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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 16, 2007 22:13:42 GMT
I came across the MHZS cd33 CD player on ebay, seemed a fair enough price so I bought it ;D Anyone here tried one / heard of them? I've seen the insides:  And the specs: SONY Laser Pick Up PHILIPS SAA7824 Servo System Hi-End Power Supply Heavy Duty Transformer SUPER 24 BIT 192 KHZ DAC BY MHZS "WHICH BETTER THAN CS OR BB DAC" Input Power : 240V Compatible Disc : CD, HDCD, CD-R, CD-RW Int Tube Output : CLASS A 2x6N3 Audio Output : RCA Stereo Speaker Out & Digital Coaxial Dynamic : > 100 DB THD : < 0.005% Weight : Approx 13kg Size Dimension : Width 430mm Height 80mm Depth 330mm Colour : Silver Remark : Tube Fidelity Output: Optimized For 44.1KHz To 88.2KHz and 176.4KHz It appears to have a valve output and very tweakable if this forum is anything to go by I think it's been supersceded by the MHZS CD33E which has a glass hatch on the top to make valve rolling a lot easier..... Sure "looks" like a bargain @ £170 what do you all think? More here: www.pacificvalve.us/MZHSGallery.html The Blurb: Product Description From MHZS audio comes a selectable sampling frequency Vacuum Tube CD Player, the CD 33.Borne of the same chip set that the MHZS CD 66 uses. The proprietary 24 bit DAC chip is capable of a sampling frequency of up to 192 kHz, offers the linearity needed for its built in upsampling capabilities. The upsampling may be selected directly from your remote control. You have the option of selecting a the standard frequency of 44.1 kHz, upsample to 88.2 kHz or choose the upsampling frequency of 176.4 vacuum tube technology is equally impressive. Two dual triode 6N3/5670 tubes, the same tubes found in the Shanling T-100 gives the CD 33 its smooth sound at an affordable price range. Do not let its low price full you as we assault the high mark ups of other vacuum tube CD players. The MHZS CD 33 uses a SONY 213Q pickup with a PhillipsSAA7824 servo. At critical points, MCAP, Solen and ELNA are used. Amplification is provided by the Burr Brown OPA2604, which is one of the best OP amps that money can buy |
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Fergus
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Done a David Ike and is now known as Godkin 
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Post by Fergus on Mar 16, 2007 22:23:31 GMT
F**k, Mike, that's a bargain!!! Looks good to my ignorant eyes. Component quality very high - please tell me those are JENSEN capacitors? Are the valves easy to find and reasonably priced? Be VERY interested to see how it sounds.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 16, 2007 22:30:56 GMT
Valves are 6N3 (5670) apparantly Fergus, very easy to find and the same types they use in the Shanling CD players. The CD33E has a "viewing / valve roll" hatch which is very handy see here I'm not sure if it differs in any other way from the CD33 but if I'd have seen it before the CD33 I'd probably have gone with the one with the hatch. Sure does seem good value for the money and weighs in at 13KG.... so quite a lot of metalwork for your money. Mine should be here Monday I'll let you know what it's like  |
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Fergus
100+
Done a David Ike and is now known as Godkin
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Post by Fergus on Mar 17, 2007 0:33:59 GMT
Jenny Chan is a very reliable dealer, Mike. I bought my little tube buffer off her - very quick delivery.
God, it's a damn pretty player!!!
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 17, 2007 13:21:36 GMT
God, it's a damn pretty player!!! Appears to be quite solidly built, I've got tons of opams to try in it and it'll also be fun rolling in different flavours of 6N3 / 5607.... seems MHZS make their own DAC too, quite a popular make in the far east apparantly. |
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xerxes
Been here a while! 
