Bang for buck? What´s that?
Contents
1. nonetheless there they are Digital output says XTZ is available as Toslink and coax digital inputs are not available but XTZ are And a stable chassis it is It s a real working on this battlewagon we are dealing with here XTZ On the back panel we find the mains CD 100 is built and looks like it would cost switch severly more And then I really mean severly Talking about power the CD 100 The finish is a kind of velvet powder varnish automatically enters standby mode if no making the unit very nice to the touch with a surprising feeling that the massive Propuct XTZ CD 100 aluminum the player is almost entirely INFO WWW XTZ SE made from aluminum profiles is softand Price 3 800 SEK smooth HIGHfidelity 1 10 Remote control The remote is surprisingly light taking the design into account The player accepts remote commands from a decent angle making the placement of the player in respect to the listening position fairly in the best way The section is written ina easy But if you are used to remote language that anybody can understand a controls that can even transmit from that does its best to de dramatize the other rooms then it s probably just a matter A screwdriver and an extra fuse matter of cost if you choose to use is included remotes where this may be a problem But that is surely understandable HDCD regarding the price level of the CD 100 On the website XTZ specifies that py w2. Bang for buck What s that a COMPACT DISC PLAYER gt amp TEST whe eee ee Beeeueaae You shouldnt have to spend a fortune says XTZ Is that the truth about their CD 100 By Sven Bil n tried asking guests what they think the player would cost and none of them guessed a price below 4 digits Sure it has X TZ is a company that draws ever more been standing among units that nobody attention as the message spreads would doubt costing money and the CD 100 has clearly done very well in c ompany of these units There were some long faces when the real price tag was revealed And this only judged by the looks and general impression of quality we will get to the sound around the world At the moment they are developing distribution in China but the brand is really taking off in Europe as well We have known XTZ for a long time as a producer of extremely price worthy products cheap but utterly nice This time we take a closer look at their CD player CD 100 f About the construction What should it cost Concerning connections both balanced We think a good CD player should not XLR not usually seen in this price range have to cost a small fortune it should be and two pairs of unbalanced RCA outputs possible for most people to buy A stable are available I m not sure why two sets of chassis and well proved electronics isthe RCA outputs would be necessary but foundation for good quality thinking
3. as well be the cables if you can even tell the difference Of course it s very unfair to even compare with a 30 40 times more expensive player but at the same time we find it very amusing to really put these cheap products to the test and see if they have anything to offer And the XTZ CD 100 does can confidently say that there have been even some quite expensive players falling through in this test but this is not the case this time Speaking in general terms we get a sound quality normally not found in this price range and not even in the next higher price range either At first we were not as sure as we became later but it was clear that the reproduction exceeded the expectations looking at the price tag The player sounded a bit held back as if it didnt tell the entire story A bit grey and spiritless but with the right soundstage just that the details sounded a bit muffled There was no aura between the musicians and the music felt somewhat detached A bit like a regular CD player at twice the price roughly As always you should try and find the best combination Everything doesn t work equally well together with everything and a change of cables turned out to do the trick A pair of Atlas cables at a modest price of just under 150 Euros instead of the well renowned 5 times more expensive ones proved that it s not always the most expensive products that will perform the best With this combination we ended up w
4. ey E Da ote oP CD CD R HDCD MP3 and even MP3 from eee as long a the player is in sight DVD can be read This had to be tested of ee NICETO HORIN ia flanhane course And yes a HD symbol lights up in manage all the functions you could ask the display Be prepared that the HD for including direct track choice This symbol may light up when least expected Beng aa there are a few things that as many HDCD actually does not indicate COUO DE IMPTOVER COUA WAYS NANE IG HD On the other hand some HDCD does wait for a disc to be DEE 79u _ notactually have the codec eventhough can press Flay or any other direct track its printed on the label the record c eee ms means you ren pecon ompanies sometimes mess this up and A le the es eee en see i have used a 1 1 copy when printing a oad then start the disc automatically new edition and the HDCD flag is s you are used to years of using a player ubsequently lost That s life that obeys the smallest hint right away this can be a bit frustrating with the CD 100 A matter of getting used to yes but as How does it sound you know teaching old dogs to sit is Our referens and starting point is to not always easy reproduce a true and uncoloured sound but we take into account that sound is User manual always a matter of personal preference want to commend XTZ for their user Now that I have double copies of some manual containing a very good section records it s always tempting t
5. have a player that takes place in a high end system without getting embarrassed and plays like it naturally belonged there Impressive The only thing that could be held against the XTZ CD 100 just like with all other cheap products that perform far above their price tag is that there is a thing in the world of HiFi called prestige And that is not to be ignored it exists just as the comments from better knowing friends There are brands that possess a completely different aura deserved or not We only have one advise trust your own ears Often price and performance are closely related but not always Here is a typical example of such a product where you get endlessly much for your money from a sonic point of view but maybe not much of a showcase Honestly skip the prestige and listen to music instead HIGHfidelity 1 10
