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Digital Drive: REVIEW: Astin Trew AT3500 Plus CD Player/Recorder by Mike C

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REVIEW: Astin Trew AT3500 Plus CD Player/Recorder

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Model: AT3500 Plus
Category: CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price: $2500
Description: CD Player with valve output buffer
Manufacturer URL: Astin Trew
Model Picture: View

Review by Mike C on February 27, 2013 at 11:13:25
IP Address: 80.189.62.189
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for the AT3500 Plus


First I’ll declare my personal preferences for vinyl source and valve electronics, based on listening to the kinds of music I enjoy. Other preferences are equally valid to other people so I suggest we don’t start the old arguments.

I’m not good at giving reviews, and to be honest sometimes I don’t appreciate reading them for this reason. Say I asked someone about a concert and they answered in ‘hifi speak’ such as … the cellos had body and good wood tone, the triangle had sparkle, the bass notes were well defined, the sound had power and dynamics etc etc; then I’d consider that the guy had totally missed the point! Whether it’s a concert or hifi, I want to go faint with the beauty of lyrical pieces, I want to be moved to tears by gorgeous singing, I want to feel stirred by lively pieces, I want to be fully involved with the music.

Having now offended quite enough readers, on with the review :-).

My previous CD player was the Nohr (actually badged QDS15). It’s worth looking it up here; it’s a good player, very pleasant to listen to, analogue sounding, and superb for female vocals.

My main source is a Teres turntable with Moerch arm and Zyx 4D cartridge; very special indeed, superb sounding.
Electronics are DIY valve, with a ‘45’ SET amp – highly musical and transparent.
Speakers are high quality DIY MTM matched to SET valve amplification. I’m lucky to say it’s a good sounding system, able to show the strengths of a good front end.

I like very few CD players; I’ve heard several by Naim and could not live with any of them. No player I had heard could match my analogue front end, which admittedly cost a small fortune. I’ve heard a good Audionote valve DAC in my system, pretty good but I preferred the Nohr’s own DAC. I’ve enjoyed the Nohr (fitted with top quality NOS 5751 valves) for its smooth sound and excellent vocals. I was interested to hear how the AT3500+ would compare, hoping to get a useful improvement.

The version reviewed is the AT3500 ‘Plus’ version with op amp upgrade, dated early 2013.

I have read many reviews of the AT3500/AT3500+ and can confirm that all the highly positive comments are correct; it is an excellent player with a natural sound, superb tonality, no trace of the kind of digital artefacts I dislike, and truly excellent vocals. I particularly quote from the Dutch review (see later) that Cecilia Bartoli’s voice is ‘a wondrous beauty’ and the orchestra ‘plays tender and intense, smooth and rich shades’.

I recommend reading the excellent review by Maarten van Casteren at TNT Audio, a very thorough evaluation. I agree with everything, including the somewhat ‘soft’ sound that he mentions compared to a more energetic player.

It seems there is little more to be said but do please read on, it is very significant.

Michael Osborn kindly gave me an audition versus the Nohr. I liked the sound a lot (note well: with the standard NOS Philips valve).
Female vocals were superb; Athena’s ‘Breathe with Me’ was captivating (do try it, a superb CD with delicate vocals).
I found the midrange to have some warmth and richness, but similar to real life; natural and ‘right’, certainly not an overdone ‘tubey’ sound that poor valve equipment can give. The music had fine tonality, delicacy and purity, and was so beautiful it could take me close to tears.

However, I did notice the music was a bit ‘soft’, lacking some energy and ‘bite’, on Hollie Smith’s excellent CD Light from a Distant Shore, the song ‘Gone’ which is very rock style. But please read to the end!

Overall the AT3500+ was similar to the Nohr but somewhat better; more transparent, more precise imaging, more detail, better sound quality in general. I was still wondering what to do, as the Nohr is very good, the differences (though real) were not great and I was just a touch concerned about the slight softness ….

Now things get interesting. In went an excellent Mullard E88CC-01 (CV2493) that I’d brought along and our jaws dropped!
The improvement it made was immense; a major positive effect on just about *all* aspects of the sound.
In came dynamics, drama, excitement; the softness was gone, Hollie had bite and drama.
The bass improved considerably, gaining firmness, tonality, and some depth; and an overall coherence. Tonality (excellent to start with) improved. There was somewhat more detail and resolution from an extended clean treble, and improved transparency, but still with magic valve ‘smoothness’; not a rounding off. The sound became more 'solid'. Female vocals became even more alluring, I was captivated.

