Twin analogue outputs and both flavours of digital output, complete the thoughtful specification.

Mechanical noise is distinctly lower than from many players we've tested recently and disc loading time is reasonable – actually, by the standards of most SACDs players, is excellent.

Highly capable CD player

We expected good things from this player, having not had a bad Arcam disc spinner in many years, and we weren't disappointed.

That sentence, of course, highlights the risk of preconceptions and, aware of that, we set up an informal blind test against a couple of familiar CD players, which confirmed that this is a highly capable machine.

Its basic sound is clear, extended and unfussy, with detail served up tastefully – never thrust at the listener. Having said above that CD players are approaching theoretical perfection, it's surprising how they still seem to differ sonically.

Differences are seldom night and day (barring the odd, wilfully different design), but can still become quite obvious after a bit of listening to familiar tracks.

Rather than substantial changes in tonality or level of resolution, what we tend to find is subtle changes in emphasis, one player perhaps giving a touch more importance to rhythm, say, while another favours lyrics or high-lying melodies.

In this case, the most favoured region seems to be the bass and lower midrange.

No coloration

We hasten to add that there's no suggestion in the sound of excessive level in that frequency band, no added richness or loose, woofy overhang.

In quickfire comparisons with other players (and with high-end external DACs fed from the CD37's digital output) we could detect no coloration in that or any other region and yet every time we simply sat back and listened for a few minutes we felt that our attention was being subtly drawn towards lower-frequency sounds.

There is indeed a richness, a sense of luxury, to the bottom octaves which couples with the CD37's generally excellent detail to make bass lines easy to follow, even when the midrange and treble are very busy and we found this immensely attractive across a wide range of music.

Precise imaging

What makes that even more appealing is that there seems to be no compromising lack of quality in the upper octaves – or hardly any.

Perhaps, in the very highest treble there's a hint of grain and less openness and air around the sound than the very finest digital replay can provide (we're thinking seriously high-end here), but it must be said that few if any sub-£1,000 CD players can exceed the performance we felt the CD37 provides in that area.

Midrange is exquisitely detailed and stereo imaging is precise in both dimensions, with very good extension, too.

SACD performance

So far, we haven't specified whether we're talking about CD or SACD quality, on the whole, of course, we're referring to the former, mainly because we (and almost all potential CD37 purchasers) have a lot more software, and more points of reference, in that field.

SACD comparisons are slightly trickier, but we do feel that this player is one of the best we've heard at avoiding the slightly 'ethereal' quality which has, for us, subtly undermined the appeal of some SACD players.

Here, the sound is full-bodied and well grounded – that charming bass clearly doesn't hurt, but the treble seems unusually well integrated with the rest of the range.

As for the comparison between CD and SACD layers of the same recording (when it's fair, i.e. when both are at the same level and have the same equalisation), it does on this occasion favour SACD: that's not a universal finding but Arcam does make a case for SACD's higher resolution, with just a hint more precision across the board.

Best in class

We've been complimentary about a good few CD players in this ballpark recently and it's clear that standards are generally high.

This particular offering, however, seems one of the most appealing in its class, not only because of the inclusion of SACD, but because its sound is both excellent overall and tastefully differentiated from the average.

There will never be such a thing as a CD player for all tastes, but this one seems likely to satisfy more than most.