As above.

None. However, it should be noted that the Eclipse LE's outboard power supply requires additional rack space. Also, the Eclipse LE's top-loading CD drive includes a circular, weighted, magnetic disk clamp which fits over a center spindle. It may take some time and practice in order to precisely center and seat the disk clamp over the spindle in order to properly apply the clamp before a CD can be played. In other words, the Eclipse LE does not have a simple CD "drawer" that you just drop the CD onto, press "close" or "play" and just forget about it. You must deal with having to carefully apply and remove the Eclipse's heavy little CD clamp; accidently dropping this metal clamp into the Eclipse's top-loading CD drive-bay could prove problematic, so be careful!

This review is for the Simaudio Moon Eclipse LE (Limited Editon) CD player. I recently purchased the fully balanced, fully differential Simaudio Moon LE system From Archive Audio, including the W-5 LE dual-mono amplifier; Eclipse LE CD player; and P-5 LE preamplifier. Speakers: Induction Dynamics ID1. Cables: Signal Cable Silver Resolution balanced interconnects, and a "double run" set of Signal Cable Silver Resolution speaker cables. Prior to discovering the Moon LE gear, I was seriously considering vacuum tube gear. However, upon hearing the Moon LE products I immediately fell in love. The reference grade, fully balanced, fully differential Moon LE components sound neither like tubes nor solid-state. It is so transparent as to have no sound of its own-- it sounds better than "solid state" and better than "tubes". Simply put, it just sounds RIGHT. Imaging and soundstaging are precise, natural, and stable. The attack and DECAY of musical notes is as good or better than many tube designs. In addition, the P-5 LE and associated LE gear (along with the Signal Cable Silver Resolution cables) reveal a level of sonic detail through the Induction Dynamics ID1's that one might normally expect only from electrostatic headphones. The fully balanced Moon LE gear is completely free of any hint of solid state edginess, grain, hardness, brightness, sibilance, etc. Rather, the sound of this reference gear is perhaps best described as fast and accurate, yet smooth and full-bodied, never fatiguing. Indeed, this gear is highly inviting, and I find it hard to get to bed on time these days! Driving the Induction Dynamics ID1's, bass extension is concert-like and extremely articulate. Mid-range? Total bliss. Upper registers? Extraordinarily detailed, delicate, and graceful. Construction, build-quality, appearance, and the "feel" of the controls (etc.) is reference grade. These products are overbuilt to very high tolerances. Completing the warranty registration entitles the original owner to a full, 10 year warranty. I've previously auditioned a variety of high-end electronics, most noteably Spectral and Edge; as well as Audio Research, VTL, Rogue, Bryston, and McCormack. Among all of these, the Moon LE gear sounded the best to my ears. (My second choice would be Spectral, although this gear can tend to sound over-analytical and "clinical" at times.) It is a fairly common practice among many audiophiles to spend a considerable amount of time and money extensively experimenting with the mixing-and-matching of a variety of components from different manufacturers, searching and hoping for optimal system "synergy". That said, I would note that the sonic performance of the fully balanced, fully differential Moon LE *system* delivers the full measure of seamless "intra-system" synergy that its designers intended. In terms of sonic and technical performance, the sum is seemingly greater than its parts. A few comments on the Eclipse LE CD player: If you're looking for a truly high-end, reference level ("Redbook") CD player to rival (or even "eclipse") a laborious and fastidious analog front-end (along with noisy LPs), the new Simaudio Moon Eclipse LE CD player deserves your serious consideration. I happen to be an audiophile who quite joyfully abandoned vinyl and embraced CDs early on. Back then, I simply could no longer tolerate, nor continue trying to ignore, the infuriating, god-awful, and highly distracting surface noise inherent in most LPs; not to mention the many other annoyances and quirks of vinyl, let alone trying unsuccessfully to remove or at least lessen the aggravations of vinyl playback. When I switched to Cds, I soon became ever more aware of what Harry Pearson coined as the "digititis" of early CDs and CD players, but I still preferred the sonic trade-offs and convenience of CDs. It is now almost 20 years later, and it's only just recently that I fortuitously discovered (through Bob Kirk of Archive Audio) the Moon Eclipse LE CD player. Here at last is a reference quality (yet moderately priced), fully balanced and fully differential (state-of-the-art) CD player, that sounds simply gorgeous and RIGHT. In comparison to the original Moon Eclipse CD player (which was highly regarded in its own right), the new Eclipse LE CD player is an extensively re-engineered, fully balanced/fully differential, reference CD player. Gone is the previous HDCD foibles of its predecessors. The Eclipse LE's many design innovations include a massive, enhanced, cutomized OUTBOARD power supply; an improved analog section; lower noise floor; greater dynamic range; as well as an internal upsampling rate with 24-bit/352.8kHz processing. In my opinion, the Eclipse LE's 24-bit/352.8kHz processing (along with its other innovations) reproduces not only the best digital recordings in their best light; but also greatly improves and refines even the poorer examples of Redbook CD recordings.