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Post by xerxes on Mar 17, 2007 17:11:59 GMT
It does look good for the price, is that a bunch on ELNA Silmic electrolytic capacitors in there as well? It doesn't look as though they have scrimped on the components in any case. I look forward to hearing your opinion on the sound.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 17, 2007 17:46:24 GMT
It does look good for the price, is that a bunch on ELNA Silmic electrolytic capacitors in there as well? It doesn't look as though they have scrimped on the components in any case. I look forward to hearing your opinion on the sound. According to that forum..... ELNA silmic, rubycons, musi caps etc. but one guy suggests "best to replace them with real ones not the Chinese ones" so could be all these exotic looking caps are moody jobs out of some cloning sweatshop in deepest China but, then again, maybe not....... could be the real deal...... will soon know ;D |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 19, 2007 22:49:47 GMT
She arrived this afternoon and what a very solid beast she happens to be! The front panel alone is a solid block of 18mm aluminium the rest of the chassis is very thick (and heavy) steel by the looks of it. The machining, fit and finish is first class and she sits on the deck like a brick shithouse. The remote is a solid block of aluminium and very heavy (as far as remotes go!) Handling it is similar to picking up a long bar of silver.... nice feel but I wouldn't want to drop it on my foot! Had a quick peek under the bonnet and the workmanship is also first class. Double sided, through hole, PCBs with immaculate soldering throughout. A fair sprinkling of rubycon, ELNA silmic, SCR, MCAP and solen capacitors but they may not be the real deal.... they "look" identical but on very close inspection under a magnifying glass the printing on some of the caps (the rubycon and MCAP in particular) looks a bit dubious to my eyes being pretty smudgy in places.... possibly generic caps with moody sleeves wrapped around them for good effect I say "possibly" but in my own personal opinion they're fakes. The pickup is a Sony KSS-213Q which apparantly also features in Spark Audio's CDT-23 and Shanling's HDCD-S12.... these pickups also appear in uber cheap midi-fi but usually 213A / 213B the nearer the end of the alphabet the letter after "213" is the more adaptable the pickup is apparantly so "q" indicates this is quite a versatile pickup though from some Chinese forums I have been scouring they've got a rep for lasting as little as 3 months to as much as 2 years so the jury is out as to whether KSS-213Q is a good thing or not.... I'd certainly be a bit wary if I'd just forked out megabucks for the Shanling but £180 for this guy and around £20 for a replacement KSS-213Q should it go pear shaped prematurely I'm not overly worried. Output valves are Chinese 6N3.... again, according to the denizens of the Chinese forums these can be replaced to VERY good effect with either 5670 or WE396A and many hours of fun can be had in the valve rolling department. One solitary opamp onboard and that happens to be the Burr Brown OPA2604, again...... plenty of scope for opamp rolling here though a dip 8 socket will have to be soldered in position first as the 2604 is soldered to the board. D/A is a 24 bit 192KHz job made by MHZS themselves and you can select upsampling frequencies of 44.1 kHz, 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz by pressing the "display" button on the remote when the CD is loaded into the drawer (before playing) quite what effect this has on SQ I don't know yet as I've only had a very brief session with the CD33 on 44.1KHz, I'll try the other two frequencies later on once I'm familiar with the sonic signature of the beast. Mechanical / build quality is astonishing for the price, this makes the likes of the £500 Arcam Diva CD-73 feel (and look) like a featherweight in comparison...... £320 cheaper and three times the weight....... and all the way from China............. no excuse for a flimsy chassis in this day and age, these Chinese examples certainly put our home grown examples to shame in the price to weight ratio and, as we all know, "weight" counts for a lot when it comes to a CD players chassis with more generally being preferable to less when it comes down to damping / isolation. Anyways, I won't waffle on about the build quality of this CD player I'll go and spend some time listening to it and report back on how it sounds (to my ears) Not too keen on the transport by the way or the drawer mechanism but suppose we have to live with these cheap "modern" pile em high sell em low devices.... give me a good old swinging arm anyday over this worm and peg crud.... I'm old enough to remember when CDP's came with transport locking screws to lock the swinging arm in place.... give me a good old swing arm anyday over these shite worm and peg (or whatever the trendy name for them is) mechanisms. |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 19, 2007 23:34:39 GMT
I like the build quality not sure about the sound yet. That's around $600 all in = £308 a bit on the rich side man..... £180 is probably all its money "shipped" considering there's a CD-33E out now..... you'll get a much better deal on ebay but please hold your horses.... let's see what the fckn thing sounds like first No, I don't have anything Arcam Miguel. I worked for them years ago.... kinda put me off for life |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 20, 2007 22:12:17 GMT
I had a bloody good session with the CD33 last night and something certainly wasn't quite right with the sound, it was pretty hazy as if someone had coated the lens with varnish.... you know the kind of sound I mean... fuzzy and distant, pretty compressed and congealed sounding.... not bad but far from what I'm used to.
