Disc Players

Top-loading CD players have long been favoured by not only a broad swathe of audiophiles but also by a few key brands, Exposure and Rega in the UK among them. Nevertheless they are more regularly a feature of the architecturally styled high-end players, going right back to Krell's 'space age' MD-1 transport and maintained throughout the French Kalista née Métronome's digital journey - Le Player , CD8 Signature , DreamPlay CD , DreamPlay ONE and DreamPlay XC . Audio Research is a fan, too, as its CD6 , REF CD9 and REF CD9 SE all testify. Other notable top-loaders have included the Loit Passeri , YBA CD4 , Pro-Ject CD Box RS T and Exposure XM CD .

So what's the draw of top-loading players? Precisely that - they have no drawer! The latter is simply a delivery mechanism that carries the CD into the belly of the machine and delivers it onto the motor spindle. It represents additional circuitry, a motor and physical structures that can only act as further conduits for unwanted vibration during play. Plus, the spinning disc is typically held in place by a lightweight, spring-loaded clamp that rotates on flimsy bearings. A top loader avoids all this - the mechanism can be properly isolated and/or damped while a precisely machined (magnetic) puck, free of secondary attachments, snaps firmly into place atop the motor spindle. The simplest methods are often the best, but before anyone tells you that top-loaders are a 'new' invention, it's worth remembering that one of the two very first CD players, the Philips CD100 was a drawer-free top-loader... PM