The Audio Research CD5 CD player is not cheap, but then if you know anything about Audio Research kit, then you'll know that it will last you a lifetime. And, if you ever do decide to sell it – well, you'll have plenty of willing punters fighting to take it off your hands.

The CD5 actually replaces the earlier CD3/II, but could be thought of as a scaled-down version of the £8,000 Reference CD7.

Essentially it's a conservative product. It doesn't scream 'expensive' at you, because you're buying sound quality here; not glitz or glamour. Or maybe, Audio Research has the laziest designers around. You choose.

Nevertheless, the Audio Research CD5 is certainly well-made and still manages to look quietly classy. The styling is classic 'ARC'; a simple rectangular black box with a brushed- alloy front panel.

Understated design

There's a choice of silver or black for the fascia. Controls are fairly minimal and, like a number of CD players, you'll need the remote handset to access some of the features.

The impression is one of quiet understatement, rather than flashy ostentation and weighing in at about 11.8kg (26lbs), it's no sylph. In fact, only the most knowledgeable visitor, or a highly educated audiophile burglar, will realise how much it costs.

Optimum sound performance

The CD5 is a top-loading player. This design allows for much better internal mechanical damping and jitter reduction than typical tray-load mechanisms.

Audio Research developed its own proprietary damping disc (fitted over the drive spindle) which is specifically tuned (in materials, size, weight and so on) to the manner in which the laser transport is mounted within the chassis. So, essentially, the choice of a top-loading transport gives the CD5 much more design flexibility in achieving, what Audio Research refers to as a first-rate sonic performance.

Access to this disc transport is via a sliding panel on the top. The handle looks a bit cheap and reminiscent of a 1960s kitchen unit, but the whole panel arrangement is very practical and user-friendly.

Unlike other top-loading players, where the disc transport cover actually comes off, you don't have to find somewhere to put the cover when you load a disc. So there's no risk of accidentally dropping the transport cover, or 'losing' it. And being a top loader, it's also easy to clean the laser, if it becomes necessary.

Damping system

Track access is fast, but not spectacularly so. Indeed, the CD5 has a 'relaxed' sort of feel about it. It invites you to take your time. You slide the disc cover back, put the disc on the motor spindle, fit the magnetic puck (which holds the disc in place) and close the cover. The player then reads the disc's contents and you're away.

The CD5 is not something that encourages you to keep changing discs – the 'manual' disc loading system sees to that. So you're going to start at the beginning and finish at the end, because it sounds so good.

The heart of the CD5 is a Philips Pro2M transport, mounted on a machined aluminium I-beam. The transport which reads CD, CD-R and CD-RW formats, also supports replay of the CD layer of a SACD, but not SACD itself. So, if you plonk a hybrid SACD in the transport, it will only be able to play the CD layer, in linear PCM. Audio Research isn't trying to claim the CD5 does something it cannot do, but the wording could leave people in some doubt as to the CD5's SACD replay.