sound

none, except need warm up at least 15 minutes

I used this machine for near 2 years. I keep on bringing some new cd players to challenge it (see similar products used), but the SFCD1 is still my first choice.

This player plays a very involving sound and can make you sit down and listen the whole CD, quite unbelievable.

Associate gears:
Pre amp: Aura Designs CA200
Power amp: Aura Designs PA200
Speakers: Sonus Faber Electa Amator 2
Stand: Sonus Faber Wood Stone

Similar Products Used:

Meridian 508.24, Parasound 2000, Myryad MC100, Rega Planet

Very musicall, good bass, palpable

no

This CD Player is the one that I long for, and I haven't found other product can beat it until now.

Similar Products Used:

Mark Levinson 39, Meridian 508.2

musicality, harmonic richness, imaging, depth of the stage (analog-like)

none (after some upgrades)

I own this unit for over 2 years and it doesn't even come into my mind to swap it for sth. else. The stock unit sounds really good (especially with comparison to transistor Wadias, Levinsons) but there is still a room for huge improovement. First of all - the unit MUST (!!!!) have capacitors changed. After replacement of only 6 WIMA caps for Auricaps (1.0uF 200V) the sound became much more detailed, transparent, full bodied, with much better localization, wider and even deeper sounstage. Amazing, especially considering small cost of the caps change. Second recommended upgrade concerns tubes - (I changed for Edicrons - more delicate and clear than stock Sovtecks).
The third improovent that should be made is the use of a good powercord. It may improove SFCD1 dramatically. With these upgrades the sound is simply REAL and most analoglike possible from the digital source (even SACD players I heard don't come even close).
If you own SFCD1 and want to change it for separate combos, do yourself a favour before waisting your money and make upgrades I mentioned above. First of all CHANGE THE CAPS !!!

Similar Products Used:

Sonic frontiers SFD2 mkI DAC, EAD 7000mkII DAC, Audio Logic DAC model 34, Wadia 860 CD player

very musical player, excellent presentation of voices and instruments.

None at all

The SFCD1 is a very musical piece of gear over other
CD players I have heard in the past. It has great drive,
rhythm and pace. Listening to pieces with guitars, horns,
voices and cymbals – everything comes out so much
bigger and live sounding than what I have experienced
with other players. Voices are extended and clear.
It gets the last ounce out of instruments. The sound is very clean, neutral, and analogue-like (not digital sounding at all). Build quality is phenomenal. I'm extremely happy with the player. I'm also very impressed with the customer servioffered by Sonic Frontier.

The gear I have is...
Sonic Frontier SFCD-1
Sonic Frontier Power 2 Tube Amp
Sonic Frontier Line 3 Tube Preamp
Chain Light Speed 6400 Power Conditioner
Panamax 1000 Plus Power Conditioner
Gutwire Power Cables, 3 pairs
Audiomat Power Cords
Siltech Generation 3 Design Pure Silver-Gold Speaker Cable
Siltech FTM Series Silver-Gold Interconnects, 2 pairs
Kimber KCAG Silver, 1 pair
Nordost SPM Reference Speaker Cable
Newform Research Reference R645 loudspeakers, black piano finish
Swan Cygnus, South American Rosewood loudspeakers
Lovan with rosewood shelves

Similar Products Used:

Arcam Alpha 6, Enlightened Audio Design 2000 Ultradisc, also heard other cd players but not in my own system.

This CD player is as good as it gets (for me anyhow).
Associated Equipment:
SF Line 1
McCormack DNA-0.5 deluxe
Adcom GCD-700
Snell C/V speakers (bi-wired and on spikes)
Wireworld and XLO interconnects and speaker cables

There definitely is a difference between CD players, even though it comes at a price.

During most of last week my dealer gave me a loaner Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1. At $3800 retail this player is more than 5 times as expensive as my Adcom, but whereas my Adcom CD changer really is not bad, this SF player was just out of this world.

First of, it made me understand what digital distortions (e.g. jitter) sound like, as they were completely absent from the sound of that player. It sounded absolutely clean, like lifting another - very fine - veil from my system.

Secondly this player's D/A conversion is just fabulous. Even though the Adcom "gets all the sound" and the details from low bass to very fine treble, the SFCD just carves out the sound a it more detailed, yet in a controlled and relaxing manner, resulting in the impression of higher acoustic correctness. A trombone sounds a bit more like a trombone, a violine sounds a bit more like a wood based instument, rather than a string, and little pitches in the voice, and little glitches in guitarplay become more prominent.

The above observations result in a live like listening experience, with a great three dimensional soundstage.

I think this player is best with classical, Jazz and acoustic music. It has a slightly laid back characteristic, which though not severe, may not be the best match with very dynamic music (e.g hard rock).

I returned the player to my dealer, as it is outside of my current affordability, but if you are shopping in this price range, do give this player a listen.

This CD player is as good as it gets (for me anyhow).
Associated Equipment:
SF Line 1
McCormack DNA-0.5 deluxe
Adcom GCD-700
Snell C/V speakers (bi-wired and on spikes)
Wireworld and XLO interconnects and speaker cables
There definitely is a difference between CD players, even though it comes at a price.

During the last weeks of 1997 my dealer gave me a loaner Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1. At $3800 retail this player is more than 5 times as expensive as my Adcom, but whereas my Adcom CD changer really is not bad, this SF player was just out of this world.

The player has a first rate 20 bit DAC from Ultra Analog, HCDC Filter, a Phillips Transport and .... TUBES in the output stage.

First of, it made me understand what digital distortions (e.g. jitter) sound like, as they were completely absent from the sound of that player. It sounded absolutely clean, like lifting another - very fine - veil from my system.

