Excellent CD player. Sounds very natural. There is flesh around the bone. And emotion. I use it with Diamond Plus interconnects. Note that they need a long break in. These cables get better and better with time, like good red wine. Back to CD1 : if you look for LP sound with CD usability, then here you are.

Similar Products Used:

Mark Levinson 39 (a couple of days, too bad), CD3 then CD2 then CD1 !

aging digital technology

The YBA1 with the blue LED (not laser!) is a truly fine player, and although it is still one of the best out there, it isn''t as superior as it once was. YBA isn''t changing with the times, and now others are surpassing it. Even the cheap Audio Aero Prima 24/192, at $2500.00 Cdn., is better than the over-priced YBA1 now. The Audio Aero Capitole wipes-up the floor with it. (it took another French company to topple YBA, apparently!)

Everything

None

Recentlu I upgrated my CD2 to YBA 1 player .After initial burn in the trip to paradise started. Pure music.It extracts all the musical details and it transfers the listener to pure musical nirvana.It is the best music transducer ever made Partner it with YBA amplification andd you end up sleepless forat least two days

Undigital,unfatiguing, musical, absense of glare, absensce of harshness and yet still transparent and detailed

Cosmetics are a little unorthodox and arguably antiquated. Not exactly high tech look and feel, but ohhh the sound....

The YBA CD1 produces music - there is no digital edge evident. I haven't listened to BAT, Linn, Naim, Levinson players etc but I'm so happy with my YBA CD1. The sound is unambiguously superior in every way to anything I've heard before in my home. I'm very happy with it. My last set up was the MSB Dac with my industrial strength Pioneer as a transport. The sound was fine but there was no mistaking the digital edge and the sound was not unfatuiging. The YBA is truly musical by comparison - combining detail with effortless naturalness - a rare combination for a CD Player. I highly recommend it.

Similar Products Used:

MSB Link DAC III, Arcam Alpha 7, Pioneer DV09.

The CD1 Alpha is an extraordinary player: the fluidity of the music is amazing, the huge amount of micro-information that the player is able to reproduce recreates in your living room the acoustic feeling of the studio, the club or the hall where the record took place, and so even at low volume! I must say that the more I listen to the CD1 the more I appreciate it! But be aware not to associate it with any weak component that would easily reaped the benefits of the CD 1.

The YBA CD-1a Blue Laser player is the finest I have ever heard. It sounds more real than any other player out there. The CD-1 has the ability to dig out an unheard of amount of details that doesn't seem possible from the cd medium. It is also a great value considering the sonic quality to price ratio. In relative terms it is a steal. Another thing that is wonderful about the YBA CD-1 is that it is upgradable. When something is changed in the future one doesn't have to sell it and take a loss. You can also upgrade a CD-3 and CD-2 to a CD-1 costing only the difference in price! What a great idea. For once the consumer doesn't get screwed! The sound it yields out performs others costing much more money. YBA has designed it with one goal in mind and that's to reproduce music as truthfully as possible. The player lets one forget about technical issues and just fall into the music's emotions. One thing that many people probably don't know is that it comes in two versions. The one I am talking about is the standard version with one oversized power supply for the analog stage. If this version sounds as good as it does I can't even imagine how it would sound with the two full size power supplies! I plan to upgrade my CD-1 to the full blown power supplies some day. In order to get the full sonic potential of this player I strongly recomend using YBA diamond interconnect cables as they have been designed to match the player's electrical characteristics. YBA has done an excellent job in making cd playback sound like music should sound. It is a marvelous engineering masterpiece that never let trends or fads influence what is really important. Sure there are probably better looking cd players out there but better sounding? I haven't heard any that can hold a candle to it! Hats off to YBA for a truly amazing product!(By the way I am a die hard analog fan)

CD players don't come any better. Mark Levinson, Naim, Meridien... are incapable of reproducing sound as mellifluous as YBA. The company's patented Blue Laser technology is nothing short of brilliant, even when used with YBA's humble entry-level Integré amp.
I've got an interesting question: Does a better sub-$10,000 CD player exist?