Straight under the bonnet this afternoon and whipped the OPA2604 out and fitted a dip8 socket.... there were about 14 1N4007 diodes on the main board so I whipped them all out and fitted UF4007 in their place, whilst I was there I replaced some of the caps with Panasonic FC / FM (I'll probably get round to replacing all of the Rubycon lookalikes over the next few days)
Let me say right now, the PCB is the best I have yet seen in a commercial product... a joy to work with and no way will you ever lift any of those pads, the PCB is as solid as a rock and the quality of soldering second to none.... anyways, I digress......
Popped in an OPA2107 and fired her up.... you know what? chalk and cheese, the improvement is VAST with the sound now being extremely open, spacious and with absolutely subterranean bass... astonishing improvement (not a difference but a marked improvement) I've got a feeling the stash of 1N4007 were adding a bit of grunge to the sound and the OPA2604 probably not the optimum chip for the job.
As it stands the CD33 is coming very close to my Marantz CD17KI and surpasses my heavily modded Denon DCD-835 by quite some margin and I've only really dipped my toe in so far! This degree of improvement with the stock Chinese 6N3 valves still in situ, the PSU board untouched and the grotty latching pin output connection still in place.
I can't wait to hear this puppy with half decent output valves, hardwired output connections, Ultrafast diodes in the PSU section, more capacitance, damping... etc. etc. etc. This is a true tweakers dream and @ £180 (or cheaper) an absolute bargain!
I really must get some pictures uploaded, I've run out of space on most of my websites but will be upgrading from 250MB to 1500MB shortly so my camera will go into action again soon.
One helluva CD player for the money though and one I know I'm going to have a lot of fun with, not only can you opamp roll to tailor the sound to your own ears you can also valve roll.... PCB's are quite easily removed from the chassis too (a few screws) so you can whip either of the PCBs out in a couple of minutes and go to work on them should you want to go further than simply opamp / valve rolling... as I previously mentioned the PCBs are top quality and virtually impossible to lift pads / destroy them.
This guy has LOTS of potential and it's got my juices flowing again... watch out!
Pictures to appear shortly.
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leo
Been here a while!
Team wtf is it?
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Post by leo on Mar 21, 2007 1:15:40 GMT
Nice thread Mike, looks a decent unit for the price and ripe for modding:)
I can't fault you for being suspiscious with the caps, unfortunately there is a lot of fake Chinese ones about so recapping with the FM's and FC's is a wise choice!
The chinese branded valves tend to be a bit dodgy too, should be a nice unit once sorted
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Fergus
100+
Done a David Ike and is now known as Godkin
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Post by Fergus on Mar 21, 2007 14:18:05 GMT
Good to see the modding going well, Mike. Those so-called quality components look to be Chinese fakes. Makes me wonder if the SCR caps in the output stage of my 332 are fake as well.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 21, 2007 22:44:33 GMT
Good to see the modding going well, Mike. Those so-called quality components look to be Chinese fakes. Makes me wonder if the SCR caps in the output stage of my 332 are fake as well. Not just the caps Fergus, even the laser is a fake.... Sony don't make a KSS-213Q pickup... these are Chinese made and quite short lasting from what I can make out.... just why they'd want to label it as "SONY" god only knows.... these are el cheapo sweatshop jobs you can pick up for penniesIt amazes me that six moons even refers to it as a "sony" laser pickup (even shows a picture of it!) www.sixmoons.com/audioreviews/raysonic/cd128.html it also amazes me that the $1700 Raysonic CD-128, Spark Audio's CDT-23 and Shanling's HDCD-S12 should be using such a "moody" laser pickup.... No such thing as a "SONY KSS-213Q" pickup..... fact. It just makes me wonder how much Chinese gear employs counterfeit / fake parts.... quite a lot I'd imagine. Just think about it..... an amp / CD player crammed full of exotic components being knocked out for a few quid, no way can that be possible if genuine exotic parts are being used.... I suspect quite a lot of the bargain gear that's coming out of China contains pretty dire parts covered in fake wrappers, thing is these so called "reviewers" haven't got a bloody clue..... time they started to earn their living and do some research I think ;D The OPA2604 I removed from the CD33 looks nothing like the stash of OPA2604 I have...... possible the 2604 in the CD33 is nothing more than an NE5532 with "OPA2604" printed onto it. The caps (ELNA Silmic, Rubycon, Mcaps, SCR etc.) are CERTAINLY not genuine.... I can spot a fake a mile away..... you've only got to desolder the Silmics and feel them, way too lightweight to be genuine and the wrappers are also a dead giveaway (not maybe so obvious to the untrained eye though) The Rubycons are fakes, no need to remove them from the board to determine that, the printing on the sleeves is just awful....... Anyways, I'm not "complaining"..... the CD33 sounds superb but just thought I'd mention that all that glitters is not necessarily gold and I hope this thread opens up a can of worms and gets people under the bonnet actually "looking" in depth at the components.... as I say, when reviewers are being duped and passing on shite information to their readers it's getting into blind leading the blind territory.... there's also possible forgery / dishonesty going down yet nobody seems to want to address that.............. |
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Post by colinh on Mar 21, 2007 22:52:50 GMT
To many snouts in the trough Mike. You only have to look in any of the HiFi mags to see which dealers are selling a lot of this 'Made in China ' gear. No doubt at one hell of a markup.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Mar 24, 2007 17:09:26 GMT
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Post by bennyboy on Mar 31, 2007 16:42:18 GMT
This whole thing is starting to make me think that a lot of the parts we buy are fake! Think about it Mike, You and I have good ears, but I feel the BlackGate's on the output of my xcanV3 sound really good while you feel they suck! Did we really get the same caps? fakes? This may explain why two folks have 180* opinions on the (so called) same chips/parts. Good to see the modding going well, Mike. Those so-called quality components look to be Chinese fakes. Makes me wonder if the SCR caps in the output stage of my 332 are fake as well. Not just the caps Fergus, even the laser is a fake.... Sony don't make a KSS-213Q pickup... these are Chinese made and quite short lasting from what I can make out.... just why they'd want to label it as "SONY" god only knows.... these are el cheapo sweatshop jobs you can pick up for penniesIt amazes me that six moons even refers to it as a "sony" laser pickup (even shows a picture of it!) www.sixmoons.com/audioreviews/raysonic/cd128.html it also amazes me that the $1700 Raysonic CD-128, Spark Audio's CDT-23 and Shanling's HDCD-S12 should be using such a "moody" laser pickup.... No such thing as a "SONY KSS-213Q" pickup..... fact. It just makes me wonder how much Chinese gear employs counterfeit / fake parts.... quite a lot I'd imagine. Just think about it..... an amp / CD player crammed full of exotic components being knocked out for a few quid, no way can that be possible if genuine exotic parts are being used.... I suspect quite a lot of the bargain gear that's coming out of China contains pretty dire parts covered in fake wrappers, thing is these so called "reviewers" haven't got a bloody clue..... time they started to earn their living and do some research I think ;D The OPA2604 I removed from the CD33 looks nothing like the stash of OPA2604 I have...... possible the 2604 in the CD33 is nothing more than an NE5532 with "OPA2604" printed onto it. The caps (ELNA Silmic, Rubycon, Mcaps, SCR etc.) are CERTAINLY not genuine.... I can spot a fake a mile away..... you've only got to desolder the Silmics and feel them, way too lightweight to be genuine and the wrappers are also a dead giveaway (not maybe so obvious to the untrained eye though) The Rubycons are fakes, no need to remove them from the board to determine that, the printing on the sleeves is just awful....... Anyways, I'm not "complaining"..... the CD33 sounds superb but just thought I'd mention that all that glitters is not necessarily gold and I hope this thread opens up a can of worms and gets people under the bonnet actually "looking" in depth at the components.... as I say, when reviewers are being duped and passing on shite information to their readers it's getting into blind leading the blind territory.... there's also possible forgery / dishonesty going down yet nobody seems to want to address that.............. |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Apr 3, 2007 10:25:14 GMT
This whole thing is starting to make me think that a lot of the parts we buy are fake! Think about it Mike, You and I have good ears, but I feel the BlackGate's on the output of my xcanV3 sound really good while you feel they suck! Did we really get the same caps? fakes? This may explain why two folks have 180* opinions on the (so called) same chips/parts. Possibly "you" got the fakes which is why they sound so good and I was landed with the real deal ;D |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2007 11:21:30 GMT
Mike
Just out of curiosity, did you try again with the OPA2604 after the diode and cap replacement ? I wouldn't have expected that a swap of one good opamp with another good opamp of the same make, would have made such a large improvement at the bottom end.The fast diodes would almost certainly have lowered the noise floor , but you could very well be right abut a counterfeit OPA2604. Perhaps it started out life as the ubiquitous 4558, which so many Asian products use ? Even a 5532 is better than them!
SandyK
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Post by bennyboy on Apr 3, 2007 17:14:14 GMT
This whole thing is starting to make me think that a lot of the parts we buy are fake! Think about it Mike, You and I have good ears, but I feel the BlackGate's on the output of my xcanV3 sound really good while you feel they suck! Did we really get the same caps? fakes? This may explain why two folks have 180* opinions on the (so called) same chips/parts. Possibly "you" got the fakes which is why they sound so good and I was landed with the real deal ;D Ya...thats what I ment.  |
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Apr 3, 2007 19:02:23 GMT
I think I could not even purchase the upgrade caps and get the actual player for free and match that price Is a real problem and a NEW problem brought on by greed at both ends of the trade. End #1 is the "I want" crowd who want what they want but don't feel they are obligated to pay for the legitimate product and look to always get something for nothing no matter who it hurts or if it is right or not End # 2 are crooks more than willing to feed that greed feeling 100% justified in stealing from would be stealers (the type that in former years would buy stolen goods then cry if caught that it was not they who stole it even though just as guilty-no market-no theft !) Worse is when the product is one so easily counterfeited if you have access to "blanks" and a printer and when you add the "I want to see the porn" where it is the labels that count more than if they are actually the right part for the job even IF real and we have a freakin' mess where honest folks get gathered up in the deception. Crap newly made tubes Re-branded as NOS gems at a premium if less than bank breaking price but STILL way above what the original crap tube cost,generic Op amps "rebranded" as '627s with a simple paint stamp then sold at a "bargain" price or sprinkled liberally in a device,mystry resistors coated with the proper "surfacing" to make them look like a tant etc.,bottom feeder capacitors repacked as audio grade super caps..... Ever remove the plastic wrapper on a capacitor ? They pretty much all look the same so the only way to identify it is by the label and this label being a simple slip on can be easily counterfeited to make the