YAMAHA CD-S2000 SACD

MJ10.04.2010

Digital sources

The local Yamaha's dealer website contains one nice sentence: „Many music collectors recollect the old good stereo times with sentiment. The amplifiers used to have only 2 channel and listening to vinyl was a late night ritual, accompanied by a good book or a glass of wine." I have nothing to add.

Function and form

90%

Ease of use

31%

Sound

94%

Appearance

The front panel is minimalistic clean. It provides basic functions including the Pure Direct push button that inactivates digital outputs and switches off display circuits. I like that. The player has RCA and XLR options as well as optical and coaxial outputs. The power cord is detachable.

The CD-S2000 player can replay red book CD, SACD, WMA and MP3 formats. As clean as from outside the Yamaha is clean inside. The topology is strictly symmetrical including DAC chips (Burr Brown PCM 1792, no upsampling). There are two dedicated power supplies for analogue and digital sections, both shielded. The pick up mechanism is also shielded and the case braced for extra stiffness. The device's legs can be vertically adjusted so it is easy to set it up on any surface and by removing the lower segment of a leg a spike is exposed. Wooden high-gloss side panels lend a touch of luxury to the player. The designers of the CD-S2000 proved that it was possible to built a nice and a well-thought device at the low-cost level.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

The matrix display is dimmable in 4 levels or it can be switched off through the Pure Direct. I did not identify any notable difference in sound between the Pure Direct enabled or disabled. I loved a thin machined aluminum drawer of the CD transport that worked flawlessly and and was dead silent. This can be inspiring for much pricier devices.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

The Yamaha CD-S2000's sound is equally proportional to how the player looks and what it costs. I auditioned the player in tandem with the Yamaha A-S2000 amplifier and the combo could control hungry small Dynaudio speakers with ease. The sound was rich and dynamic.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

My impression was that the player was tilted up a bit both in bass and highs. The bass was punchy and deep, the player fills the room with cellos or bass guitars competently and even a symphonic orchestra did not represented any major issue. The high were clean and never fatiguing. In midrange I wished for a bit more of warmth, especially on human voices the Yamaha sounded a bit anemic. The way the CD-S2000 presents music is thus on the colder, more precise size of neutrality. The matching to your preferences and your audio set-up will be necessary.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

With more and more hours of listening I started to realize that a kind of self-control was what kept the CD-S2000 from flying. The sound lacked enthusiasm and passion, there was only little of spontaneous energy. The player was less human and more mechanical. Still, I was able to complement it successfully with Cardas cabling that brought back a bit of warmth.

The SACD capabilities are added value. The CD-S2000 proves again how much superior is the SACD playback to the red book (provided that the SACDs were reccorded in DSD).

Price as reviewed:39 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

K+B Expert, Praha tel. +420 272 122 259

Manufacturer's website: http://cz.yamaha.com

Associated components

Amplifiers: Yamaha A-S2000
Interconnects and speaker cables: Cardas Cross, Nordost Flatline, Nordost SPM Reference, Dynaudio OCOS
Loudspeakers: B&W 703DM, Dynaudio Contour C1.1

Gallery

77%

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