The thing is that, when compared to the MkI, the new player features a small, but yet audible “exaggeration” of this range, a little bit similar to what we get with turntables. The best turntables play bass in an excellent manner and it is hard to accuse them of overemphasizing, but after listening to the same material from tape, it is clear that it is a little “made up” on the LP. It was similar with the CD-35 II HF Edition playing strong, electric music. People will like it, as this is what we call “drive” and “motor”. However, it was also clear to me that the older version does it in a more subtle manner.

Compact Disc vs. Super Audio CD

The CD listening session demonstrated that the new version of the top-of-the-range Ayon Audio player is better than the old one in a few respects. For laymen, the differences may not seem that big, but for anyone who has listened to a lot of CDs and spent many years with live music, it will be clear that these are important differences, sometimes even basic ones. It is because the MkII is simply a device that, while playing CDs, differentiates sound better, both when it comes to tone color and dynamics, as well as space. It shows more information, thanks to which it can build a yet more credible musical message.

The situation takes on a little different color when we start thinking about the CD-35 HF Edition not as a COMPACT DISC player, but a SUPER AUDIO CD and Compact Disc player. It is because in audio something is always sacrificed for something else. Gerhard Hirt did not included the SACD option in his new device on purpose, in order to improve the sound from CDs. And that worked out. But SACDs prove to be something so different and attractive enough, that comparing the same recordings played from CDs or from the CD layer of hybrid SACDs on the new player, and SACDs on its older version, showed both in a slightly different light.

My “old” player shows this world in a unique manner. The sound with SACDs is deeper, more dense, and more real in the first place. The differences between the MkI playing a SACD and the MkII with a CD (CD with the same material or a CD layer on a hybrid SACD) are substantial, at least in the context of high-end where we are situated. I would say it is a similar distance, such as the one between the new and older player playing CDs – this time, however, to the advantage of the CD-35 HF Edition, i.e. the SACD player.

Even though all the advantages of the new player were constant and predictable, i.e. homogenous with CDs, the difference in the obtained results was much greater in the case of SACDs. The biggest differences to the advantage of SACDs and my player could be found with relation to the transfer from analog tapes straight onto DSD files. The amount of information that we get here is simply hard (if not impossible) to reproduce using a CD player, even such a unique one as the CD-35 II HF Edition.