Second, this player's D/A conversion is just fabulous. Even though the Adcom "gets all the sound" and most of the detail from low bass to very fine treble, the SFCD just carves out the sound a it more detailed, yet in a controlled and relaxing manner, resulting in the impression of higher acoustic correctness.

And finally, the DAC in combination with the tubed output stage, which allows to avoid capacitors and other fallacies, results in awsome (i.e. analog like, without the hisss) sound. A trombone sounds a bit more like a trombone, a violin sounds a bit more like a wood based instrument (rather than string), and little pitches in the voice, and little glitches in guitar play become slightly more prominent.

Overall this player has a neutral to slightly laid back sound characteristic, with great acoustic correctness. This makes it a great match for neutral and revealing systems. In my system use of this player resulted in a very live like listening experience, with a great three dimensional soundstage.

Sadly I had to return the player to my dealer, as it is outside of my current affordability, but if you are shopping in this price range, do give this player a listen.

Those of you that are interested in comparing the Sonic Frontiers with the Sony XA7ES may read my review of the Sony elsewhere in this site. Basically, I was looking for a CD player (transport capabilities a bonus) that could satisfy my type of listening. Don't listen to all the hype in these reviews because in the end, it is your ears and your fancy that are the "significant others" that most influence your decision. Trust me, when you get up to this price range there is very little that is wrong with the execution; what is wrong with the players is inherently wrong with the medium but essentially you are picking and choosing "flavors" of the best that can be had in digital reproduction.
Anyways, back to the comparison.
I had listened to several players before narrowing down these two. Some of the other players that I had listened to were the Krell KPS20i, Proceed CDP, Mark Levinson No. 39, Wadia 860, and Theta Miles (I listened to basically everything that is available). I narrowed my choices down to two players; the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 and the Sony XA7ES (this was because I found them to be specialists at two extremes that were also economically viable in my scheme). The Sony XA7ES was the best at openness and ensembles that require a "spacious" presentation (counted in are orchestral ensembles, opera, live rock concerts). The sound of the Sony is very "pure" bordering on lean. Soundstaging was superb on the Sony (especially with Telefunken recorded symphony orchestras), razor sharp but the downside was a lessened sense of ease and lack of body to string instruments: the Sony soundstaged well and had lots of slam but lacked palpability. The Sonic on the other hand was exactly the opposite. It had a very pronounced harmonic structure (lots of low/even order harmonics) that tended to emphasize single instruments and solo vocalists (intimate like in a small club where a jazz quartet is performing). The presentation was much more intimate and less distressing than the Sony (this is a player that you can listen to while dining by candle lite with that special someone!). Ease is a word that I would use to describe this player, lots of body on the instruments however it will not reproduce complex orchestras (symphonies) as well as the Sony. The euphonic colouration (harmonics) of the player tend to congest music that is more than say 5 instruments playing at once. Don't get me wrong, there is a wealth of detail with the Sonic; only it is presented in an understated fashion. So there's the jist of it. Slam and dynamics (Sony) vs Ease and intimacy (Sonic). One factor that works against the Sonic is a lack of a digital coax out. This prevents me from upgrading my DAC section should I feel the need (the Sony player has this feature as well as a superior transport in my opinion). However, one must question if this is as good as it gets for 20bit/44.2kHz digital. On the plus side however is the bitch factor.
Since I live only 20 minutes from the Sonic Fronteirs headquarters should something go wrong with the player I would have a very easy time bitching about it.
On presentation (intimate ensembles) the Sonic gets a 5
On build quality and appearance another 5
On bitch factor it gets a 10 (just kidding, 5)
On overall value in this ludicrous pursuit another 5
On keeping me awake nights thinking about which to buy I give it a 3
Let's average and round out.
Omygod! That's (drum roll please!) 5

Great job Chris and Chris!

After a long search for a complete system am down to two contenders: Sonic Frontiers and Audio Research. Am auditioning the Sonic Frontiers CD player along with their Line 1 preamp and the Power 1 amp. Speakers are the OM-6 from Mirage. This system sounds wonderfully smooth, sweet and laid back (none of the harshness heard in other systems evaluated). Am tossing up whether to go with the Power 2 (110 watts) and another speaker (B&W 802). The CD is also smooth to operate with clever remote features (apparently the sexy metal remote used in the new Transport 3 can be used with the SFCD1). All in all an excellent CD player which complements the other SF equipment.

The SFCD-1 is my favorite CD player in the $3500 range.It may be even my favorite digital front-end period.The Sonic is smooth,detailed,refined, involving,and musical.It seems to draw you in to the music rather than throwingit at you with a shovel.I have owned the Sonic for 10 months and couldn't be
happier.The SFCD-1 sounds like a good analog front-end rather than a digital
front-end.There is a sense of bloom to this cd player that other cd players lack.With the Sonic in the system,I can listen for hours without fatigue.I have compared the SFCD-1 to many different integrated and seperate different digital
front-ends inbetween $200-$25,000 and prefer the Sonic every time.There are a
few combinations that I do like a lot,but the SFCD-1 still sounds the best to me.I gotta call it as I hear it.If you are looking for a top-quality digital
playback source I highly recommend auditioning the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1.

After extensive auditioning of the best digital front-ends the Sonic Frontiers came off first against many others. Its sound is just about perfect in every way; midrange, soundstaging, highs and bass. Without trying to put Krell owners down (I used to be one), the SFCD 1 resolved the music in a more realistic "musical" fashion than the KPS-20i, 20il and 30i. These players have huge amounts of detail and great bass reproduction however it doesn't seem as much like natural music any more, unlike the SFCD 1 which had great bass and detail too.The SFCD 1 will remain the main part of my system for many more years to come whilst I may upgrade the rest of the system.