worlds worst piece of shit cap look like an ultra high grade version.sucks but it DOES happen. The old "you get what you pay for" and "if something looks too good to be true it probably is" still hold up even in this gotta have it and have it NOW society and while yes,you can get lucky and find a real bargain out there my opinion is there are more crooks than honest dealers and why I will pay MORE for a thing from a relaible source or go without b3cause guys,if we don't keep the straight shooters in business by patronizing their business they will go the way of the dinosaur and when we have nothing but bad choices hoping to get lucky because we failed to support the good guys we will have NO ONE to blame but ourselves and crying about it won't change shit Rant over,you may now continue in peace.........for a bit...  |
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Apr 3, 2007 19:03:45 GMT
Nice looking CDP there bTW mike.I love that clean front panel being one that HATES "busy" looking devices having features i will not use in my lifetime and added just because they can |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Apr 3, 2007 19:41:06 GMT
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Apr 3, 2007 19:56:00 GMT
was more making a general observation from top of Mt.Rick than i was crapping on your actual player dude. It IS a real problem but one brought on by the new breed of "audiophile" that from where i sit have no personal code other than "I WANT" and when you get that it comes with those willing to take advantage of it and is worse when you see the clueless always recommending "mystery amps" from the orient that truly suck big wood but that they having zero experience with anything bUT junk tout as being a bargain at which tim others fall into the same trap and until someone with a bit or reason says "hey wait here guys ! this amp SUCKS and I'm sorry I bought it" the feeding frenzy goes forward at a rapid clip reinforcing the crooks business practises and on and on. The search for cheap has no place on Team El Cheapo if it is combined with cutting corners or buying garbage just because it costs little yet looks pretty both inside and in the wrapper (something the mystery crooks have NAILED they knowing how to set a proper hook for easily deceived little fishies with deep pockets ) Can't count the amount of times I have read where totally unworthy audio products are recommended highly while the honest manufacturers are called crooks for trying to make a profit on a product that is actually engineered as a quality device (not talking about the lunatics selling $100 amps for $10K,there is a separate hell for those bastards ) |
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rickcr42
Fully Modded
Rest in peace my good friend.
Posts: 4,514
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Post by rickcr42 on Apr 3, 2007 20:16:20 GMT
more (yup.Dog with a slipper syndrome ). I recently sold off just about my entire hi-fi system except for my turntable and speakers so am in the process of a total rebuild from zero (OK,not TOTAL zero since I have a Dyna PAS2 and ST70 in system as a stopgap until the re-do). The reason I mention this is because right now with still a few more orders to go in PARTS ALONE (no mention of time to design or layout or the cosmetic details) I am currently up to $275 in parts for a "simple" 6SN7 line stage with NO upscale parts-serviceable yes.Good parts yes but no NOS tubes (EH),no BG cathode bypasses or oil caps or silver wire,etc.ALL parts are your standard guitar amp grade high voltage parts other than the Musicap coupling caps (temporary). Even the dual volume trim pots are lowly 2W Alpha pots instead of my normal PECs and the internal wiring 24 guage intercom wire to save loot and STILL I am almost at $300 with another $150 to $200 to go before i am done JUST IN PARTS ! So call it $450 just for arguing.If I were a manufacturer even a direct to customer dealer the typical markup is X3.5 which would turn this "oh so nothing fancy" line stage preamplifier into a $1,500 product and from where i sit it would be right on target for the nich in the audio food chain it would occupy yet I see similiar devices with claims of NOS tubes,silver wire,Jensen coupling caps,BG cathode bypass caps.tantalum resistors,etc for a THIRD of that and have to wonder just what the fk is going on because i can't even BUILD for that price not to mention package it in a serious chassis with pretty trimmings and ship it around the world so again-WTF ? Part-2 : My most recent incarnation of my Control Master/monitor control/Passive Preamp again is running heavy into the expensive to build arena and /again is using nothng special parts other than a pair of CineMage isolation/balancing transformers (cheaper than Jensen,Lundahl or Sowter but still the most costly part of the project) which if i were