No flattery from me, I described where it stands relative the perception rooted in some reviews, where it is relative what I consider neutral and where it stands relative some top dogs.
I did not say it was the best out there, it is not, but your question was if it was "dry" and "lean", and it is not.
You are now also asking about noisy tray and malfunctions.
The tray is relatively noisy when compared to others, not during the payback though, if that is what you meant. So in my book it has no relevance.
If by malfunctions you mean lockup during playback, or inability to read reliably or at all some tracks that other players can (and that is not limited to hidden ones only), it is true, for example there were some CDRs as well as some commercial CDs that BCD-1 could not read while the mentioned Wadia could, or that BCD-1 would lock during playback while Wadia would never do that. But again, it happens on a rare occasion, mostly with CDRs, and restart of player always takes care of that. Again not a big deal in my book and that may have been resolved since then (I was an early adopter).
If you want the absolute best that is ultimately neutral, dynamic, detailed, natural, without any glitches, then start talking 10K and more, and never again mention $5300, let alone $1700.
I will say this though, for the double price in Canada or US there is no better one I came across. And to hear the difference between Wadia and BCD-1 you will need a resolute and neutral system, so keep that in mind as well. There are people that will tell you it is better to go with an ordinary transport and DAC that is “immune” to jitter, but there is no such thing as "immunity” to jitter, it can be attenuated but not eliminated, and the best transport>DAC is still not as good as well executed spinner, most likely never will be, as long as we stay on the same playing field of 16/44.1.
