Pre-Owned and Ex-Demo
About the Passion CD 430
This top loading CD player features a Philips CD PRO 2 blue diode mechanism, feeding it's data stream to a Cirrus Logic reference DAC. Sounds simple, but YBA pay a lot of attention to getting a great deal of performance out of this basic recipe. Precision casework, carefully designed around the top-loading mechanism to minimise vibration and acoustic ingress, high quality power supplies with lots of local regulation and very careful implementation of the excellent Cirrus Logic digital engine. There is lots of additional flexibility built into the design which allows direct USB input from a PC or MAC, the drive has CD-R and CD-RW capability, and the selectable digital out means it can all drive an external DAC if required.
Specifications
Transport: High end Philips CD-PRO 2 with patented Blue Diode® design (CD, CD-R, CD-RW)
Outputs: 1 RCA, 1 XLR, 1 Digital (coaxial)
Input: USB (USB 2.0 High speed, up to 192kHz)
Digital Engine: Reference Cirrus Logic CS4398
Unbalanced Output: 2.3 V
Balanced Output: 4.6 V
SNR: 110 dB
Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz (-0.5 dB)
THD+N (20Hz - 20kHz): 0.0015% (16bit), 0.0008% (24bit)
Linear Power Supply: High performance UI-Core transformer 160VA
Dimensions mm (WDH): 430 x 388 x 118
Weight: 12.8 Kg
The Winters Audio Experience
Straight CD, oh yes please...
This YBA CD player hides it's light under the transport puck. CD was actually a great thing – it was around for quite a long time before streaming, hi-res and so forth came along, and hence a lot of music lovers ended up with big CD collections. Then, the peak of CD replay capability arrived in the form of Philips' top loading transport mechanisms. That mechanism is even better now in mk 2 guise with the blue diode.
Now, at Winters, we love lots of streaming when we want to go round the big online providers and search their archives – that option these days really adds to the joy of being a music enthusiast. But, and we really mean this, there is something very special about a good recording on standard CD played on a well implemented Philips Pro 2. Forget the format numbers, because any argument about miniscule bits of detail is replaced by a natural correctness and consistency that comes from the quality of this transport.
But look, and this is the clever bit, this YBA player actually does both – listen to your CD collection at the very best it can be, or flick a switch and stream music in, using the USB port. However, we bet you a sherbet dibdab that on this machine, you'll still prefer the sound of the CDs.