Test of the Raysonic CD 168 CD player

For those who like the general softness and comfort of sound, the music on the Raysonic CD 168 will sound good, but a fan of detailed sound is unlikely to be impressed by it. The powerful sound that this turntable produces can be compared to the night sea, when you feel the big, invisible power, but you can’t enjoy the beauty to the fullest, because you can’t see almost anything.

Features

Founded in 2000, the Audio-Technica ATH-W1000x. Raysonic is a Canadian company that produces tube headphones in its own factory in China.The output stage of this turntable is built on four American-made 6922EN triodes. The Philips VAM1202 optical disc drive is used for transport, and two Burr-Brown PCM1792 DACs are responsible for digital-to-analog conversion.

The design of this turntable is very original. Like many Hi-End devices, the Raysonic CD 168 looks like a vinyl record player, thanks to the CD disc, which is magnetically held open and covered with a clear glass lid. It should be noted that the drive is completely silent.

The combination of “vinyl” motifs, high-tech and blue backlighting gives the unit an inexplicable freshness, and in spite of the unusual design, the player looks very harmoniously.

The display shows not large, but bright and distinctive symbols, the glow of which can be adjusted within three brightness levels.

The player is equipped with both balanced XLR and coaxial RCA outputs for analog sound, and an optical digital interface. All coaxial connectors are gold-plated. White gloves are supplied with the turntable.

Sound

Pop, electronic music. The middle sounds most natural, deep and detailed. The bass is not very accentuated and not too transparent, moreover, the full-fledged recoil starts to sound around the upper limit of the middle bass. The balance of the simultaneous sound of the highest and lowest notes shifts to the bass register. The top sounds quite solid and sometimes even bright, but not always airy, so it does not always give the impression of a familiar pro-space.

Fine sound details are rendered in great detail, especially the sound in the middle and the lower part of the top. The uppermost sounds are also clear and noticeable, but a little less defined and therefore less alive.

Percussion sounds qualitatively everywhere except bass register – bass pulses are noticeably softened and lacking in focus. The same can be said about the attack of the sound. The middle and upper beats are sometimes emphasized because of the increased prominence of the high-frequency component of the kick. The combination of soft bass and a stiff top is a bit puzzling.

The player accentuates the recordings’ problematic parts more often than it softens them, for example, timbre distortions are more prominent than usual.

In general, though not all electronic pieces are reproduced in sufficient detail and depth, the sound is devoid of obvious discomfort, so your favorite songs sound excellent.

Jazz

. The bottom and lower midrange sound soft, unsharp, but energetic, while starting from the upper midrange, the sounds are stiff, distinct, but not saturated. Such a paradox.

Blurred bass pulses showed up in the lack of accent when playing the double bass. Even small amounts of bass, such as a double bass solo, can make you feel that the bass is too massive. This can even make it seem like the balance of sound is skewed toward the lower frequencies. Metal percussion sounds a little bit unsteady against the powerful bass, the stereo image of which is thus artificially moved away at a greater distance than in the real scene.

I liked the middle part most of all, its sound is detailed and smooth. Only near the top the music loses its naturalness – xylophone and triangles are less ringing here, dryish and top notes of the piano. Especially disappointing is the lack of airy “flighty” notes of wind instruments, without which the sunny and incendiary sound of a jazz band noticeably fades away.

Rock

. The bass sound turned out to be as powerful as it is opaque. The bass drum impulses are sometimes completely blurred to a very inexpressive, but very noticeable sound. The bass guitar sounds much better, especially in the upper part of its range.

In general, figuratively speaking, the player offers a lot of bass “meat”, but not sliced thinly, but rather chopped up into large chunks. Most of the energy goes to the low-frequency sounds, so the top often loses depth. For example, only the strongest beats remain from the sound of the cymbal.

The middle sounds less detailed than usual, and is stingy with aftershocks. Fewer characteristic, familiar and recognizable nuances, which reduces the liveliness of the sound of well-known songs.

Classic

. Lack of low register is very noticeable, when tubas and big drums are suddenly dropping somewhere very far into the background, which distorts proportions of the scene noticeably.

All in all, not bad for the midrange. At the same time, it is still a little lacking in details. Sound sometimes feels like it’s passed through cloth, when you get softened and veiled sound. At the same time the solo instruments are well enough elaborated, maybe it’s all about the dynamic characteristics, because of what the background sound loses its intelligibility.

The top lives in the loudest sounds of triangles, bells and cymbals, and mostly in climaxes, in ordinary moments of the composition high-frequency components are little noticeable.

All in all, the Raysonic CD 168 draws large-scale music in large strokes, with far from maximal detail, it reminds of an impressionist canvas rather than a classical author’s canvas, and it is certainly far from a hyperrealist’s work.

Price

Average price – about 87 400 Dollars.