Ayon Audio is a company that specialises in expensive and very expensive audio components: amplifiers, digital sources and speakers. Already on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of "High Fidelity", they prepared a special version of the SACD CD-35 player, while now the CD-35 II HF Edition model was created on the occasion of the 200th edition of our magazine.

Identical twins

The CD-35 HF Edition and the CD-35 II HF Edition are almost completely identical, practically indistinguishable for someone who doesn't know their way around. If we look at the two players, we can swear that they are representatives of the same model. The unspoken "almost", however, points to differences that can be detected by a trained eye: a sticker on the rear panel with the inscription CD-35 II HF Edition, where HF Edition stands for HIGH FIDELITY EDITION, and the CD clamp integrated into the lid on the new version. On the 2017 model, the clamp had to be put on before the lid was closed. The basic difference, however, is that the Mk I was a Super Audio CD player, i.e. one designed for SACDs and CDs as well as CD-R/RWs, while the Mk II is "only" a compact disc player for audio CDs and CD-R/RWs. I have the impression that the possibility of playing SACDs in the earlier model was a kind of experiment - one whose results apparently did not satisfy Gerhard Hirt, the owner of Ayon Audio.

The thing is that playing CDs is different from playing SACDs and requires different software. The experience of the Ayon Audio company was that when one “tells” a StreamUnlimited transport to play Compact Discs only, it performs the task better than when it has to deal with two different disk types. Gerhard has never been a special SACD fan, as he is more into DSD files, but he is an analog person in the first place. Thus, while preparing the new CD-35 version, he again chose a format that is older, but at the same time represented by hundreds of millions, if not billions, of discs in home collections worldwide.

The CD-35 II HIGH FIDELITY EDITION, or the “HF Edition” for short, is the second “special” product in Ayon Audio history. The first one was the Super Audio CD CD-35 HF Edition player that we came up with together with Gerhard Hirt for two reasons – a “qualitative” and a “prestige-related” one, I would say. As for the former, the basic CD-35 version proved to be one of the best of such devices in its price range and showed the potential to become much more than that. The latter reason linked the Ayon Audio company to our magazine – it was supposed to be a model that would add splendor to the 15th anniversary of High Fidelity – some kind of a “seal” that would confirm our long-lasting friendship.