Searching for half-sized (width) components

[nightflier]

I'm looking for half-width components, the kind that only take up half the width of regular gear. I have a few makes in mind, such as Channel Islands and PS Audio, but I need more to choose from. I also cannot find any manufacturers making CD players that are less than 8" wide. What other manufacturers are out there?

[elapsed]

Cyrus is half-width, and sounds fantastic to boot

[JohnMichael]

Musical Fidelity made a half width int. amp and cd player.

[jrhymeammo]

Primo by Audio Analogue is a compact unit, but it's about a centermeter wider than your 8"

JRA

[nightflier]

Wow, Cyrus was a new one to me. Very nice products. Are they available in the US (and at 115v.)?

Thanks for the other suggestions. Keep it coming.

[nightflier]

So does anyone know of any others?

[pixelthis]

So does anyone know of any others?

There is an old tradition in audio that gear has to be HEAVY in order to sound good,
some even buy audio gear by the pound.
As for CD players, some build them big for solidity, to decrease jitter and tracking error,
so high quality players will tend to be bigger by nature

[nightflier]

Pixel,

I certainly am not saying that small is the way to go for everyone, but for some people (i.e. a client of mine) that's the only solution - we have to mount this in a small wall space. I took a serious look at Cyrus, but they are also on the big-ish side and very long too. I'm leaning back to Channel Islands Audio. Their amps run cool and will fit the space.

In all seriousness, there isn't a lot of compact equipment out there. Given all the hoopla about iPods and miniaturization, you'd think this would be a bigger market segment, even in higher end audio. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[pixelthis]

Pixel,

I certainly am not saying that small is the way to go for everyone, but for some people (i.e. a client of mine) that's the only solution - we have to mount this in a small wall space. I took a serious look at Cyrus, but they are also on the big-ish side and very long too. I'm leaning back to Channel Islands Audio. Their amps run cool and will fit the space.

In all seriousness, there isn't a lot of compact equipment out there. Given all the hoopla about iPods and miniaturization, you'd think this would be a bigger market segment, even in higher end audio. Anyone have any other suggestions?

So heres a solution....
BANG AND OLSON (dont think its spelled right, but, well...)
Saw this lottery winner on TV, he had one of their five CD changers,
ITS FLAT. CANT BEAT THAT

This guy said someone told him that it was the best so he bought it, cost 5000$
Of course he also had four suits of armour and statutes of the Blues Brothers,
so go figure

[pixelthis]

Cambridge and others make music servers, might want to take that route.
More compact, convenient, and you can hide porn on it if you want to stash it from the wife
CD is really becoming PASSE you know.
Everything I listen to is from a hard drive, the CD is hard copy in storage

[drseid]

So does anyone know of any others?

I believe the Jolida integrated amp in my office is a half size unit (or close).

--Dave

[JJohnson]

Parasound makes a line of half width components but I don't see a cd player. They are a bit lower in price than the other components that you are considering. They are also a bit more industrial in look and seem to be geared more for the custom install market. I use the ZPhono and have been very pleased with it considering the price.

http://parasound.com/zcustom/

Good luck.

Jeff

[nightflier]

I believe the Jolida integrated amp in my office is a half size unit (or close).

--Dave

Which model is that? It's not a tube unit, is it?

So far, we decided to go with the PS Audio Trio integrated and a Benchmark DAC. The owner is installing these in a custom-sized shelf unit that slides out of the wall. Very cool setup, actually. All the cables, including speaker and power, are built-in and have sockets behind the rack - there's even cooling fans to move the heat from hot amplifiers, although the Trio is not really a hot-running amp. The previous owner had some other gear installed in this space and took everything with him when he moved (but left the rack). So that's all that we have to work with. What we need now is a decent source.

JJ, I considered the Parasound gear, but the owner wanted to have all silver components and a little higher-end. The 45W Parasound amp wasn't going to power his Martin Logan Script speakers.

Pixel, I'm not opposed to adding a music server, but it will still have to be 1/2 sized and I don't know of any.

So right now, we have the Trio and the DAC installed, everything connected to the speakers and we're using my old Cambridge CD player and Marantz tuner (both sitting on a coffee table in front of the rack) to test things out. So we still need:

- some sort of disk player or music server that is half-width,
- Some sort of tuner that is half width.

This is such a cool system I'd consider something similar myself if I could afford it.

[drseid]

Which model is that? It's not a tube unit, is it?

So far, we decided to go with the PS Audio Trio integrated and a Benchmark DAC. The owner is installing these in a custom-sized shelf unit that slides out of the wall. Very cool setup, actually. All the cables, including speaker and power, are built-in and have sockets behind the rack - there's even cooling fans to move the heat from hot amplifiers, although the Trio is not really a hot-running amp. The previous owner had some other gear installed in this space and took everything with him when he moved (but left the rack). So that's all that we have to work with. What we need now is a decent source.

JJ, I considered the Parasound gear, but the owner wanted to have all silver components and a little higher-end. The 45W Parasound amp wasn't going to power his Martin Logan Script speakers.

Pixel, I'm not opposed to adding a music server, but it will still have to be 1/2 sized and I don't know of any.

So right now, we have the Trio and the DAC installed, everything connected to the speakers and we're using my old Cambridge CD player and Marantz tuner (both sitting on a coffee table in front of the rack) to test things out. So we still need:

- some sort of disk player or music server that is half-width,
- Some sort of tuner that is half width.

This is such a cool system I'd consider something similar myself if I could afford it.

Its the Jolida 1301 integrated in my signature (under office system). It is a hybrid tube/solid state unit. The tube component is for the pre amp section with the SS portion for the amp section.

---Dave