This makes the sound 'bigger' and more assertive, increasing its scale and sense of power. The music seems to have greater depth and range and the loud passages appear to expand more. In fact, if your preamp has balanced inputs, then it's worth spending extra money to get a set of cables with XLRs to use the CD5's balanced output.

You'll get a very big improvement in dynamics and overall sound quality – though check to make sure the extra output can be handled without overload. The CD5 also offers balanced and unbalanced digital outputs for those wishing to use an outboard DAC.

Vivid soundstage

Stereo soundstaging is very vivid and unusually holographic for CD, although we're uncertain as to whether the CD5's increased stereo separation from 92dB to 120dB would actually be audible in itself. Certainly, the CD5 images well.

Audio Research seems unimpressed with the compromises involved with CD sounds on SACD and have optimised the CD5 for replaying the 'other layer' of this dual-layer format. Playing CDs on the Arcam DV135, for example, a player with the ability to spin virtually every type of silver disc known to man, the CD5 sounds a lot richer and weightier.

The Arcam does sound smooth and open, but lacks the CD5's dynamics and attack; the audio is less colourful and the music has less personality. It was only when the Arcam played the SACD layer (leaving the Audio Research playing the CD layer, of course) did we feel the Arcam gained back some of this lost ground.

Whereas the CD5 made virtually every CD sound good, some SACDs showed noticeably greater focus and precision, but no consistent pattern emerged. A good SACD can and often does out-perform a CD, but there's no denying that the CD5 get cracking results from compact disc and given the limited number of SACD titles available, maximising CD playback has to be a number one priority.

Top of the class

We've heard the CD5 stacked up against the flagship Reference CD7, in the context of an all Audio Research system. In this setting, you might expect the Reference CD7 to shine, and shine it did.

Interestingly though, although distinctly better in many ways, it never once showed up the CD5. There's an additional sense of air, a more expansive soundstage and an added coherence that marks out the more expensive player, but not as marked as you might expect and the CD5 acquits itself very well.

You could live very happily ever-after with a CD player of CD5's calibre. It doesn't get much better than this.