The CD is dead? Long live the CD with the Gryphon Ethos!

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Joined
Nov 12, 2019
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Location
Cape Town
Last weekend everything changed ...

I think it was about 2012 when I bought my first digital player, the Aurender S10. I plugged it with a digital cable into the Burmester 089 CD player to use the DAC of the 089. A comparison with music that I had on the Aurender and as a CD showed the Aurender sounded much better than the CD transport.

Being a collector at heart, I still bought CDs - but not so much. I tried to get everything as a digital file, if possible in high resolution. Often I couldn't resist and boxes by Genesis, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis etc. were added to my collection frequently. But fact was, CDs got less and less playing time in favour of files.

I since upgraded my Aurender to the new N30SA top model and bought a new DAC, the Brinkmann Nyquist 2. With the N30SA, over 2 TB of digital music and streaming, my CD player was playing maybe 1 or 2 CDs per month.

And then last Saturday Achim came over with the Gryphon Ethos CD player & DAC.

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When we played a CD, it was just sensational. I never heard a CD sounding so good. I could and can not tell if it is a CD or a 44.1kHz 16 bit file playing. The optics and handling of the CD player, f.e. closing the lid, reminds me of a turntable. Together with the DAC the sound is not digital at all, delicate and full, natural, as from the perfect high end turntable.

After playing a lot of CDs over the weekend, I noticed how much I missed this. Of course it is more convenient to just click on some songs to play them. But taking out a CD, putting it in, lowering the arm with the lid, pressing play and reading the booklet - it has a certain old school feel that I enjoy a lot. I am happy to walk up to the shelf again and select a CD. 

Be warned to let Achim come to your house. He might bring something that sounds wonderful and needs to stay ...

Kind regards,
Ecki
 
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