Matt from our Cardiff store takes a deep dive into one of our newest and most exciting brands, Advance Paris and of their components particularly the X-D500 CD transport. So let’s test drive this phenomenal piece of kit and see where we end up…

I find myself once again on the wonderful wild ride through the world of Hi-Fi. As previously mentioned, for this month’s blog I am focusing on the compact disc side of things. The CD source in question this month is a wonderful CD transport made by the amazing French company, Advance Paris.

Advance Paris first came onto my radar in February of this year at the Bristol Hi-Fi show, where I was invited to visit their room and have a listen to the exciting new range of products they had to offer. It was a great opportunity to get to know the brand and I was (and still am) very impressed not just with their look & build of their product range, but also their sonic performance.

advnace paris embossed logo top panel xd500

Advance Paris History

As you will no doubt have read from blogs from our colleagues in our sibling stores - Advance Paris was born in 1995 by French Hi-Fi enthusiasts, pushing the boundaries of high-fidelity audio and music reproduction at its finest. Bringing audiophile quality equipment such as amplification, CD players and speakers to our ears at reasonable prices.

Moving forward to 2004 Advance Paris developed their first integrated amplifier which laid the foundations for the innovations we see in their range today, such as the beautiful yet functional features including preamp valves and VU meters. These features were later joined by streaming with products such as the WTX Stream Tubes network player and amplifiers like the Playstream A5. These products are just the tip of the iceberg in Advance Paris’s fantastic arsenal, and there is truly something for everyone. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re expanding your sonic horizons Advance has it.

The Tech Bit

The XD 500 has a linear power supply with 2 toroidal transformers for perfect separation of the different power supplies, for the operation of this product such as mechanical management, and processing of the signal from the laser etc.

This CD transport also has an over sampling function (up scaling) from (16bit/44.1kHz) to a signal bit rate of (24bit/96KHZ or 24bit/192kHz).

The XD-500 also benefits from a chassis with significant rigidity thanks to its mechanical design. Each circuit is separated from the others by compartmentalised construction, ensuring effective shielding. Equipped with Coaxial (RCA), Optical (Toslink) and AES / EBU (XLR) digital outputs.

Advance paris xd500 cdtransport rear panel

Let The Listening Commence

I have said many times before one of the great things about working for Audio T is the ability to bring the latest and greatest kit home to get to know how each piece of equipment performs. As we say to our customers, there’s nothing quite like listening in the comfort of your own room. As I write this, I am in my music room with the wonderful Advance Paris CD transport plugged into my system, sat on my sofa with a cup of coffee listening to a selection of CDs as the evening rolls on.

Thos of you that have got to know me from my previous blogs or have met me in store will know that vinyl & turntables are my first love. The CD format does come a very close second and I have collected rather a lot of CDs over the years, possibly in the high hundreds in all honesty, I’ve lost count. It is safe to say that the CD player, or in this case the CD transport, is just as important in delivering quality sound as the turntable. You may be thinking why bring the Advance Paris XD 500 home and plug it into a Cyrus amp. My reasoning for this was that the XD 500 sounds phenomenal through Advance Paris’s own amplification using the internal DAC and I feel it is just as important to test the flexibility of a CD transport as many of us out there mix and match brands in our Hi-Fi systems.

How Does It Sound?

First impressions, as with all the Advance Paris equipment I’ve had the pleasure to come across, is that the build quality is superb and the aesthetic styling is clean and modern. With looks that would grace anyone’s home system.

(Although, I must say that it looks especially impressive if you pair it with the A10 integrated amplifier as they really complement each other.)

Aside from looks, let talk about performance...

With my amplifier all warmed-up from the get-go the XD 500 CD transport really adds something a little different to what I am used to.

This CD transport seems to add a certain warmth you’d expect from an analogue source whilst maintaining a sense of digital magic. It works perfectly with instruments such as the iconic Fender Telecaster tone of Bruce Springsteen, especially on Racing in the Streets, where it sounds more alive than ever before. Stephen Perkins’ drums on the Jane’s Addiction track, The Great Escape, seemed to be cleaner whilst retaining the solid groove he plays throughout the track.

I feel that the XD 500 really captures what we want from the music, and more. The fact that it performs as well as it does at this price bracket is a testament to one of Advance Paris’ main goals “…the aim is to deliver uncompromising sound quality at affordable prices”.

