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Review: Musical Fidelity a308cr cd player CD Player

Category: Digital

listening mainly to jazz, using ed manns "have no fear" as a reference disc,i compared it to the rotel 991ae(discontinued),i immediately,(break-in time approx.10-15hrs)noticed a spaciousness ive never heard with the rotel, and very similar to the ar cd3. not only did the stage become bigger and deeper, it also became much more articulate. the mf was slightly more forward sounding, but by no means in your face,and had an almost ethereal sound. i must add that in mf's literature they say build quality and sound are fair at this price, and i say bah humbug, this could be the last player you ever need. foregoing sacd and hdcd in favor of pure top of the line components internally, with 24/96 upsampling and choke regulation, you get an industrial build quality(40lbs),excellent sound,and,according to mf, you get the sound of their nu-vista player without the nu-vistasand i agree.downsides are, unbalanced inputs only and a remote that must be pointed directly at the unit to work.my advice is if your replacing your cd player and arent sold on all the hyperbole about sacd and hdcd give this player your undivided attention and you wonnt be sorry!

Associated gear
bel canto evo200.2 power amp
audio research ls16mkii pre-amp
nordost and alpha-core cabling
b&w 804 speakers(bi-wired)
misc footers(final labs,aurios)

Similar products
rotel 991ae
audio research cd3
wadia 830
sterlingheise

Showing 1 response by rafsz

rafsz
3 posts
 
I just want to address one point. Having good redbook CD playback is crucial. But don't give others the impression that it does nearly as well as SACD. Sure, there are some SACDs that may actually sound worse. However, when it comes to genuine DSD recordings there's no "hyperbole" about SACD, it is THAT good. And don't toss HDCD into this either, HDCD is not important.

I fight every single one "my expensive CD redbook player sounds better than SACD" post on audio forums. It is disinformation.

That said, I am glad to hear MF is a good redbook performer. Red book performance is obviously very important and will continue to be for another decade or two.
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