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Sound
Owner's pride, reviewer's bane. That's the DSP inside this player. All along I had itchy fingers. After all, each setup, each room, even every recording has its own finger print, with certain passages that are less than 100% convincing. How about some extra gleam on the treble; or perhaps a tad less? More pronounced or softer bass? Sexier or less present mids? Vinyl fanatics with a VTA fetish will see the light. A half mill higher in the back or less? Of course this CD player affords far more specific (and convenient) adjustments with a rather bigger set screw. Should I wonder for instance that my bass would sound best attenuated steeply below 60Hz, I can make that happen in a New York minute - while the music is playing! Instant A/B gratification from the potato couch, lap top at the ready? You bet. Another half a decibel, please. You see the issue. For comparative purposes against other players and to get a fix on this one, I'd have to leave the DSP at linear (input = output). That seemed like wresting a new toy from a 4-year old. No need to dispatch supportive e-mails though. I survived fine. As it happens, this player works swell even without DSP.
Three items stand out. Space is fantastic; the machine is of the highly resolving kind particularly in the upper octaves; and tonally, there's a small tendency for sportive but lean bass. These qualities intersect such that one can't truly isolate them individually. For example, as D/A converter fed from my NAS server and Squeezebox interface with uncompressed data, I compare it to converters like Benchmark's €1,400 DAC1 USB and Acvox's €1,000 USB2DA.
I spin "Mr. Somewhere" from This Mortal Coil in love with how airy and open the Reith player handles it, how pearlescent the guitar is and how chiseled the voice appears in the room 'exactly there ready to touch'. But a bit more chestiness wouldn't hurt and the Benchmark delivers that substance on both voice and guitar. Yet they're no longer as simultaneously, nakedly focused and tacit. Granted, these are nuances but in general, the Benchmark is the fuller machine while dimensionally, it is less sorted, somewhat sloppier and less aerated. It's a matter of taste which can be traced back to the Akademie player's leaner fundamentals (which are confirmed also in subsequent comparisons). But taste for once is adjustable with DSP.

And it indeed plays fuller then but some of its airiness and crisp charm take a hit and the formerly shocking stage transparency reduces with the bigger waist cushions. Psychoacoustics? For sure, with a sense that's as complex and interconnected as hearing, it's impossible to twirl one knob without expecting the unexpected in other areas. How about the Aqvox? On this piece, it slips between the HIFIAkademie and Benchmark to appear the most evenly balanced. Interestingly, the Aqvox erects its stage from the center line backwards whereas the HiFIAkademie moves things closer to the listener. Taste again.


An intermediate conclusion pronounces that run as converter (the firm's standalone converter is identical minus the transport section), the HIFIAkademie machine is competitive with class leaders like the Benchmark and Aqvox DACs. These three sound a bit different but which one is best really depends on personal taste, ancillaries and music. To act as externally accessible D/A converter really is a stellar feature for a CD player. One can of course also spin CDs over it.


Treble, bass and the room
My notes remind only of happy encounters in the highs. Admittedly powerful, that's positive because this machine plays it resolved, nuanced and most importantly, free of hardness to be long-term comfortable. I personally handle darker voiced components better than pipsqueaks and Reith's player is certainly not dark. Rather, it's on the more lit-up side of neutral but how it goes about that business strikes me as overall positive. Compared to the trusted €1,000 audiolab 8000CD for example, it's obvious how today's tester is not only more illuminated but also sifts out more information.
The audiolab is somewhat shy in the treble. Some will call it a relative weakness but in general, it tends to be advantageous since it never gets nervous and simply remains calm and factual. The HIFIAkademie player manages the same without treble depression, by sheer precision transmitted unwaveringly to a broad stage. It also conveys more nuance. That more air is possible still is shown by the €2,850 Fonel Simplicité. How it lingers on well-recorded cymbals like a gourmet teasing out sublime subtleties is somewhat beyond the Akademie player.
On matters of bass, my notebook has the following: "The HIFIAkademie doesn't glue the bass as tightly to the mids as the audiolab". This shows again how a relatively lean foundation can also be perceived. And it surprised me by how massive and articulate true low bass would appear out of nowhere, a trick this machine pulled more than once perhaps because its upper bass is so wiry. Nothing covers up what's going on below. If you fancy the occasional electronica with pulsating bass, you'll get less pulse and more structure. While that may read dry on paper, it's solid fun in real life. (The flipside is music without true sub but solid upper bass. Compared to other machines, the Akademie player then can sound a bit less energetic. With the DSP set to linear, i.e. bypass.)


As hinted at earlier, soundstaging is another real forté. There's true depth -- anyone can deliver width -- and things three meters behind the vocalist aren't "somewhere back there" but precisely pinned down. Such excellent visibility plus first-rate image lock create a tendency for the holographic, quite fascinating and a first in this price class. Hats off! In this regard, I felt reminded of Esoteric. Quite solid in its own right, there the audiolab can't keep up and even the Audiomeca Obsession II sounds rather flat by comparison. On depth and individual sounds, our academic fella is simply more dimensional. I again had to reach for the Fonel to find better - for a higher sticker.

Conclusion
This section must differ from the usual since this isn't your usual machine. Ultimate statements are made relative by the DSP module. Bypassed, a regular ending would wrap thus:
  • The HIFIAkademie cdPlayer's lean bass has it on the more lit-up side of neutral. Bass feels less weighty but very articulate and dry. True sub bass appears all of a sudden without blur or softness. Treble is clear, crisp, highly resolved and without artifice. The midrange is tactile and articulate but voices could handle a mite more chestiness.
  • All sounds have plasticity and dimensionality to feel embodied.
  • Image lock or localization focus is very high.
  • Stage size has first-rate dimensions and particularly depth layering is impressive. One very transparent act.
  • Dynamics are flawless.
  • This machine has high impulse fidelity and great PRaT, with just a small shift towards the leading edge over the decay.

The problem begins once DSP functionality is explored in detail. It devalues half the above statements. Lean bass? Utter bullshit. The point is, this machine is a tool that affords the owner far more control over the final sound than most other black boxes. DSP can't fix everything of course but loading a room's impulse response into its program as a baseline quickly proves how its addresses are far more powerful than a bit of hairsplitting here and some fine-tuning there. If 'all' you accomplished was attenuating your two most severe room modes by 6-7dB each, just imagine...


Even without this feature, the HIFIAkademie cdPlayer would be a very good machine but the DSP option makes it a true class leader. It's one massive asset, albeit with a learning curve. PC and measuring phobic listeners will desist but really, it's not rocket science. A further strong point is the externally accessible D/A converter. I should think that a few years hence, every CD player remaining will sport at least one digital input (and if not, I'd disavow digital altogether in favor of vinyl just to protest) but the HIFIAkademie offers one today. Four in fact. Add its integral volume control and it's really a 'digital' preamp. Beyond sonics, these features are simply eminently practical. Bravo.

Facts:

  • Produkt: HIFIAkademie cdPlayer
  • Dimensions and weight: 440 x 103 x 360mm (WxHxD), 6 kg
  • Trim: Black chassis, silver lid, silver face or black anodize (+€20), blue/white display or black/white (+€50)
  • Outputs: 1 x analog und 2 x digital (S/PDIF RCA)
  • Inputs: 4 x digital (S/PDIF, PCM data) – 2 RCA, 2 RCA/Toslink
  • Other: volume control; toplader; internal DSP module accessed by PC via USB; no remote but most pre-programmed or learning remotes will work
  • Website
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