APEX DACs. (Vol.46 No.7 WWW) CH Precision D1.5 SACD/CD player/transport: from $39,000; As reviewed $44,000 ★
Base price is for the SACD/CD transport, which has TosLink, AES3, and CH's proprietary high-rez CH Link HD; two MQA-capable mono DAC cards add $5000. Control is via two coaxial knobs on the front panel or with an app for Android devices. When it's used as a player, all data are upsampled to DXD (24/384), and the analog output is processed with a reconstruction filter optimized for the time domain. Playing CDs, JCA reported that low frequencies had “seismic weight” and that stereo imaging precision and soundstage depth were excellent. He also noticed how good the D1.5 sounded at low volume. With the MQA-CD of Patricia Barber's Clique, JCA wrote that Barber’s voice had a lovely, creamy texture, though as the music got louder, he detected some congestion. In level-matched comparisons of the SACD version of this album, he didn't hear as much creaminess on the vocals, though the presentation was not congested at high levels. JCA concluded that after several months with the D1.5 he never got bored; the music kept surprising him. In the test lab, JA found that with CD data this filter rolled-off frequencies above 15kHz because the review sample’s firmware had selected an incorrect filter; JCA updated the firmware and reported on the behavior with the correct filter in the May 2022 issue. He wrote that with the new firmware, the transformation in the sound of the D1.5, when playing CDs, was qualitative. It “wasn't necessarily—wasn’t immediately—a giant leap forward in absolute sonic quality. It was, rather, simply a major change in sonic character.” Other than the frequency response with CDs now extending to –3dB at 20kHz, the primary measurable difference was the change from a relatively long, minimum-phase impulse response to an extremely short impulse response. (Vol.45 Nos.3 & 5 WWW) dCS Rossini SACD Transport: $29,900 ★
Unlike the earlier Rossini Player, which only played CDs, the Rossini Transport uses a new mechanism from Denon that plays both SACDs and CDs. The Transport outputs audio data on twin AES3 links, to allow it to send native DSD data and CD data upsampled to DXD, DSD, or double DSD (these both encrypted) to a dCS DAC. JA used the Transport with a Rossini DAC and was mightily impressed by what he heard. He consistently preferred the sound of SACDs played on the Transport compared with the same data sent to the Rossini DAC over his network, feeling that the low frequencies sounded more robust. "Once these words have been laid out on the pages of this issue," JA concluded, "I'll have to return [the Rossini Transport] to dCS. It breaks my heart." (Vol.42 No.5 WWW)
The MU1 is based on an Intel twin-core i3 processor running a Linux-based operating system. It incorporates a Roon Core and is fully integrated with the Roon Server app. It can be controlled by rotating and pressing a top-mounted, bronze-colored disc; a high-precision digital volume control and other functions can be selected with this control. While its Ethernet and USB ports can be used to send audio data from the Intel board to a DAC, the MU1 upsamples PCM data and downsamples DSD data sourced from its AES3 outputs using what Grimm calls a “Pure Nyquist” decimation filter hosted in a Xilinx FPGA. (Measurement revealed that this is an ultrafast-rolloff filter, reaching full stop-band attenuation at half the original PCM data’s sample rate.) JA very much preferred the sound from the AES3 outputs, finding that the upsampling of CD-resolution data reduced congestion, added depth to the soundstage, and increased the separation among acoustic objects. JA recommended the MU1 highly as a streamer, writing that it can also operate as a network bridge with legacy D/A processors that don’t have USB or Ethernet ports. It can also be used as the sole source component with active speakers that have digital inputs, including Grimm's own LS1c, reviewed in our April 2025 issue. A 1TB SSD adds $225; 2TB SSD adds $430; 4TB SSD adds $805. (Vol.44 No.3, Vol.48 No.4 WWW) Grimm Audio MU2: $20,600 without internal storage
This Dutch streaming player features digital and analog inputs and can operate as a Roon Server with internal and external storage. (An internal 2TB SSD adds just $235; 8TB SSD adds $630.) It can also act as an End Point for other Roon servers on the same network. There are balanced and single-ended analog outputs as well as a 6.3mm headphone jack. A wheel on the top panel allows access to the settings menu and volume and input selection. The MU2 can also be controlled with the Grimm UI (GRUI) web interface; once the Grimm’s Ethernet port is connected to the user’s network, this page can be found by scanning the QR code shown on the front panel’s menu display. Playing a 24/96 remaster of Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet from a 2TB drive plugged into the MU2’s USB port, KR noted a definite illusion of the presence of the instruments in his room. “Each was clearly delineated, and the overall balance was neutral, favoring nothing but revealing the full, inherent color and body of the instruments,” he wrote. KR’s conclusion: “The Grimm MU2 is a bang-up success. It combines cutting-edge digital processing and digital-to-analog conversion with a Roon Core and a remarkably transparent volume control and input/output selector. … It offers completely satisfying sound and flawless ergonomics. It is worthy of the very best amplifiers, speakers, and critical listeners.” JA noted that the MU2 offered superb measured performance with both digital and analog sources. (Vol.47 No.8 WWW) Ideon Audio Absolute Stream meta edition (2024) server/streamer: $28,500