I no longer had any doubts; it was then very significantly better than the Nohr, having all the Nohr’s strengths but more so, and a lot more besides. I bought it.

Now, at home, I am really loving this player (using the special Mullard of course).
The sound is very natural; note that I go to several classical concerts a year.
In general, and especially tonally, the AT3500+ is close to my superb analogue front end and this is very detailed, transparent and neutral – nothing woolly or rolled off here.

The AT3500 is said to be warm, but I don’t fully agree with this. I’d say it’s pure and clean and hence tonally natural; many less ‘clean’ sounding players will sound cold by comparison, and it’s the latter which are wrong in my view. OK, on balance I’d say slightly warm, very similar to good analogue, and live music.

I’m enjoying folk, some folk/rock, and classical with this player. I particularly enjoy female vocals as you know and these are astoundingly gorgeous; Elin Manahan Thomas’s CD ‘Eternal Light’ is driving me to distraction with its beauty!
As is ‘Maria’ by Cecilia Bartoli; gorgeous music and vocals; highly recommended (go treat yourselves). I heard of this in a review of the AT3500 at:
http://www.hifi.nl/recensies/3454/Astin-Trew-AT3500-cd-speler.html
It’s in Dutch but well worth translating (it displays poorly, you may need to scroll a lot to see the text); I really like page 3, where his reaction to the music is so similar to mine! Do read his very last comment ...
The castenets he mentions have very good *impact*, drama, snap - startling! No softness here with the good valve ....

Don’t think it only plays the music mentioned above. I don’t have many classical LPs as I have so much on LP. But I’ve pulled out some for this review and they sound excellent; not quite up to my analogue front end but highly enjoyable all the same. Tonality better than the Nohr, and better than any other CD player I have heard.

Recently a piece of harp music was on, sounding superbly liquid, rounded, tuneful, yet with a good firm ‘pluck’ to it, and a solid sound, all there. My wife Jan came into the room and remarked that ‘that thing’ (the turntable!) wasn’t going round; I said it was because a CD was playing. To which Jan replied ‘Oh, I thought it was an LP’.
And that just about sums the whole thing up; a CD player that's fully listenable and thoroughly enjoyable to a vinyl junkie! Which was what Michael Osborn (a true gentleman) set out to do; Q.E.D. !

A word on valves.
I’m very pleased that Michael chose to use the ECC88/6922 type rather than the ECC82 often used as a buffer (generally not at all good sounding). There are even better things out there but professionals generally need to use types which are in production.
The 6922 family is very variable! I’ve used very many types; I found cheaper ones to be awful, most are poor, and I myself have only ever found one good type, the Mullard CV2493 (NOT the CV2492!). There must be a few other good ones; I have not tried all.
Michael does well to supply a fairly decent NOS Philips with the Plus model; it’s not bad. But a better one is head and shoulders above this, and seems to me to put right the slight shortcomings (by high standards) of the AT3500+ with the standard valve.

Poor valve equipment can be ‘warm and cuddly’, with a smooth sound that’s a bit rolled off and lacking dynamics … hence the smoothness. Good valve equipment (and I venture to include mine) is not like that; it can have extension, detail, transparency, dynamics, but presented very cleanly, without harshness. The AT3500+ falls into this category; the valve doesn’t roll off or smooth over the sound, it just presents things cleanly.

Upsampling or not?
Many reviews mention this and give an opinion; mine is similar! I tend to prefer it off, taking me slightly closer to the music. But on, with a touch more refinement, is fine, and sometimes seems better. It’s great to have both.



Product Weakness: Dynamics a touch soft, bass a touch soft - until a top valve is fitted when these things are fixed! With a CV2493 - nothing much in the way of weaknesses.
Product Strengths: Very natural sound, superb tonality, gorgeous female vocals, highly musical and involving


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: DIY valve SET with 45 valve
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): DIY valve with 27 valve
Sources (CDP/Turntable): TT: Teres, Moerch DP6, Zyx 4D
Speakers: DIY MTM designed for SET amp, excellent, about 95dB.
Cables/Interconnects: DIY Belden 89259 and other
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical, folk, jazz, some rock/pop; love of female vocals
Room Size (LxWxH): 18 ft x 14 ff x 8 ft
Time Period/Length of Audition: owned for 2 months
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Astin Trew AT3500 Plus CD Player/Recorder - Mike C 11:13:25 02/27/13 ( 3)