Yamaha CDR-H1500 CD-player
On seeing Yamaha CDR-HD1500, you probably thought: the device is too sophisticated for a player. That's right - this is a CD recorder with HDD. The massive front panel of CDR-HD1500 has a screen and an additional color indicator for recording or playback mode. The rotary knob significantly speeds up the search and selection of tracks. You can edit the recordings, compile collections and enter track titles. If you connect a PC to RS-232 connector, which is located on the back of CDR-HD1500, you can enter text from the keyboard using a small program.
By connecting the new Yamaha to the test system, I must admit that I rather wanted not to compare it with other players but to find out whether there are differences between playing directly from a CD and a copy from the HDD. There were some guesses about this. And they were confirmed.
So, copy goes first. The process of running the content of the NAIM Sampler disk to the HDD for a total duration of 68 minutes 11 seconds took only five minutes. Now - the playback. The original CD sounded at Yamaha CDR-HD1500 in a quality that I would compare with a regular CD player with a price of about $500. That is, there are some flaws, but no serious one! The scene is generally all right, with signs of good localization and separation. The scale of imaginary sources is reliable. Tonal balance is also good. The player sounds clean, without introducing a noticeable color in the timbres, without distorting both powerful dynamic outbreaks and the microdynamic pattern. There is a small lack of emotions, sometimes the sound needs a bit more temperament. Bass is energetic, holistic, but slightly viscous, with a relaxed attack.
We had the same stuff but from HDD. The changes are minimal, and at first glance - not for the better. The upper case seemed to fade. However, after numerous comparisons, I found a lot of positive changes: having lost a bit in scale, the scene became more stable, the separation was more pronounced. And the upper range "died down" because something superfluous was filtered in it. By the way, a similar effect occurs in an expensive audio system when replacing a CD transport with a higher-quality component with less jitter. So, when the source is HDD, the playback definitely has its advantages.