The Absolute Stream meta edition can render music files stored on its internal 4TB SSD (an 8TB SSD is also available) or on USB- or network-connected external storage. It can natively stream Internet radio, Spotify, and Qobuz, and adds an embedded Roon core. Features include a CPU that's “highly prioritized for audio playback only, ensuring highly optimized sound quality” and a reclocking circuit that includes “no-compromise femto clock architecture embedded as standard” on an upgradable platform that is said to eliminate jitter. Ideon considers a USB source of data less prone to noise than a network connection; the optional Alpha Wave LAN optimizer ($6900) takes in an Ethernet signal, converts it to USB, reclocks it, and outputs the music data over USB 3.0. JVS found that Ideon’s web-based app had metadata problems with WAV files; it did much better with FLAC. “Never before have I reviewed a standalone streamer/server so accomplished in the hardware department, yet so behind the best in software implementation,” noted JVS, but such limitations aside, he wrote that the Ideon Absolute Stream meta edition (2024), running its own software, delivered clearer, more involving sound than any other music server or streamer he’d heard in his reference system. (Vol.47 No.11 WWW)
The Portuguese company’s new flagship server/streamer offers up to 16TB storage via M.2 SSDs (up to 8TB internal, up to 8TB via expansion slot, all seen as a single volume). It is compatible with Innuos Sense, Roon, UPnP Server, and HQPlayer (NAA endpoint only) and works with Qobuz and Qobuz Connect, Tidal and Tidal Connect, Deezer, HighResAudio, iDagio, and Spotify Connect. The Nazaré sits on four OEM IsoAcoustics Gaia footers and features a tuned “PreciseAudio” mainboard with 20 cores and 32GB of industrial-grade RAM and new “PreciseUSB” and “PreciseNET” boards with direct CPU connection. Its power supply includes high-precision “multifilar” toroidal transformers, custom Lundahl inductors, an upgraded NGaN+ regulator with high-performance filters, and premium internal cabling. The back panel features an RJ45 jack for connection to a network and a reclocked USB-A output, which JVS used with Innuos Sense for his review. (While there is a second USB output, this is not reclocked.) The Nazaré can be used on its own or with two related products, the NazaréFLOW and NazaréNET, neither of which was available at the time of the review. When used as an all-in-one, the Nazaré’s internal PreciseNET serves as the RJ45 input and takes the place of the PhoenixNET and the improved NazaréNET; the Nazaré’s PreciseUSB boards take the place of the NazaréFLOW’s reclocker stage, I2S via HDMI output, reclocked USB output, and DAC-specific outputs. Compared with the Innuos Statement Next-Gen (no longer available), the Nazaré sounded cleaner, fuller, and better-defined on bottom. The Statement Next-Gen was a little thinner and less refined at the top of the range, and colors he had reveled in with the Nazaré seemed less saturated with the Next-Gen. Listening to Maya de Vitry and Lockeland Strings’ “Watching the Whole Sky Change,” JVS commented that as beautiful as de Vitry’s voice sounded through the Statement Next-Gen, the pristine silence that surrounded it and her guitar through the Nazaré left him mesmerized: “For four minutes, I felt fulfilled.” JVS concluded that if you want to hear everything that a gifted recording engineer can encode on a file, “you’ve got to audition the Nazaré. Even if it isn’t in your price range, an audition will give you a reference to guide future choices. And if it is in your price range, prepare for many new musical adventures.” (Vol.48 No.9 WWW) Innuos ZENith Next-Gen streamer/server: $21,700 as reviewed
The ZENith Next-Gen can be fitted with 2TB of internal storage but can also be used with external network audio data as well as streaming sources, courtesy of the Innuos Sense iOS and Android app. (Sense is also installed in the streamer and can be accessed with a Web browser.) Standard Outputs are three USB 3.2 Gen2 capable of PCM up to 32/768, DSD up to DSD256 by DoP, DSD512 native, and two Ethernet ports (one for LAN connection, the other for connection to a streaming DAC). A USB port can also be connected to an external CD drive to rip CDs with Sense. Roon can be used to manage the music library with music playback left to the Innuos Music Player, which is part of Sense. Music Player can also be replaced by HQ Player. JCA wasn’t satisfied with how Innuos Sense handled classical metadata, so he primarily used the ZENith Next-Gen with Roon. He was impressed with the result. Compared with Innuos’s two-box Statement flagship player, he found the sound very similar, but their virtues were slightly shifted. “The Statement majors in liquidity and perhaps has a dash of extra soundstage depth. With the ZENith, I heard a bit more transient emphasis—a bit more leading edge to percussive notes.” (Vol.48 No.5 WWW) MBL Noble Line N31: $18,500; optional Roon module is $1480 ★
