Here's the link to the Stereophile review of the Radio Shellac 3400, a portable CD player of some note, and one I had forgotten about - I used the 3400 for my Source lo all these years ago, Jesus, has it really been 25 years? OMG. I actually went the extra mile and obtained the aftermarket power supply made by some entrepreneur PhD in Idaho who was catching the wave of the 3400's popularity. I also draw your attention to the mention of the Mpingo disc at the end of the article, another audiophile tweak that gets beat up with some regularity. Specifically,
"I listened to disc after disc, into the wee hours of the morning. Of course, some recordings were better than others, but the soundstage was breathtaking on most of those I listened to. Maybe "soundstage" is the wrong word—other players and processors give you a deep, wide soundstage, too. Come to think of it, the CD-3400 did not produce the deepest and widest soundstage. It wasn't so much soundstaging as it was air there. Or bloom."
Oh, and this,
"I don't know if this is the best digital sound you can get—I haven't heard the $14,950 Mark Levinson No.30 with the $8495 No.31 transport. But I've never had a player or player/processor combination in my system that's produced the same bloom and palpable sense of space."
http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/480/
Cheers,
Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
Here's the link to the Stereophile review of the Radio Shellac 3400, a portable CD player of some note, and one I had forgotten about - I used the 3400 for my Source lo all these years ago, Jesus, has it really been 25 years? OMG. I actually went the extra mile and obtained the aftermarket power supply made by some entrepreneur PhD in Idaho who was catching the wave of the 3400's popularity. I also draw your attention to the mention of the Mpingo disc at the end of the article, another audiophile tweak that gets beat up with some regularity. Specifically,
"I listened to disc after disc, into the wee hours of the morning. Of course, some recordings were better than others, but the soundstage was breathtaking on most of those I listened to. Maybe "soundstage" is the wrong word—other players and processors give you a deep, wide soundstage, too. Come to think of it, the CD-3400 did not produce the deepest and widest soundstage. It wasn't so much soundstaging as it was air there. Or bloom."
Oh, and this,
"I don't know if this is the best digital sound you can get—I haven't heard the $14,950 Mark Levinson No.30 with the $8495 No.31 transport. But I've never had a player or player/processor combination in my system that's produced the same bloom and palpable sense of space."
http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/480/
Cheers,
Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica