Putting on Ornette Coleman's Change Of The Century, the sax and trumpet playing has a vivacity and attack that gives the music an energy and buzz that the older player can't remember. This is also reflected in the double bass which is better focussed and slightly deeper in the Moon's hands.

On another track, Eric Bibb's Candyman, the analogue nature of the orginal recording is immediately apparent in the relatively high tape hiss and the quality of the voice, which has more character and depth in it than plenty of up-to-date examples.

Putting it plainly, the voice sounds more real, not perhaps as in-the-room as vocal recordings can be, but in terms of tonal subtlety ahead of the competition. The Moon responds very positively to better recordings, such as Andy Sheppard's recent Movements In Colour disc which delivers a massive soundstage via this player.

It's a cleverly contrived studio creation admittedly, but that's what reverb and other tricks are for and it's a pity that not more producers use them. Sheppard's sax may be a little larger than life, but it has superb timbre and comes right into the room on the opening track.

On the album Sensuous, Japanese artist cornelius goes even further down the road of producing acoustic space with technology rather than buildings, the results via the Moon being positively widescreen in scale and combined with some of the most chewy bass we've ever heard. All this and good timing, too there's not a lot more you can ask of a CD player at almost any price.

The Moon CD3.3 is a subtle rather than demonstrative player and those who are looking for excitement would be better of with a Bryston or cairn at around the same price. Those of a sophisticated bent will, however, find a lot to appreciate about this refined, yet timely and tonally rich player and we'd be fools not to recommend it.

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