Designed to play “Red Book” CDs and, via its USB and other digital inputs, music files up to 24/192 and DSD64 (DoP), the Noble Line N31 is less a digital-audio Swiss Army knife than a luxuriantly attractive, 40lb monument to the idea of perfecting the playback of audiophilia’s best-loved digital formats. Built around the ESS Sabre 9018 DAC, the N31 offers a full-color 5" TFT display—the MBL player recognizes CD text and displays title information—and features an SD Card slot for firmware updates, a choice of three playback filters, and a remote handset that lights up before the person reaching for it has even touched it. Listening to CDs and even a CD-R through the N13, JA was impressed by the “sheer tangibility” of the MBL’s sound, noting that, with its Min filter engaged, the N31 “gracefully reproduced” one “overcooked” track, and that the differences among its three filters were “greater in degree than with other DACs.” Through the MBL's USB inputs, even iPhones and iPads, their own volume controls disarmed by the MBL’s USB input, offered “excellent” sound quality. JA originally raised an eyebrow at the lack of a network port and the fact that the player's filters can’t be selected via the remote handset, but both of these issues have been addressed in 2020 production with the optional Roon Ready Input Module. As with USB, the networked MBL rendered music with an excellent sense of overall drive and low-frequency impact, JA found, with low-level recorded detail well-resolved. JA concluded his original review by saying that digital sound “doesn't get any better” than what he heard from the N31. He also noted that the MBL offered 21 bits of resolution—the current state of the art of digital audio. This prompted JA the measurer to agree with JA the listener: “Digital audio engineering doesn't get any better.” (Vol.41 No.2, Vol.43 No.12 WWW)
This French streamer/server offers a network input and digital outputs and functions as a Roon endpoint. It tops out at 24/192, and it passes DSD via DoP. AH used the d1-streamer sublime to audition Totaldac’s d1-unity—see Digital Processors. When he replaced it with his usual combination of Sonore ultraRendu and Denafrips Iris digital-to-digital converter, the sound was possibly a hair more forceful but also audibly less refined and purposeful. “The meaning of the music was less obvious, and everything sounded just a bit more mechanical,” he wrote. (Vol.46 No.12 WWW) A: Advance Paris X-CD9 CD player: $1399
This French player uses a Sanyo CD mechanism and two new old stock, Raytheon-branded, 5744 subminiature signal tubes to buffer the output of a Wolfson WM8762 DAC. CD data are upsampled to 24/96 or 24/192—this is not defeatable—and there is also a USB input: the X-CD9 could play WAV and MP3 files sampled at 44.1kHz via USB but couldn’t play AIF or AAC files or files with higher sample rates. Listening to a 10-CD set of vintage Billie Holiday recordings, KM noted that the X-CD9 captured Holiday’s nuanced phrasing, feeling for elastic tempi, and the richness of her sinewy voice: “With the X-CD9, I felt I was missing nothing. It captured every inflection, every swinging sigh. I felt the tow of her enigmatic genius.” With a classic Charlie Parker CD, KM wondered if he could have craved more rhythm, swagger, or a bigger, bolder soundstage? “Maybe—but the dead-silent background, precise imaging, and digital precision more than made up for any shortcomings—sins of omission, not commission.” He concluded that the X-CD9 “delivered all the high-level performance parameters you’d expect from a CD player in 2025, for a price affordable to all but the stingiest audiophile.” On the test bench, while the Advance Paris player’s error correction was one of the best JA had encountered, both the single-ended and balanced output impedances were awkwardly high, the measured resolution was low—and different with disc and USB data—and the noisefloor was modulated with high-level, high-frequency signals. (Vol.49 No.1 WWW) Hegel Viking: $5500
This slot-loading player uses the well-regarded AKM4493SEQ DAC chip and doesn’t have any digital inputs. It just plays CDs. It does, however, have a coaxial S/PDIF digital output, which JA found featured very low jitter. HR played CDs and was impressed by what he heard. “CDs exhibited more crystallized forms than similar recordings played back from Tidal at CD resolution. The Viking projected images with more-distinct outlines than Tidal’s 16/44.1 tracks. Those more-distinct forms felt more relaxed and less edge-sharpened than similar recordings of the same program at higher sampling rates on Qobuz,” he wrote. HR concluded that the Viking “presented every CD with enough verve, transparency, and natural detail to make each disc sound distinctly different, which shows that the player’s sound was not swamping the disc’s sound. This ability to disappear and put the character and vital energies of recordings up front made the Viking exciting to use, and that is my highest compliment.” (Vol.46 No.12 WWW)
