What to see the insides of gear...

[RGA]

Actually the link will make me take a closer look at Kenwoods - you never know if you see one on the used market for cheap it might be a good pick-up.

Here in HK I saw a used Wadia sitting right beside a TEAC (coincidentally). The TEAC VRDS transport is the same one used in the Wadia transport - the price difference was massive. Wadia has the name - but you'll get every bit the player in the TEAC for about 1/8 the price.

Granted some companies actually modify units they receive from suppliers but not all and that link seems to suggest Wadia did absolutely nothing (at least to that model).

Audio Note doesn't really have competition in the sense that they arguably make and use the best transformers and caps in the industry. They use them and others don't so it gives them an advantage right off in the parts quality game.

As to whether something is worth the money well - AN operates between a 3-5% cost to retail mark-up. Terry at Soundhounds told me that the rest of the stuff in the store operates on at LEAST a 10-1 mark-up. That means not a single competing component does better than a 10-1 cost to retail price scenario (and worse that covers marketing, shipping, packaging, labor.

So that means the $500 speakers are at best $50 in materials the $2000 are at best $200 in materials. Soundhounds sells the following Products

Labour is big which is why AN has a kits division to take British labour out of the equation (mostly as they still spend hours pair matching parts of the kits).

Unlike a lot of manufacturers Audio Note is not simply buying a CD player taking the cover off and putting their own cover on and multiplying the price by 10.

Virtually every thing they make is a two box unit first. They then take the two units and put them in a large case making it an integrated - or one box. Most companies have a number and they make something to hit the number so integrateds are designed as integrated or one box players. The OTO Phono SE is an M1 preamp and P2 power amp and Phono stage placed into one large box. The price goes down because it shares one case (less materials). But the actual parts inside are identical to the separates.

I like that there is a kits division - you want to save money then all you need to do is build a Dac 2 Sig Kit and buy a Chinese transport that uses the Philips Pro 2 and you can very likely cut the CD 4.1 price below half because you're not longer paying for labour. This assumes you can trust the Chinese version of the Philips transport but personally speaking as much as I like the 4.1 I would go two box and save money and get very close. Some people want less clutter I guess.

Like I say I would personally not buy the AN CD 4.1 - it sounds first rate but I think you can get the same/very close to same results far cheaper.

First, few people can drop $12,000 on a CD player in one go.

So I would do it in stages. I don't buy that the transport is as critical as some. This is why I bought the LM CD 215 which uses a decent Sony mechanism - but more to the point it sounds very good in its own right as a one box player. Really good. I could then add a DAC 3.1 later and combined I'd be getting a better DAC than the one in the 4.1 and lose a bit on the transport but it would cost less than half the price.

If a transport is critical this is what I would buy

The Opera consonance Droplet since it uses the Philips Pro 2M transport and looks gorgeous ($3200)
Consonance Droplet CDP-5.0D Fully Balanced Tube CD Player

Then I'd add an AN DAC 4.1 later (which is a higher end DAC than the one in the 4.1) for $3,275. Audio Note Kits - DAC Kit 4.1

Total is $6,475 and takes up considerably more space but personally that is what I would do. Pay $200 or so and they'll build the DAC for you to boot so even if you're chicken to build it is still a much cheaper proposition.

Now if only every other company would offer kits - It would be nice to have those $2000 speakers Soundhounds sells in kit form for $350-$500