6. ith a performance several classes better Still slightly held back compared to the referens but not something we would have reacted to if we hadn t had the direct comparison The sound was now detailed exciting and flowing with ease but not persistive it was simply just there The character and feel is right up there in the same family as the referens The bass reaches deep it s clean and surprisingly distinct The midrange gives body and soul to voices and the treble is hovering without lying there as a fog Of course there is an obvious difference compared to the referens player but the XTZ CD 100 could easily have costed 4 5 times as much That s how good it is synthetic glitter and that s what you appreciate in the long run We can only ascertain that this is a very good CD player Bang for the buck well that s just the middle name When the price had finally been revealed to a noticably shaken Nis he instantly argued that the player should remain for a few more days of further evaluation Conclusion No the CD 100 does perhaps not play as good or as big as the high end referens player but it do come a surprisingly far way No the background is perhaps not as silent and velvety it s not as refined the number of details is not as large and the soundstage is smaller than the referens but hey We are talking about the Same money as a tin can with a bunch of electronics thrown in Here we
7. ly the Marantz had improved more expensive Marantz that had been The problem was that the XTZ was still modified and tweaked to perform even clearly better even with the vdH cables better than the original model the Marantz had been played with The Nis had picked a record that he sometimes CD 100 simply played more music A bit have difficulties following the text on more slender but with more detail more Schwanzen Sangerknabens latest acapella drive better room ambience more singing and yes you can imagine what the engaging and much more correct high seasoned and very spiritual vocals And these were exactly the same are about impressions we experienced in the First out was the Marantz and yes alternative setup in the home What like understood what he meant It took the most is that it does not try to impress concentration to keep up and all of it like many other players that pour sugar on didn t go through as it was supposed to the recordings The CD 100 plays music in from the live recording With the XTZ it a correct way without adding any signal has been present for 30 minutes We should all save power where possible and this is a good initiative The front panel has a couple of buttons worth mentioning The Eject button is located above the other four buttons and the On Off button is placed all by itself If only you knew how many CD players there are where they haven t thought about these obvious things tha
8. o put one in they call Practice of sound that covers the referens player and the other one in installation and placement The CD 100is the test object and switch between them a low priced CD player and can probably This was also done of course with the be purchased by many people entering CD 100 connected both balanced and the world of HiFi and that might not unbalanced with the same type of cables know very much about setting up a system XLR and RCA respectively so there was s _ BAL R OQ e e ANALOGUE OUTPUT i l didn t take many seconds before we found Other connections out that all of the text was crystal clear the A clearly convincing sound in a high end room ambience was completely different system then Would it do as well in a less and the entire impression was much more expensive setup We tried a few First interesting and fun listening to Indeed more modest system in the home then at very convincing the print makers place who has a completely different and more analog We tried the same High Fidelity referens oriented system read the turntable is the CD and the XTZ was superior on all main source in a more moderate price parameters Then we switched and let the ranga even if it cannot be called cheap Marantz play through the same Atlas We did the same test connecting the cables that the XTZ had been played with CD 100 in parallell with a three times and instant
9. t the buttons should not be easily mistaken The CD 100 layout is well thought out and the design is not compromised The display is easy to read it has blue text just the right amount of information and can be dimmed in three steps and and you are welcomed by a Hello at power up The tray takes a second to react but glides smooth and silently in and out The loading and disc detection takes a bit longer than the fastest players have tested about average or slightly faster The CD mechanism is a Sanyo HD650 Inside you find a well sized toroid transformer and there are separate power supply boards for the analog and digital parts Each section is shielded CD mechanism also shielded and the digital board is located in the middle the power supplies on one side and the analog board on the other side The analog output is built using discrete components operating in Class A The DAC comes from Analog Devices AD1955 and makes a 384 kHz upsample A piece of equipment that absolutely looks very convincing with an aura of high end quality that can be felt even at distance You simply don t find this kind of construction in the price range music on three inputs to switch between We used High Fidelity referens CD No 78 There was no bottomless difference between unbalanced and balanced basically no difference at all actually At least not any difference that could be down to the player it could just
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