To hear what kind of bottom-end the Lektor Joy is capable of, play the second movement of the 2024 Deutsche Grammophon release of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 11, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons. The bass drum reproduced by the LJ is fast and clean, explosive and house rattling. The precision of tonality and ambience retrieval is at the top among CD players, although the 24/96 file as rendered by the LJ remains superior in dynamics and dimensionality. The difference is there but the extent to which you may notice it depends largely on the speaker of choice; I’m writing from the viewpoint of the nine-feet tall Sound Lab with over 21 square feet radiating surface per panel, most speakers can understandably be not as revelatory and or able to make full use of the complete dynamic range of the hi-res file.
The LJ’s playback of JVC XRCDs was some of the most vibrant and vivid in recent memory, as the signal was routed through its own prodigious analog output stage and propagated the sound of CD from the pits of the disc to the power amplifier like no one else’s business. The XRCD spearheaded designs in the that updated the CD manufacturing standard to deliver a sound not approached by regular CDs, and the CD-pro8 transport is the marvel to match. Playing the same CD as a music file via the Aurender realized comparatively slight opaqueness, although not so much to the degree of invalidation but marginal inferiority.
Retrospectively, the manufacturing defects present in commercial CDs in the off-centeredness are inescapable, the remedy being a reburning of the original CD music file back onto a CD-R. I have observed that blank CDs are often manufactured to much higher standard in the centering of the disc. This may not be the sole factor in determining the level of extractable information from the CD pits, but the result of reburning CD-Rs has been consistent. The Lektor Joy is the first CD transport overcoming the handicap at the source.
There is a dynamic edge of instruments that is softened by most tube amplifications and some digital players, as well as certain cartridges. The Lector Joy is one of the few digital disc players that preserve that edge while manifesting a more vibrant sound from the CD. For instance, the 24/96 file of La Belle Epoque is full and sonorous via the LJ’s USB DAC input, the energy of the playing vibrant and scintillating. Playing the 16/44.1 version burned onto a CD-R yielded nearly indistinguishable sound quality, in both resolution and transient response and yet infused with a tonal and transient solidity all of its own, a testament to the caliber of the CD-pro8 mechanism, the twin DAC chip arrangement, and most certainly also to the player’s vigorous analog output stage.
The Lektor Joy’ preamplification section is pure enough to differentiate performance gaps of various phono preamps as well as disk players through its RCA analog inputs, while boasting similar output levels as the $24,200 Aurender AP20. Whereas the Aurender features only XLR analog inputs, the Ancient Audio has both RCA and XLR, and its dynamic transients edges out of that of the Aurender. The sound is addictive. There are also two DIP switch ports on the LJ, one on the bottom front, the other on the rear panel. Originally intended for the optional custom speaker processing, these ports can also be used to select pre-programmed parametric equalizations, although it would require unplugging the LJ and turning it over for port access.
There is inherent advantage to the sound produced by physical disk players, especially ones like the Lektor Joy, which is rare in the industry. Its rendition of the CD puts it above all disk players bar just one thus far, the Esoteric K-01XD, but a preamp priced at over $10k of commensurate performance is more suitably needed for the Esoteric. The Lektor Joy is probably one of the very few CD players not only equipped with a superlative CD transport, plus a top linestage and DAC, but also engineered in such a way to make heavy use of the V-Cap ODAM capacitors, the ESR capacitors, etc, etc. The result is the most definitive CD playback ever. I have been collecting Sony CD players of the eighties and nineties, some retrofitted with new electrolytic capacitors and the transport mechanism repaired, but even the mighty Sony SCD-1 cannot rival the Ancient Audio Lektor Joy in CD playback. The LJ is using a pair of one of the latest chipsets by ESS Technology, after all.
Granted CD enthusiasts are dropping off as the Boomers retreat into retirement, but for those of us possessing clear recollection of the crazed days of rivalry in the advancement of CD player technologies between Sony, Denon, Marantz/Philips, Technics, Yamaha, to name a few, the Lektor Joy thirty-some years later is the ultimate personification of the ideal. Yes, it is uber expensive, but it is a bona fide high-quality product through and through, and the joy in using such a machine complete with a flagship-worthy linestage stuffed with all the goodies cannot be overestimated, its operational longevity and persistent excellence assured. I reckon it will take the next designer/manufacturer about the same cost to come up with a similarly enticing, low production volume design, but then again it is such a monumental endeavor for smaller companies lightning may not strike again.
If you play lots of CD and have been looking for the latest flagship CD-only player with the ability to serve as a DAC up to 32/216 resolution and you don’t mind its inability to read DSD, and you want its linestage which is pure enough to serve a phono stage or a server, and you want an alternative to existing big names, then the Lektor Joy is a dream machine. It lays the debate of the virtue of an ultimate compact disc player to rest, for the case for a CD player these days especially in the case of the Lektor Joy is no longer an obscured one.
If you have been a CD diehard and salivating after the best in CD playback, then the Lektor Joy is a dream machine.
To come: Interview with Jarek Waszczyszyn of Ancient Audio (Poland)
Review system
Audience AV frontROW cable system
Cardas Clear Beyond cable system
Aurender N200 cache player
Bricasti Design M21 DSD DAC
Atma-Sphere MP-1 3.3 tube preamplification system
Pass Laboratories XA200.8 class A monoblocks
Orchard Audio Starkrimson Mono Ultra Premium GaN-FET monoblocks
Sound Lab M945 electrostatic panels
Acoustic Science Corp. Tubetraps
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