MDBowden

Have just bought this player, ordered from a local hi-fi store (yay!) who are a TEAC dealer for the RRP of £400. I can provide some first impressions now. Functionally it does pretty much exactly what I've wanted. I was shopping for a Yamaha equivalent (CD-N500) which is now discontinued and I missed the box-shifters a-shifting them. Seems the TEAC does a little bit more than the Yamaha, although some differences such as supported file formats are going to be down to firmware anyway. It's part of what I consider a "mid-price" system, connected up to a new pair of Q-Acoustics 2020i via my venerable NAD 3130 amp, and also hardwired into my BT router (the TEAC has no wi-fi) My goal has been to reuse the NAD amp with modern sources, so I was looking for a streamer to connect to my itunes library. But I also needed a new CD player. And I also wanted to buy only one DAC. So all Network Receivers were out as I want the sound of my NAD. Then, a separate CD player and streamer would mean buying a DAC twice, and I'm not enough of an audiophile to want a CD transport. As I'm using new speakers I can't really make a true comparison with my previous player. However the sound of my music is the best ever. I'm playing AAC files ripped from CDs over the network using DNLA. I'm playing CDs direct. I'm playing 24-bit/96K FLAC files from a USB stick plugged in the front. All are sounding crisp and clear, with fine detail in the music I have not heard before. The control APP on my Android phone is a bit odd, but allows me to locate and play the music stored on the phone via my own wi-fi network, and also locate and play files on my laptop using DNLA. It searches through the music files and folders on the phone easily enough and works with the existing Android playlists. There is a slight delay between pressing play and the music starting, but that's streaming. The App also easily presents the DNLA files from my windows PC, and is happy with folders having 500+ albums. The TEAC's front panel also allows fast and straightforward access to DNLA and USB files, albeit with the limitations of a single-line display. I think you really have to know your music collection to use this thing best. There are limitations on file formats supported over DNLA, and between the front and back USB connections. USB sticks have to be FAT format and the manual claims it will not support a plug-in hard disk. If you want to connect things up as I have done, perhaps reusing old components and/or refusing to buy an amp or DAC twice, the TEAC does the job very nicely, which is a relief as I have not found anything else for the price since the discontinuation of the Yamaha. I'd give it 8/10, dropping points only for it's single-line display and the (documented) restrictions on what devices you can plug into which USB slot and the file formats supported for each source. However, there does seem to be a way of playing everything. I think it's a great box (the Q-Acoustics 2010i's are pretty good too, and the NAD is still the sound I love) I'll happily try and clarify any points or answer any questions folk might have. Matthew.