Reimyo 777 vs Victor XL-Z900....amazing


Hi guys,

I dont usually wax lyrical about a cd player but i just thought i'd share my views on these two superb cd players.

I travel to Tokyo regularly and this season i managed to pick up (among others that i'll mention later) a used Reimyo 777 and a Victor XL-Z900 from a dealer. I was in a reasonable hurry so the dealer told me that i could send the cd player i didnt like back to him...i thought this would be easy...WRONG!

Many audiophiles know of the Reimyo 777..touted as the very best that redbook can offer with one of the very best transports ever invented.

However many reviewers mentioned that Reimyo worked with Victor in japan and used both the same transport and K2 architecture.

The $15000 Reimyo uses the Victor XL-Z900 transport (proprietary to Victor) and K2 architecture. Victor is part of JVC..and the K2 architecture has been used to burn their fantastic XRCDs..quote me if i'm wrong. Anyway i believe its the method of processing and its very very good.

So i got home to the UK with my haul....like a pirate frothing at the mouth.

My system comprises of a TACT TDA2200 amp and Dali Euphonia MS4 speakers. Cabling is synergistic research signature.

Well as i use the TACT TDA all connections are digital. So i wanted only to use the cd as a transport.

The Victor proved to be the equal to the Reimyo 777 no matter what i threw at it. The transport is truly amazing and up there with the latest Neo-VRDS in the Esoteric X-01 and a few others i'll mention later.

Difference here is that a new Victor XL-Z900 costs only $4500....go figure. I sent the Reimyo back within a week.

The Reimyo did sound a bit better into analogue than the Victor but as a transport there was nothing in it...just the $10500 price difference in my mind! :))

I mentioned the other bits of my haul:

1. Sony CDP-R10...in my mind the very best redbook transport ever. Sony created less than 100 of these beasts at an extremely high cost.

The R-series are japan only and better than any ES series.

2. Denon DP-S1...very rare and wonderful transport.
3. CEC TL1...lovely belt drive unit
4. Sony CDP-R3
5. Nakamichi Dragon cd...fantastic unit..modifies very well.
6. Yamaha CX-10000 centennial preamp...yamaha created 100 of these babies to mark its 100th anniversary...proud to now own one.

Lots of jewels....i'm off to play.

RJH
enjoy_the_music
It will auto detect to 44.1khz at XP-DA1000 but will be at 48khz when using Esoteric P-30
I'm using Victor K2 XP-DA1000 DAC with Esoteric P-30 and Sony Bluray BDP-S1E with excellent result. You know what, the sony beats esoteric....
Well the XL-Z900 was around before the Reimyo. Reimyo simply took the transport and K2 architecture. I'm sure there are more fancy bits but for transport purposes its fine.

'In the case of the CDP-777, Japan Victor contributed its revolutionary Extended K2 Processing (Version 2.0), and the same super high-accuracy transport mechanism used in its famous XL-Z900'

http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~naoki555/home_audio/z900.html

This one goes way back to 1993! So what took people so long to realise how good the transport was!! I suppose thats the magic of the japanese-only market!

Richard
This is an interesting thread - I had just started researching whether JVC built non-USA models using the Z900 transport and K2 processing. It's been tough - there isn't much info on the web and what little there is is in Japanese. The search engine "translate" function produces mostly unintelligible output.

Do you have any references to on-line info on these machines?
Both the XL-Z900 and XL-Z1000 use the K2 V2...the latest ones anyway. You can also buy the matching DAC to further enhance performance.

Thing is if you use it as purely a transport there is no difference at all. The Victor also is very good for modifying :)

R
DOes the XL-900 use the K2 v2.0 24 bit technology like the CDP-777 or the original K2 20 bit technology?
Hi,

I manage to convert most of it myself. Some of it i tend to keep running at 100/120V through a good power converter.

The Victor XL-Z900 is a stunning machine and looks very similar to the Reimyo. They should never have mentioned it in the reviews.

I can ask if there is another one if you like? I have a colleague in japan who looks out for equipment just for me!

Regards

Richard
Thanks for posting about the audio gods smiling down on you. Interesting that you found the JVC/Victor to be a relative bargain compared to my heart's desire, the Reimyo.
Just don't forget to unload some of your items onto the rest of us when it's time to upgrade after this haul of goodies becomes old hat to you.
Do you buy components made for UK plugs and electric current, or is there a modification necessary?