GOLD NOTE CD-1000 MKII > Darko Audio review

GOLD NOTE CD-1000 MKII > Darko Audio review

Gold Note’s IS-1000 streaming amplifier recently spent time here. Comprehensive functionality and a graceful sound, all founded on clarity. Build quality was admirable too, with understated looks that whispered style rather than shouting it.

The CD-1000 MKII is similarly blessed, its discrete fascia giving way to Gold Note’s signature air vents slashed stylishly into the casework. Was this overkill? The thing runs cool as a cucumber – but those vents, they do look good. Build quality is also fine; in both senses of the word.

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Conclusions

My last CD player – a Meridian 508 – drew its final breath aeons ago. Computer audio, the holy trinity of greater convenience, more music and better sound, has won out in the broader market. And yet the Gold Note CD-1000 MKII well and truly harpoon’s the notion that all digital sources sound alike. In Italian hands, the CD audibly outperforms the file.

Returning to CD forced me back into old listening habits and I don’t just mean getting out of the chair to change the CD. The bottom line is clear: for audiophiles, there’s real life in the CD yet, a view supported by high enders dCS who report their Rossini CD Player is outselling the DAC version. If you’re in the market for a CD player and can’t stretch to a dCS, put the Gold Note on your shortlist.

The bigger question is whether you should be in the market for a CD player. The CD-1000 MKII is good enough to make those in camp ‘no’ rethink their position. And I didn’t think I’d be saying that.
– Phil Wright, Darko.Audio | Feb, 2019

Link to product: Gold Note CD-1000 MkII
Link to review: Darko.Audio