RGA
Super Member
Man this little mini218 might be worth my time investigating. I know it's youtube and everything but sounds pretty darn good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfJgkmwS0OU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfJgkmwS0OU
Hi Art - i think other owners would like to know about the modes - here is what I have found on the net between the SHA and SLO mode on the CD 215:
I found this on another forum about the mode "SHA corresponds to 20 KHz high frequency quick drop filtering while SLA corresponds to 20 KHz high frequency slow drop filtering. 215CD only has tube output and there is no separate solid state output selection." (http://www.hifivision.com/av-lounge/43909-lm-audio-mini-meet-kolkata-4.html)
This unfortunately means zilcho in English to me. Could it be that the SHA is a hard brickwall filter while the SLO mode uses a slow analog filter? I do not know. I will post it on Audio Asylum perhaps an engineer will know? I have never seen these terms in audio and the explanation LM provides may as well be Chinese.
But at least we know it is tube only - it is not switching between SS and Tube.
So both Chris and Dale turned up at my door, LM-215 in hand and after some mindless chit chat we hooked the player up to my system and let it warm up for a bit. Physically its a smaller player than I'm used to seeing but in the hand it has a decent amount of weight and solidity about it.
I gave the player a bit of an uphill task in that the interconnects were a 20 year old cheapish pair from the Ecosse range of cables and nowhere near state of the art, warm and full but not particularly detailed or precise. Of course I told them this from the outset and if the quality of the player shone through we could then improve things with cabling and its situation on the rack.
Playing the LM-215 firstly through Dynaudio's X12 I was greeted by a very solid crisp sound that I hadn't expected to hear knowing it had a valve in the signal path. There was no hardness at all, but treble was still nice and detailed with plenty of zing up top. What grabbed me was the solidity in which this player managed to convey music in a way I've not really heard from digital to this date, this was a lot closer to my vinyl rig than my Arcam. It was very similar in character to my Arcam in terms of its priorities, majoring in depth, layering, acoustic ambience and deep driving rhythmic bass. The difference between the two was the LM-215 had much more physical presence and dimensionality, not as thin or papery and it was still very agile. After swapping out the Dynaudio''s for my ES11's as well as changing the Ecosse interconnects for Chord the sound really opened up in a way that had both Chris and Dale nodding in approval, that this player could still make these vintage speakers boogey was an absolute joy.
Conclusion is it looks like I'm going to be buying one.
My CD 215 review is finally up - they posted it out of order since I wrote that one before the 219 but it's there.
I am not allowed to direct link to my own review but nothing stops any of you from doing it if you wish.
cheers,
No offense but this is probably the single best audio component review I have ever read. It seems as if it is genuine and honest, possibly to a fault. I get the overriding impression that this is a very good if not excellent CD player (as CD players go) but that there will be no magic, no epiphany, because unless you spend to the reference level amount (e.g. 10X) there can be no magic among the various offerings, subject included.
In other words, I find little inspiration to upgrade from my recent entry level Yamaha player with Burr Brown DAC (that may offer value at its price point based on economies of scale) - if I were to upgrade strictly for sonic reasons.
It would have been a better review had Richard realized that there is a mode button on the remote and used it. As he stated outside of the review, his impressions would have been even more faviorable had he knew and used the mode function. His review is based on the least favorable mode (to both he and I). I would hope that the review is or will be revised to include that information.
It would have been a better review had Richard realized that there is a mode button on the remote and used it. As he stated outside of the review, his impressions would have been even more faviorable had he knew and used the mode function. His review is based on the least favorable mode (to both he and I). I would hope that the review is or will be revised to include that information.
Has anyone seen the frequency curves between SHA and SLO modes?
Can't make my mind up about whether I prefer SLO or SHA mode, the differences are subtle but they are there and its nice to have a choice between the two.