Krell Cipher SACD and Luxman CD8

[Anthony]

Auditioned the Krell Cipher and Luxman CD8 SACD players, both thru the same setup McIntosh 452 power amp, BW802 speakers but with a good Bryston pre amp.
Few quick thoughts come to hand:

Luxman has a few good things going for it, the loading drawer is excellent quality with a real precise mechanism, and the plastic CD tray material and its surface texture is rather unique and does assist the disc to locate perfectly. It sounds good being similar in sound style to (my) Marantz reference SA11-S2 but with the next step up in greater definition and layering. I felt the Luxman bass was nice and clear and punchy but on some bass strong recordings was over emphasised though, (and I do very much appreciate a good bass beat). An issue for people using xlr balanced cables is the hot pin is different between Japan & USA and there is no switch to change it like other brands have.
The Krell has sound filter options but the Luxman has none.

The bit more expensive Krell Cipher grows on you very quickly and is indeed very special. I liked the large scale lettering on the track numbers etc. The presentation was smoother than I was expecting, (thought it might have had excess shrill but it didn't). The layering of each instrument, the complexity in the bass notes, the spatial in air magic that touches the senses in so many ways, it even got my adrenalin going, now that's a special effect!

Tracks were presented quite differently to what I'm used to. Closer to a recording studio where you can imagine every instrument's input into the mixing board.

Most of the listening was on familiar CDs, but inserted a familiar SACD and it was special beyond words.

Fascinating experience. Better get back to the HiFi shop to have another listen before it goes.

Anthony