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Review on YAMAHA CD-S1000BL Super Audio CD Player in Black for Enhanced Natural Sound Experience by Ada Kowalczyk ᠌

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Practical product, nothing to complain about.

The player works with an A-S1000 amplifier and Paradigm Reference Studio 20 bookshelf speakers. I bought the amplifier first, and the player six months later, replacing it with a budget Denon DCD-700AE. Although the difference was significant, but, to be honest, the replacement of the impression amplifier was more impressive. As Pushkin once noted: “You are beautiful, no doubt; But she lives without any glory, Among the green oak forests, With the seven heroes, The one that is still sweeter than you. Not so long ago, I purchased an external Atoll DAC-100SE DAC to bring up, so to speak, the sound of an existing network player (Yamaha CD-N500) to a more serious level. And what was my surprise when, on the recording of the symphony orchestra, I heard exactly those timbres that I heard at a live concert, experienced the same feelings that I experienced in the concert hall. Now, of course, I also listen to the CD player through an external DAC. Sometimes, however, I try to return to direct listening, but this usually only enhances my impressions described in the shortcomings. At the same time, it is curious that both devices are implemented on the same chips - Burr-Brown PCM 1796 - and both are based on the "double mono" scheme, but Atoll turned out to be more natural, livelier, more believable. I categorically reject esoteric fantasies about the influence of different connecting cables, briefcases and documents - the cables are the same throughout the system. By the way, I note that in headphones (Stax SR-407) the difference is less pronounced. This is probably due to the fact that headphones are not able to convey the volume and scale to the same extent as speakers do. May I be forgiven that I have raised so much blasphemy on a good, in general, player. In no case do I want to dissuade or scare anyone from this device. However, I would recommend that you listen to several different models before buying, determine your priorities more precisely, and weigh the pros and cons without haste. Whatever you say, the player has its own specific manner of sound delivery, and everyone decides for himself how much he likes it.

Pros
  • The sound is really clear, dynamic, detailed, as already noted here, but not sharp, and even beautiful and captivating, although you still can’t call it neutral. Despite the existing minor shortcomings, it is pleasant to listen to the player, there is a certain "highlight" in it. The MP3 format plays very well, no matter what the haters of lossy compression say. I like the sound of an MP3 on the Yamaha CD-S1000 just as much, and in some ways even more than an audio CD on the budget Yamaha CD-N500. (I'm talking about high bitrates, of course.) The appearance is solid, solid, although somewhat archaic. And the heavy weight of the device subconsciously increases the rating, although, to be honest, I'm not sure of the significance of this indicator. The quiet smooth tray is pleasant to use - its barely audible soft rustling adds charm. At the time of purchase, I was pleased with the price - I took it in November 2022 for only 30 thousand, i. E. exactly one and a half times cheaper than now, which, by the way, also influenced the choice. For that price, in terms of the sum of qualities, I did not particularly see any competitors, although at the current price I would probably have thought more deeply.
Cons
  • Shallow recess on the tray, which constantly requires attention when installing the disc. Despite good MP3 playback, track navigation is ugly - you can only scroll through in order, but you can neither go to another folder, nor select a track number. Imagine how much you have to wind if there are five or ten albums on the disc, and you want to listen to the last one. In addition, there are small lags during navigation. The display is also not informative enough - it does not display ID3 tags. Natural piggy to do this, especially since everything you need is available even on budget models, and there are no technical or economic difficulties in implementation. Not successfully, in my opinion, the rewind along the track is implemented - not by holding the button, but by pressing it, while the rewind speed changes in a circle. You can return to normal playback only by pressing "Play". The sound of the player, of course, is good, but not perfect. Everything seems to be formally correct, but, alas, there is no effect of presence. During the year of use, I noticed the following. The scene is flat, compressed in depth - this immediately caught my eye after replacing the old player. The bass, although quite deep, legible, well articulated, is still a little lightweight, not the same as in reality. Sound images on the second and further planes are not very well localized, as if a little blurred. The texture of the instruments, although present, is not enough, some flatness is felt. All this, plus a slight distortion in the HF region, which gives the sound lightness, sometimes unreasonable, still imposes a touch of syntheticity on the sound and deprives it of fullness. Despite the stated slogan "Natural sound", that very naturalness is still not fully ensured. However, all these shortcomings in the sound are not very striking, and someone may not notice them at all. It's just that I've been accustomed to truly live music since childhood, hence, probably, the increased requirements.