Audiolab 9000CDT
Contents
Finally, the 1200 Euro Audiolab 9000CDT is a new product from British Audiolab. We must say: the device looks very good. The finish is neat and should also make it clear that this is a “serious” product.
The front has a nice display that shows information from the tracks. The rotary knob is used to control things. It works, although we have to say we would have preferred just push buttons. The designers must have done it for sleek combining with other 9000 products.
On the back we see coaxial, optical and usb. USB is for file playback. Although we would like to see AES as well, many users will be fine with these digital outputs.
The reproduction of the Audiolab 9000CDT is… very detail-rich. The focus is really on digging deep into the music. Now that’s impressive; you really hear everything that’s going on. Even some of the recording tricks…. But it takes away – for us – a bit of emotion. We’re not really drawn into the story of the song anymore, because we’re constantly preoccupied with what we’re hearing.
Now, a transport like this might very well be combined with less detailed d/a converters. After all: the Sonnet Pasithea is quite a resolution monster. With another converter it will be able to be pulled more into balance.
Measurements Audiolab 9000CDT
The Audiolab measures very well. We see 14ps of AVG jitter. That’s just neat. The strip-chart also shows neat stability. Add to that neat results with the low freq modulation and we can see that Audiolab has done its homework. Hats off.
Noise-wise – on the power supply – it’s less pretty. There is relatively high noise for a player in this field. The “grass is a little high” shall we say. We think it’s because of the display, but that’s just a guess.
There’s an interesting article by Stereophile about different CD transports and their impact on sound. Granted, it’s not very recent, but it seems that physics are still the same.
Know this one?
https://www.stereophile.com/features/368/index.html
Cheers!