Similar Products Used:

CD players I've also auditioned: Arcam, Spectral, Levinson, DCS, Sony, Marantz, Theta, Rega, NAD, Simaudio Moon Nova LE. (For the money, the Moon Nova LE is the next best alternative to the Eclipse LE!)

It's clear, unfatiguing sound. Excellend warranty (10 years). Very solid design.

I havn't found so far.

This review is for Nova cd player. I was using this cd for 6 month. So far I am totaly satisfied. Very clear, magnetic sound. Soundstage is great. No coloration. Perfect player. I have tried Equinox cd player but become totaly convinced to buy Nova even though Equinox was a good player. I highly recommend this product.

space, smoothness, detail

hdcd light too bright, display

Blows every other cd player i heard.I use mostly turntable
and i didn't use mine since i own this unit.Amazing in details but still very smooth in the highs with the bottom so controlled and tight (more than my tunrtable)The space and imaging is incredible and the price makes it a steal. I would have paid twice the price.Don't match it with a underpower amp because the output voltage is lower then usual.That's not a problem with me, i just have to turn up the volume a bit.If connected in balanced mode, you gain 3 to 4 db.When you play a hdcd recording, the blue led that indicates the decoding is little too bright.When you shut down the display it won't reappear when you change tracks.The input for the dac is interesting,i plugged my digital ouput from my dish receiver into the unit and it improved the sound a lot.A future class A in stereophile.

Similar Products Used:

yba cd1, krell ref64 dac

2 CD Players in one!

HDCD uses (now) older PMD technology which has been superceded. Remote should have a 24/96 button!

This is a follow-up to a previous review of a year ago.
I was very happy with the way this player sounded (good mix with my system) by default. That is until I had a revelation!

Anybody who is thinking about auditioning this player should read this review.
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/simaudio_eclipse.htm

Don't make a final judgement on this player till you've tried the 'jumper trick'! (I totaly agree with Jimmy) Using the 24/96 filter is a *must*! I lived with the player for over a year until I tried this at my local shop (I didn't have BNC cables on hand). All I can say is I was spoiled-I don't listen to the PMD filter at all anymore. I don't use HDCD for HDCD either-the BurBrown filter trumps that too.

Had this been a competative player I would had had to traid in the Sim to get this sound! I had to have it. But the crazy thing was I already owned the little darling. So for the price of getting a good, short jumper cable (I got Siltech custom length BNC) the player's sound is transformed. Output jumps a good 7 decibals-that obvious.
But its more than volume-resolution (bass, mids, highs), 3d soundstage, liquidity, speed, any other buzz-word I can think of all *open up*. A veil removed. WOW!

Every professional review of this player I've read has tried and stayed with the 'jumped' mode of the player. There is a reason for that.

Hear it again for the first time! I mean it.

Similar Products Used:

Meridian 508.24, Wadia 830, Micromega and a few others

Looks good, solid construction. Sales people and Rep are the absolute best!

Remote big heavy, takes two hands to use. Not many features on remote. HDCD slightly sibilant. CD door if slid open all the way open difficult to close.

