APL NWO2.5 ?

The apl players are very nice indeed but you folks are being very milseading by saying it crushes the Meridian 808. There is no digital playback made that can do that period. The machine comes with a factory 5 year warranty to back it up, is upgradable when necessary and is truely amazing. I have the Apl nwo-2 and it is a great player but it doesn't hold a candle to the meridian. I have yet to hear any digital playback that is able to extract so much information from a cd than this player. I wish people would say more accurate responses when someone needs their help. There are way to many variables to consider when asked this question to compare players. Many times stores don't have their equipment set up right in order to do a fair a/b comparison. I will give you a case in point. I went to my local store who sells Mcintosh, ayre, meridian,dcs,wadia, and esoteric to name a few and I wanted to compare some cd players in the identical setup I have at home. Well for one, he had the mcintosh mc501 monos plugged in a normal outlet together. No dedicated lines (very necessary)and regular cheap speaker wire from the 70's. I wanted to buy the ayre c5xe, meridian 808,wadia 861 se( which I still have)esoteric xo1 limited, and the po3/d03 combo, as well as the dcs separtes, but I couldn't really hear that much of a difference. So I took them all home as demos. I have owned all of these units after this test at one point and now only have the meridian and the nwo-2. I was able to take all these home for a week and demo them and I will say that they all were significantly better in my system because of the way it is set up and were all good players and all quite unique in their own way. I could totally hear a significant difference between players. The meridian will rock your world. I have friends and family who come over all the time and when I had the 808 hooked up everyone thought I got a new stereo. It truely changed my system and bought it to another level. Hope this helps you out. It is very important to try everything in you setup. Also realize that the other components must be able to allow you to hear differences otherwose it is very hard to discern between digital playback.

Can someone tell me what the price of the NWO-2.5 will be?

WOW NWO=WMD

I`m not so lucky as to own a NWO-2.5 but I got one of the first NWO-2s and even that one crushes the Meridian 808 players hands down in all aspects.

As good as this unit might be, I would sure want to hear the Meridian 808 Signature Reference ($13.5K) before buying in this price class

My neighbor has one. It sits idle on his shelf, bested by both MBL & Zanden. Yet even with the support of a $250K system in a blue-printed listening room, neither his MBL or Zanden transport/DAC combos dig out nearly as much presence and palpability as I heard from the APL. Not even close. I'm not talking about extension, air, transparency, etc....but purely about the daring presence of a person singing in front of you.

I'm the first to argue that there is no absolute 'best' in this hobby, but I must say that the NWO was spine-chillingly good.

I dunno, I have listened and owned over 45 player's in the past few years, and APL, Alex, has won me over, AGAIN. So much so I just PIFed for the NWO 2.5, cause I definately believe in this unit being the beat available, regardless of price. Best of luck in YOUR journey, but, mine ends with ALEX, and his NWO 2.5.

they were absolutely corrrect with that review. I have just recently purchased the 808 and it is breathtaking!!! It is by far the best I have ever heard in digital playback. If you play a hybrid sacd from a good recording it is soo killer. I had my eoteric xo1 limited in the same system and hooked up the meridian and the redbook is to die for. The same cd sounded as good if not better than the esoteric on sacd (hybrid). It is truely the new reference player

As good as this unit might be, I would sure want to hear the Meridian 808 Signature Reference ($13.5K) before buying in this price class (assuming one could live with RBCD & DVD-A only). Great review in September Absolute Sound by Sue Craft and Robert Hartley. Apparently with this one you can hear a cockroach crawling along the far wall of the recording studio.

Hbarrel, The main APL Hi-Fi site is currently under extensive re-development. Please check back in a month for more information.

Thank you for you patience!

Regards,
Alex

A link, please, to the specific area on the companies web site regarding the New World Order oops, NWO 2.5.

Hi Peterb,

I recently took the plunge and ordered the NWO-2.5. I'll post my impressions after I receive and evaluate my unit. In the meantime, I would like to share what I uncovered in my research. This was very helpful in making my decision to take the plunge. Perhaps, it may be helpful for you also.

There are several reviews/impressions of the NWO series on the APL Forum and on Audiogon. Some of the reviewers of the NWO also own several top-tier digital sources including EMM Signature combo, dCS stack, Spectral SDR4000S, Zanden combo, and Reimyo as well as the state-of-the-art vinyl front-ends that ranged from $32K to $65K. In addition to the seductive superlatives for the NWO, the reviewers heralded the NWO-2.0 and its superior successor the NWO-2.5 not only as the state-of-the-art digital but also as being head-and-shoulders ahead of the top-tier players listed above, in both the Redbook and SACD formats. For some reviewers, "nothing came even close" to the NWO-2.5. Perhaps more significant, were the comments that placed the 2.5 on par with or better than the state-of-the-art vinyl. In other words, this may be a milestone for both digital and vinyl. For details, see for example: http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=558
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1126769860&openfrom&285&4#285
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1126769860&openflup&306&4#306

I'm a hard nosed academic and I'm not easily seduced by reviewers' superlatives. Therefore, I wanted to know what is the solid basis for those superlatives describing the NWO-2.5 milestone; the hardware, software, engineering and implementation:
1. The NWO is based on the Esoteric UX-1. It uses the UX-1's chassis and it's top-of-the-line VRDS-NEO transport (NOT the smaller and lighter version of the VRDS in the UX-3, X-03, P-03 or in the Spectral SDR4000S). Check out the pictoral comparison between NWO's transport (the VRDS-NEO) and some transports of other top-tier players: http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=560
Those pictures are worth a million words! The rest of the audio elements in the NWO-2.5 are the brilliant extensive re-design and implementation by Alex Peychev.
2. 20 DACs per channel: A configuration of 10 DACs working in differential mode where each DAC chip has separate DACs inside for the differential outputs. These are the flagship AKM DACs that were designed for professional application with significantly less out-of-band noise compared to other DACs. That should dramatically reduce distortion and noise.
3. 211KHz/32bit upsampling (The world's first implementation was in the NWO-1.)
4. Proprietary APL Hi-Fi Master clock
5. Fully balanced and transformer coupled Class "A" tube output stage that features the dual triode 6H30pi known for it's extremely linear transfer characteristics.
6. H-Attenuator, with remote volume control (so, no preamp is needed), that is configured in Class "A" differential mode.
7. A special version of the output transformer, additional linear R-core power supplies.

Please note that I am not affiliated with APL Hi-Fi. I currently own the excellent APL 3910 with AKM DACs, and I'm impressed with what Alex accomplished in that player. Given NWO-2.5's solid engineering, my sublime experience with it's predecessor, and it's superlative reviews, it appears that this milestone is worth mortgaging the house for. In my humble opinion, it's worth taking the plunge. Stay tuned. I'll post my impressions.

Best Regards,
John

Several people have remarked that it noticeably outpaces the NWO-1, which was categorically the most lifelike digital I've heard to date. That includes many of the finest players available. In this hobby, the music becomes the focus when the component doesn't interrupt your listening by 'shouting out' its attributes. And that's APL.