[Member 476511]

XTZ CD-100/11

As you would come to expect from XTZ they have received another glowing review. This time it's for the amazing XTZ CD-100/11. The review can be found in the July '12 Issue of HiFi World.

Here are some comments from the reviewer Paul Rigby:

"Compared to by reference CD player, Icon CD-X1, the most noticable first impression... was the tighter and much punchier bass."

" What lifted, not one but two eyebrows, was the XTZ's overall midrange and treble performance during Skunk Anansie's 'Hedonism'."

"The XTZ exhibited an impressive instrumental separation performance so the music had more room to grow and express itself."

"Tonally, the XTZ is fascinating and 'real', with plenty of information available constructing the electric guitar, for example, as a realistic image, while the drum had an expressive quality. Vocals, meanwhile, exuded new levels of emotion while the cymbals added a welcome contrast of daintiness."

"Conclusion. The XTZ has to be the best value peice of hi-fi that I have ever listened to. To think that you can purchase this box for just £400 is not only laughable, it is frankly ridiculous. I would even feel vaguely guilty handing over such a small amount of cash for such an obviously 'expensive' peice of kit."

FOR -
Overall sound quality
Build
Balanced output performance

AGAINST -
Nothing

AWARDED - 5 Globes

VERDICT - For the price, a stunning CD player that will even give a £2,000 CD player competition. Well built, sounds great, bags of features.


We can also tell you that since this review was published the reviewer has kept the unit for future reference. He just couldn't believe the performance it gave even against £2000 CD players.

Since this review came out we have seen a massive increase in sales of this unit. We do still have some stock left so if you want to be the owner of the best priced CD player on the market you'll have to be quick. You can find more information about the XTZ CD-100/11 here.

Need we say more!

[Albedo]

Good for you ! It's nice to see XTZ going mainstream. Though it's mostly a UK thing, in Belgium and France the brand is little known

Any news on new XTZ gear coming ? Or perhaps new finishes ? (gloss white for instance)

[XTZ]

Nice! Happy to see they appreciated all the work we put into it.

There are quite a few changes done, but the most important ones I think are the lowered output impedance of the analog outputs. This ensures they can manage to drive any able properly. Also, we redesigned some of the post DAC circuitry to make the signal path shorter, which brings the sound closer to the original recordings.

The system clock was changed to optimize jitter, although the AD1955 DAC is very unsensitive to jitter anyway, so this will basically only make a difference if you are using an external DAC.

And finally, some critical component specs have been upped a notch to really make the player sing.



/Rikard