The small Brooklyn Bridge II streaming D/A preamplifier offers digital and analog inputs, including an MC/MM phono input, balanced and single-ended analog and headphone outputs, and incorporates a Roon core. All its owner needs to add to create a complete system are some file storage, a power amplifier, and a pair of loudspeakers. TF found the touchscreen too small for easy use, instead controlling the BBII functions with the Roon app. (Roon identified the Brooklyn Bridge II as a full MQA decoder and renderer.) He found that the single-ended outputs picked up some hash from his Mesh Wi-Fi network, though JCA and JA didn't encounter any Wi-Fi–related problems in their own systems. In the test lab, JA noted that the Mytek runs very hot. The DAC circuit offers between 18 and 19 bits' worth of resolution, he found, and commented that the analog output stage coped well with punishing loads. He was less impressed with the phono input, finding that even in MM mode, the noisefloor suffered from supply-related spuriae, these presumably radiated from the power transformer packed into the small chassis. The levels of these spuriae were unacceptably high in MC mode, decided JA—who only heard broadband noise in MM mode. TF was also bothered by the Mytek's phono input, finding that even in MM mode, "there was enough hiss and hum to be audible at the listening position, through all outputs: balanced, unbalanced, headphone." Hum aside, however, he wrote that LPs "sounded vivid, the tonal balance was right, there was plenty of headroom." Playing back files from his NAS drive, TF wrote that "the BBII sounds damn good. ... Its character was uncolored and revealing. ... The BBII is a fine DAC, in the top tier of its price range." (Vol.46 No.9 WWW) Shanling ET3 CD transport: $899 $$$
The top-loading ET3 uses a Philips SAA7824 CD drive and a Sanyo HD850 laser pickup. As well as TosLink, AES3, and S/PDIF (RCA) digital outputs, the ET3 supports Wi-Fi streaming, AirPlay, Bluetooth, and MQA, and it can input and output audio via a pair of USB-A interfaces: one for connecting an external SSD, acting as a server for FAT32-formatted NAS drives up to 2TB to play DSD files up to DSD512 and PCM files up to 768kHz; and one that’s a wide-band, asynchronous digital music output. Playback can be controlled with an app for Android and Apple iOS, called “Eddict Player,” and a CT7302CL upsampling chip can convert the outputs to DSD or high-rez PCM. With its upsampling bypassed, the Shanling played “just-right crisp,” wrote HR. “Detail was beguiling. Vocal and instrumental riffs I’d never noticed before now preened for attention.” Upsampling to 24/192, the sound became bigger, bassier, and more punchy-plucky. More glossy and edgy. But it seemed fake and unevenly lit, decided HR. While he found that oversampling to DSD was enjoyable enough it was “ nothing special compared to the vivid precision of the ET3’s NOS output.” (Vol.48 No.10 WWW) TEAC VRDS-701T CD transport: $3299.99
TEAC’s transport uses a CD mechanism that floats free from the chassis. The benefit offered by this mechanism, which clamps the optical disc on a turntable of the same diameter, is said to be that the surface blurring caused by rotational vibration and warping is suppressed and that the relative optical axis accuracy between the optical pickup and the disc’s pits and lands is increased. The TEAC has two S/PDIF outputs, optical and coaxial, and a word clock input. Using the transport with Linear Tube Audio’s Aero R-2R DAC—see Digital Processors—HR noted that the sound was dense and precise in a way he’d never previously heard from digital. “By ‘dense,’” he wrote, he meant “a tangible corporality effected by seemingly infinite quantities of small, tightly packed molecules of musical information.” HR concluded that the VRDS-701T transport was a revelation. “It made digital more compelling than I thought it could be. I never anticipated this much drive, density, inner detail, or tone truthfulness from a digital source.” (Vol.47 No.9 WWW)
See Robert Schryer's review in this issue. (Vol.49 No.4 WWW) B: Sparkler Audio S515t “ballade II” CD transport: $1575 $$$
Although this top-loading Japanese transport uses a TEAC mechanism, HR found that the Sparkler was less reserved and inner-detailed than TEAC’s own VRDS 701T transport with both feeding data to a Denafrips DAC. Nevertheless, the Sparkler sounded enriched in presence and immediacy. The jump, glimmer, and sparkle were less present when spun by the TEAC than they were with the ballade II, he commented. The Sparkler’s sound is best described as “alive with drive,” wrote HR, concluding that this small, smart-looking, reasonably priced CD transport “brings digital a big step closer to analog.” (Vol.48 No.3 WWW) Deletions
Melco N50 digital music library, not currently distributed in the US. Burmester Musiccenter 151 MK2, not auditioned in a long time.