Good sound, slightly on the bright side. Some minor sibilant sounds, on the "SSS". This maybe could be a mismatch of equipment.
The player is solid built with nice power supply. Looks cool! I hated the remote. It was nice in appearence and built hefty, but to much real estate was devoted to the Simm logo. This made the remote difficult to use. It also has limited features compared to the Theta and BOW.
I did not like the Hdcd sound "bright". I was supprised that even though it sounded better than my 7 year old Theta, it did not make me want to pull out my check book. I compaired it to the Bow ($7500). My system never sounded so good! I never added a piece of equipment that made such of a difference in sound. I returned the SImm. On the Plus side Sound Video (or maybe it was Video Sound in Minnesota) was the best audio store that I have ever dealt with. I plan on doing more business in the future. The Sales Rep was also " the Best" The Bow cost considerably more. This may not be a fair compairison. However I would advise to spend a lot of time with the Simm before buying. Don't fall for it's cool looks without looking at other equipment in the same price range.

Similar Products Used:

Theta pro basic ll, and BOW cd player.

realistic sonic reproduction
price relative to the competition
build quality
fully balanced circuitry
ergonomics / top panel controls

Waiting for future SACD upgrade
Unforgiving with poor recordings

I felt compelled to write a review after seeing MAZHER JAFFAR's negative comments (5/27/01) in his review.

In a nutshell, the Simaudio MOON Eclipse is a bargain
at its retail price of $4995.00USD, outperforming most
of the more expensive competition and pretty much
blowing away any similarly priced unit. This unit
is incredibly musical, particularly in the frequency
extremes; highs that are incredibly natural and bass
performance that one is not accustomed to from a
digital source. Detail is another strong point here;
I've rediscovered so many digital recordings from days
gone by, hearing notes that I never new existed.

To get the most out of this player, one must use
a digital bnc-to-bnc jumper cable to link the rear
digital input and output connectors on the rear panel;
this essentially bypasses the Pacific Microsonics HDCD
digital filter, and uses the BurrBrown DF1704 instead.
The end result of this is a serious leap forward in
sonic performance. The HDCD filter comes in handy
for poor recordings though and obviously for the many
HDCD encoded CD's on the market.

The Eclipse sounds as good as it looks and should be
on any serious audiophile's short list of CD player's
to audition. You can take that to the bank.

Similar Products Used:

Madrigal/Levinson 31.5 Transport + 30.6 Processor
BAT VK-D5
Wadia 861
Krell KPS 25sc
Audio Aero Capitole

Build, sonic sound

You just cant beat Sim. Hometheater Mag has a great review on new Sim, you should read it if you are not sure about sim. These babys are all Canadain made, so you can email me for a shipper, who will ship anywhere at rock bottom prices, with your exchange rate of 50%, it is like getting everything for half price!

Transport, DACs, HDCD, By-passable Non-HDCD -6db attenuation

Some trouble reading disk lables the first time

[This is a 2001, with the latest upgrades]

There is nothing to fault sonically. This baby delivers the
goods at a price you can't beat. It is also the only HDCD
player I know of that allows you to bypass the -6db
attenuation mandated by Pacific Micro (I hear this may be
an obviated workaround soon) with a BNC jumper. You can also
use it as a separate transport, or out board DAC by virtue
of its SPID/F in and out (when not jumped).

I recommend to anyone thinking of going to separate DACs,
de-jitterers, and transport to check out this package
first. You may save money and space while acheving the results you seek.

The only issue is a reluctance to read disk labels the
first time. My trail unit did the same thing, only worse.
This happens maybe once every ten disks. Hmm....

Similar Products Used:

Denon 1650R, assorted consumer grade asian players

Transport, DACs, HDCD, By-passable Non-HDCD -6db attenuation

Some trouble reading disk lables the first time

There is nothig to fault sonicly. This baby delivers the
goods at a price you can't beat. It is also the only HDCD player I know of that allows you to bypass the -6db attentuation mandated by Pacific Micro (I hear this may be
an obviated workaround soon) with a BNC jumper. You can also
use it as a seperate transport, or out board DAC by virtue
of its SPID/F in and out (when not jumpered).

The only issue is a reluctance to read disk labels the
first time. My trail unit did the same thing, only worse.
This happens maybe oncee every ten disks. Hmm....

Similar Products Used:

Denon 1650R, assorted consumer grade asian players

This player sounded wonderful at the Stereophile '99 show in the Sim Audio room.Hope they come out with it soom. I want one!