Plinius CD-101

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In July 2001 our Director of Design, Ross Stevens, presented us with a piece of bent aluminium. This, he said, is how PLINIUS will look in the future.

At the time we had no real idea where this journey would take us but as time moved on and new amplifiers evolved we realised that we had created something very special.

The new PLINIUS look has been very well received by the Audio Public but the distinctive curves have created a gap. Very quickly we found that a source component was needed to match. We didn't really want to develop a CD Player as there are many very competent designs available but we were unable to withstand the constant pressure from our customers.

In true PLINIUS tradition we have approached the development of our CD Player from a different angle. We have always felt that the potential of Redbook CD has held promise but has been short on delivery. In our research we have listened long and hard to SACD and other formats but we have elected to stick with Redbook because of the results achieved and to support the extensive CD collections our customers already have.

Our DAC development has been time consuming. An initial false start using some of the latest technology (asynchronous upsampling, and bitstream conversion) led to a disappointing sonic result. We then re-thought and developed a DAC following a very conservative path. Noting the DIY enthusiast's endorsement of simple solutions, and with our general philosophy of avoiding unnecessary complexity, we evaluated a DAC design that used simple synchronous oversampling, and a multibit DAC. This needed no additional analogue filtering, and was in keeping with our like of simplicity. The outcome was more than we expected. This design, coupled with a low jitter master clock feeding the transport, has delivered Redbook CD performance that surpasses that which we have previously heard.

Physically the PLINIUS CD-101 matches our range of Integrated, Pre and Power Amplifiers. The operational styling of the CD-101 has only one control button on the front panel with all other functions driven from the distinctive remote control. The remote control also has some basic functions allowing volume and mute adjustment on PLINIUS Pre and Integrated Amplifiers. We put much effort into understanding the interface requirements, and decided that as music is the goal, the interface should distract as little as possible. Considering the user interaction with vinyl replay, where there are no digital track-time-elapsed displays, and the focus is on just listening to music, we decided to make the user interaction with the CD-101 similar. The display consists of a series of micro LEDs showing the progress of the tracks through the disc. This is simple, elegant, and directs the listener's focus to the music and away from the technology.

The mechanical design has also seen much effort go into ensuring the transport is isolated, and the chassis is well damped. We have developed a substantial tray support and bearing system, and applied damping material and compliance where necessary. The build quality is beyond reproach.

As with other PLINIUS products it is the music that matters most. The CD-101 is a worthy addition to our range.