[nonoise]

TEAC.
I know.
I lucked out on getting my hands on one when I couldn't find a local dealer. After just two inquiries I got an e-mail from Mark Gurvey, VP Esoteric and TEAC Reference with an invitation to come on down to TEAC and listen to one in their listening room. Now that was an offer I couldn't resist. This is one pro-active guy, let me tell you.

Now this will be just a quick impression as I've only had it for a week now but it is the cleanest presentation I've heard to date. My ears aren't anywhere near as experienced as most of you out there but it is the most neutral, natural and relaxed presentation I've heard. Yet it has great dynamics and extension to boot. My soundstage opened up several feet beyond my speakers sides and deepened (depending on recording). Layering became easily depicted. Cold, right out of the box, it bettered anything else I've had. It might be due to the fact that it is an all discreet design with no ICs or op amps that need breaking in. Or it could be the toroid: big enough for a small amp. It has wonderful tone and body and just lulls you into listening. Detail, ambience, decay are all there and so natural sounding. Its the 'hearing more' story all over again.  I can't imagine squeezing any more music out of my CDs. Those guys at Esoteric did some magic on this one for the everyday man.

I was looking for a one box solution so I could get off this merry-go-round and I've found it. Plus, it has that different, TEAC look to it. Simple and unadorned with a classic, understated look that I like a lot. The player is very responsive to the remote and the tray is made of some kind of unobtainium for less vibration. Plus, its built like a small tank and looks great in any color as long as you like black.



And one more thing about Mark Gurvey and TEAC. He is one of the nicest persons I've met in this field and he went way beyond what was necessary to procure me a demo. I spent over 3 hours with my favorite CDs and talked shop with him. I was even given a tour of the place and bought it there, making me a few minutes late for work but it didn't matter.
Now I've got some old stuff to sell.

[nonoise]

I thought I'd give an update on this CDP.
Having some spare time on my hands due to a forced layoff, I took my TEAC CDP to my friendly, local audio salon, Acoustic Image, and had Elliot (the proprietor and all around good guy) insert it into his $150,000 system to see how it played out. It replaced a Lector CDP and I'll say this right from the start, it ain't no Lector, but it wasn't bad either. Quite nice, in fact. So nice that we had a nice, long listening session. We found ourselves laughing and chuckling on how damn good it sounded. It didn't quite have the body of the Lector so there was a slight edge to the sound. But by the second song, all was forgotten. The edge vanished and the music poured forth in a beguiling way.
Toes and hands were tapping, heads and feet swaying. The TEAC acquitted itself quite nicely and I had a big grin on my face as I left.
I's also like to add that the TEAC really opened up about 2 weeks ago and I can't wait until I hit the 400 hour mark.