Musical Fidelity A1008 CD Pro CD-player
The player, produced by British Musical Fidelity, is an upgraded version of A1008. The main difference between the Pro version and the usual one is in the use of Philips CD-Pro2 transport, which at one time was created as an industrial standard. It has an open spindle without loading mechanism, its own massive metal chassis, precise glass optics and proper servo mechanics. A significant reduction of jitter has been achieved due to the greater inertia of the rotating unit and the weighted fixing washer.
Other changes are cosmetic - a dustproof cover appeared, the display and control buttons disappeared from the top panel.
Digital and analog paths are implemented without "brilliant" ideas. A high-quality modern 24-bit DAC is selected and included exactly as recommended by the chip manufacturer - in a dual differential circuit. Nothing in the description is said about "improvement" in the quality of the original 16-bit/44.1 kHz up to the level of HD-audio. On the contrary, it is emphasized that the taken measures are necessary in order to ensure an undistorted conversion of what comes from transport. Then, in analog form, the signal arrives at two amplifier stages. One is implemented on 6922 dual triodes, the second is on low-noise transistors. And the last interesting feature - the player can (and even need) be powered through an external unit A1008 PSU. This heavy thing is offered at extra charge, but I decided not to use it for another reason - it will put the device in unequal conditions with competitors.
I won't give Musical Fidelity A1008 Pro as an example to everyone, but this player is really a step forward. The nature of playback through different outputs differs less than I expected. According to the dynamics in the field of LF, the transistor buffer has a slight advantage. In HF, on the contrary, the sound seems to be slightly pressed and a bit tinted. There are no complaints about the space. You get an exceptionally stable and deep scene.
The triode output and the bass, as well as the space are transferred differently: the images are larger, the scene is wider, the plans are closer, but the sense of three-dimensionality is, for a wonder, even stronger. The main differences in reproduction between the transistor and the lamp are that the first output extracts the maximum useful information in the low and middle ranges, and the second one does it in mid and high ranges. So, Musical Fidelity A1008 Pro is a very interesting player. Combining cables with different outputs sometimes gave unexpected effects. And although I did not achieve what I wanted, I had the feeling that the gold standard was already somewhere very close.
