Intro
Contents
Advance Paris: just a cool brand. We won’t start talking about the big VU meters and blue LEDs again, because the Advance Paris X-CD9 doesn’t have them…. but there is a glowing tube… What else does this affordable CD player bring besides cool, orange lights?
The Advance Paris X-CD9 is a “slimline” CD player from Advance Paris of France. Formerly also known as Advance Acoustics. At 799 Euros, the X-CD9 is very affordable and partly because of that a great way to get back into CDs. Yes: those silver discs that many an enthusiast has dumped at the thrift shop. Not smart, because they sound excellent and we see more and more that albums come and go on streaming services. Not to mention the wacky, mediocre (re)masters.
About the player
But let’s go back to the Advance Paris X-CD9 for a moment. It is a simple player with both balanced analog out and single ended analog out. In addition, we see coaxial out and optical out. Nice for those who might want to hook up a better d/a converter later. Although that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense we have found out. More on that later.
A special feature of the Advance is of course the tube in the output stage. Don’t expect huge coloration, but do expect the “Advance” signature. Furthermore, internally we see a fine linear power supply and a Cirrus (Wolfson) WM8761 dac for digital-to-analog conversion.
We can’t quite pinpoint the brand and type of the cd-drive. However, it does its job fast enough – not a speed monster, but not annoyingly slow – and we don’t hear it spinning. That’s a positive thing, of course.
The casing is neat for this price range. The whole thing is sturdy and looks nicely finished. Be careful with the CD tray though; it does feel a bit fragile; so don’t place a coffee mug on it or let toddlers hang from it.