Demonstration Tracks

1: Bruce Springsteen - The Promise

Track: Racing in the streets

2: Jane’s Addiction - The Great Escape

Track: Irresistible force met the immovable object

3: Artist: Incubus - Morning view

Track: Just A Phase

Conclusion

In short, Advance Paris really has set out to impress with their innovative designs, whilst tipping the proverbial hat to vintage technology such as valves and VU meters. But above all else, the sonic performance of the entire range conducts itself well above its price point.

So why not give us a call and book yourself in for a demonstration and tell us what you think.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog!

Matt - Audio T Cardiff

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to Contact Us.

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Advance Paris can be found at the following Audio T stores

Our Journey begins.

Rega have quite a history in making well regarded CD players, the Planet CD player from 1997, then the Jupiter 2000 from the year, well, 2000. The Saturn R CD player came along in April 2004 and was equally well received. Since then we have had the Apollo half width case Cd player and the beautifully constructed Isis Cd player from Rega’s Reference range.

It’s a brand new ship.

Just like the rings of Saturn, good things usually come around again, only this time wearing a different suit. Enter the new Rega Saturn MK3, all new but not quite. Let me explain.

Rega have been changing their casework recently, the new Aria, the power supplies for the P10 and P8 and the very cute Rega Fono MM and MC, all look better for it. The casework is very slick.

The Saturn MK3 however, is the first of the full size cases to adorn the new architecture, the new casework and button layout is probably a clue as to what the new range of amps coming from Rega will look like.

Lets take it to the bridge.

You may have noticed the very cool looking CD mech that Rega use for all their CD players. The disc is housed in a fixed position that clicks into spring loaded mechanism. Not having any plastic cogs and gears for a drawer that opens and closes just reduces the possibility of things going wrong inside the CD player. The cover for the CD is reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise, which when closed just glides beautifully into place using a quiet damping method.

The communications hub and engine room.

The Saturn MK3 has plenty of connectivity options around the back, up to and including 24bit-192kHz audio.

There are two optical and two Coaxial inputs, a fully asynchronous USB as well. So that’s five digital inputs for items situated close by such as a TV or network streamer or even a digital tuner and more.

Interestingly the USB input on the back has three LED’s surrounding it to indicate status, so after you have downloaded the correct drivers you can get on with listening to your lush 24/192 files from your computer.

The lights, which indicate, comms, power and data at least let you know if you’re doing it right when they all light up, if somethings wrong one of the lights (or all of them) won’t come on. A great little touch from Rega to help you get connected easily and to confirm that the correct type of data is getting through.

Two Wolfson WM8742 digital-to-analogue converter chips are at the centre of this machine, these take care of dishing out the digital signals to two outputs and of course also do the job of converting to analogue as well. And at this they truly excel.

Communicator check one two one two.

To the sound quality, well, firstly it’s important to remember that this Saturn MK3 is the same on the inside as the Saturn R MK2 from May 2013. Only the case work has changed. However, Rega have refined the build process and introduced stricter production tests and checks, to improve reliability even further. As a result our opinion of the Saturn hasn’t really changed. We have always liked the sound signature from Rega’s Saturn MK2, which is to say that it’s an open sounding CD player with lots of forward sounding pop.

It grabs your attention and keeps you focused on the music, in fact, on our last demonstration our customer was quick to point out these very same traits, and of course he purchased the unit.

Live long and prosper?

It’s also only fair to say that in this time of dwindling CD player sales the bulk of our focus is on the streaming side of things when it comes to digital music, the Saturn MK3 CD Player/DAC and other CD players tend to fade into the background until a customer comes along and asks for a demo. That’s when our interest is usually peaked and when we realise what an impressive bunch of nuts and bolts the Saturn actually is - Which often starts the debate about whether CD is actually dead. Interestingly, according to data from RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), CD sales have rose for the first time in 17 years. Yep, you heard that right, CD sales have gone up! How long will this trend last? Well, does it matter? Not really, as most of our dedicated customers have significant sized libraries of CDs to peruse from anyway, it’s just matter of dusting off the collection and letting the Saturn MK3 works it’s magic.

The new Rega Saturn MK3 CD Player/DAC is on demonstration at our Manchester store.

Come along and take some of your CD’s for a spin.

Dave, Munir, Mike , James and Haden will be on hand to help.

Thanks for reading.

Munir - Audio T Manchester

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Rega can be found at the following Audio T stores

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Advancing The Sounds Of The Compact Disc With Advance Paris