to sell a version of with NO changes to satisfy the lust for designer parts would have to retail in the $700-$800 range or it would be a waste of time yet I see passives advertised from the orient that CLAIM to use the very best names in cherry picked parts for a third of that and again have to ask "WTF IS GOING ON HERE ?" Hell.A simple "generic" open frame non-precious metal 2P6T rotary selector with no name wires and 7 pairs of "generic" gold RCA jacks "in a box",no multiple outputs,no processing loops or recording loop,no TRS front panel access I/O,no NOS bakelite knobs,no chassis damping-just a straight One-Of-Six aido selector box and I STILL am at $50 in PARTS before any build time or painting & baking the "box" which tells me it would have to retail minimum in the $125-$150 range and if the RCA jack quality bettered and the rotary selector a much better silver contact heavy lug sealed unit think $200+ yet i see this basic "front end selector" AND a dual volume attenuator (many times a very time consuming to build stepper) AND a full blown high voltage power supply/tube gain stage AND pretty chassis for a total package price of a little more than i could make a "passably good" totally passive "switch in a box" and guys,i can't wrap my head around what i SEE on paper and what I KNOW as a reality so some damn thing has to be wonky in the translation mix or there is intentional deception going on at some level (fooling ourselves can be the WORST deception of all ) the math just does not add up and even if you toss in the bulk parts buy wild card (muliples of 10K) is still off the charts so i personally have to think things are not exactly as advertised many times and better yet beleive a lot of bad press certain parts get where others feel different is because they are NOT the same part but a low grade counterfeit disguised as the same part and if so obviously would SOUND/FUNCTION inferiorly. At least that is my take on the state of cheap bastards trying to shave a buck while allowing the wolf into the hen house and he ain't leaving any time soon  BTW-if by some chance these products ARE all just as advertised honest goods then the flip side is no western manufacturer can compete head to head and still turn a profit large enough to keep the doors open so my take is either support the established good guys or lose them forever because in audio once the doors close they never open back up....................... |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Apr 3, 2007 21:12:29 GMT
Gotta admit too that I'm pretty much in heaven with the MHZS / Darkvoice 336i combo at the moment.... listening to Pink Floyd - P.U.L.S.E and it's just like being there... this combo really does convey the music beautifully and electric guitar solos scream just like they should  I'm running chinese 6SN7 GT / GE 6080 in the Darkvoice and just swapped over from some RCA5670 to some 6N3P-EB (Russians) in the MHZS...... beautiful By the way Rick, the MHZS has a 20 second countdown before she springs into action.... allows time for the valves to stabilise..... you see the countdown taking place on the display panel, apart from that there's no other gimmickry unless you class the ability to choose the upsampling rate a gimmick..... default frequency is 44.1 kHz or you can upsample to 88.2 kHz or 176.4 kHz by pressing a button on the remote before hitting "play" Did I mention the remote control? No expense spared with this puppy.... hewn out of a solid billet of aluminium it feels lovely in the hand and extremely weighty... they even include 2 spare cell batteries!    See what I mean? TOP quality indeed and I remember the day when a remote like that would cost you £170 alone! Hell, you're getting 13 kilo of CD player thrown in too and, may I add, 13 kilo of top class CD player too.... not some shitty little thing with nothing inside. The jury is out whether or not the caps are the real deal, it's actually possible they are, this guy is sounding just so fabulous now it's been playing for a few weeks..... one thing's for certain it's a top quality design and as solid as a rock... I could have been very wrong suspecting that some of the parts were fakes (I misread "china made" as meaning "fake" over at hi-fi fever) see here: The yellow bear has made it over to Asia Off to do a spot more listening..... this combo is addictive! Enough time has passed and I can wholeheartedly recommend this CD player to anyone with £170 looking for £1,000 worth of sound quality..... it really sounds that good. The latest model even has a valve hatch which will make valve rolling a breeze (and it's now classed as a HDCD player) See it here My one was £170 shipped (IS CD33 and not CD33E) from my experience buying from Chinese dealers they will be more than happy to meet you half way if you haggle with them |
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