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Product: Philips CD 723
- CD player with remote
Manufacturer: Philips
- Netherlands
Approx. price: 120 Euro/$
Availability: depending
on the Country
Reviewer: Lucio
Cadeddu
Reviewed: January, 2002
The Philips brand
doesn't have a great reputation among die-hard audiophiles, mainly
because the giant manufacturer makes products which are oriented to
the consumer market.
It was different, say, 15 years ago, when
Philips CD players were considered among the best of the market,
namely the ancestor CD 104 and the famous CD 960, one of the highly
regarded players in the history of modern HiFi (and still well
reputed nowadays).
Then Philips, after having acquired the Marantz
brand, decided to leave the "audiophile" market to the
glorious American name. The marketing strategy proved to be
successful and today Marantz products (especially CD players) are
well considered even by the most integralist audiophiles.
Philips
didn't choose to stop producing HiFi components, though, especially
CD players and recorders and, while being aimed to the consumer
market, these are - more or less - Marantz players (actually, it's
viceversa) with cheaper looks and WAY lower prices.
Philips
makes 3 standard CD players: CD 713, CD 723 (a 713 + remote) and CD
753 (actually it's a Marantz CD 4000 with different power supply
caps).
The Philips CD 723,
the player under test, is an extremely inexpensive digital machine
and it can be easily found at a price around 100 Euro (or USD).
Despite this very low price it offers several interesting features
that could be attractive both for the absolute beginner and the crazy
DIYer.
Firstly, it offers a coaxial electrical digital output,
instead of the ubiquitous (as in players of this range) optical one,
which normally sounds worse. This means the CD 723 can be used as a
cheap CD transport connected to a DIY DAC such as our TNT
Convertus or to a second-hand unit. S/H DACs are very easy to
find at very low prices, nowadays (thanks to SACD and DVD-Audio!!!!
:-)).
Secondly, the Philips CD 723 is very easy to "tweak"
and can be successfully used as a "training camp" by every
audiophile willing to improve his tweaking/DIYing ability.
Finally,
the player - considered as a standalone unit (i.e. no tweaks, no
external DACs) - can be easily considered as an inexpensive first
step for a budget-oriented system, where the largest part of the
budget can be devoted to speakers and amp.
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Technically, the
Philips CD 723 uses a bitcheck (Continuous Calibration) D/A
conversion, a CD transport that reads virtually anything digital
(CDs, CD-Rs and - hear hear - even CD-RWs!!!), a comfy remote control
from which you can even adjust the volume level (via the variable
line output), a pretty useful headphones output.
Then, of course,
it offers every kind of digital gadget: program, repeat, random,
fade, peak etc.
Its size is standard (45.5 x 26.5 x 8.6 cm) and
its weight.....minimal, as you can easily guess having a look at the
sadly empty inside of the player. The cabinet doesn't sport any kind
of anti-vibration device (so it's pretty resonant) but it certainly
looks much more expensive than it really is.
Reviewing basic-class HiFi components is both easy and tricky. Easy, because one can immediately tell what's wrong, as sonic "mistakes" appear to be evident. Tricky, because it is hard to make the reader understand how the sounds compares to more expensive stuff. So, please, have in mind the (low) price of this unit when reading my listening notes.
This player is
essentially neutral, in the sense that no portion of the audio
spectrum prevails over the rest. Only sometimes one can hear the high
range a bit over the rest but, substantially, a kind of general
"stable equilibrium" is preserved.
The quality of the
high range, as you can easily guess, is so-so, to say the least. Take
- for example - the cymbals: these are reproduced in a perfectly
one-key style: the CD 723 concentrates on the fundamental note,
forgetting the harmonics, so that the timbre of the percussive
instrument appears very close to the one produced synthetically by a
drum-machine.
It is hard to detect all the harmonics after the
instrument is hit, so all you can hear is a kind of "tizz-tizz"
sound that makes every cymbal sound equal.
It is not exactly
unpleasant, as the general mood remains "soft" and warm.
The same happens with the piano harmonics, a real mined field for
every HiFi component, CD players in particular. Even the most
harmonically rich pianos become poor and sterile and appear somehow
"softened".
Don't get me wrong....you get what you pay
for. Inexpensive CD players (and HiFi components) can't reproduce the
Music in its full bloom, that's a fact.
On human voices the
Philips CD 723 doesn't sound bad at all: it is a smooth
performer and succeeds reproducing a sense of "breath" and
air (surrounding choir voices for example) that is mostly welcomed.
Even when playing the difficult "Cantate Domino" (Proprius,
choir and pipe organ) the inexpensive player shows some self-control
(unexpected, I'd say) and delivers a pleasant sound. Of course,
during the trickies passages, a sense of general confusion and
compression prevails....
In the bass and mid-bass the CD 723
performs proportionally better, sounding gutsy and lively, even when
playing the intricate drum machine patterns (and seismic frequencies)
of "Protection" by Massive Attack or when trying to move
the air with the organ pedals of Saint Saens (Symphony with orgel,
Dorian Recordings).
No, it won't make you stand up in a standing
ovation...but there's quantity - at least - if not quality. To be
clearer, it is more or less the same bass range of the similarly
priced Teac players (Teac
CDP-1120, for example) though substantially worse than that one
delivered by the JVC XL-Z
232, which is 50% more expensive (150 Euro/$ instead of 100 :-)).
Summarizing, the JVC sounds better in all areas but it doesn't offer a coaxial digital output and a phones jack...so, there's no such a thing as a free meal, you know.
Entry-level CD players
have vastly improved their performance with respect to overall
dynamics. So, while the old Marantz CD 38
(only slightly more expensive) grasped for breath every time the
musical program asked for dynamics and punch, the Philips CD 723
sounds lively and punchy, it will not strip the seat of your pants
but certainly can be considered involving.
Please have in
mind it has been tested into my B system, the one I call
"budget-oriented", where the interconnects are twice as
expensive as the whole CD player :-)
Despite this torture test the
Philips CD 723 survived, in the sense that it rarely showed
terrific dynamic compressions.
For example, sharp drum-machine
patterns (these can have outrageously steep rise fronts) have sheer
impact and violence, as in "Heat Miser" again from Massive
Attack (Protection - WBRCD2).
Summarizing: if your doors and
windows don't shake when playing these tracks, for sure there's
something else into your system that needs an urgent upgrade, not the
CD 723.
The player isn't exactly "fast" and even in the
microdynamics department it performs poorly...but one has to think at
the 100 Euro price tag.
If you have read some
review of entry-level CD players (or HiFi components) here on
TNT-Audio, you are already aware of a very basic fact: cheap stuff
can't image properly. It is a God-given fact. Inexpensive CD players
aren't able to create a realistic soundstage, yet.
The Philips
CD 723 tries as hard as it can...but fails to create even a
shadow of 3D image. Sometimes, it succeeds placing some instrument in
a kind of second "row" but, substantially, its performance
is extremely poor. Absolutely inexistent.
The center of the image
- alas, the space between the loudspeakers :-) - is confused, blurred
and even randomly moving. It is very hard to focus on a particular
instrument or singer as everything belongs to a confused narrow area
between the loudspeakers. Cymbals play INSIDE the tweeters most of
the times.
Surprised? Don't be! That's life, you can't expect
soundstaging from such inexpensive HiFi components. Regular customers
who may be interested in a CD 723 don't care much of stereo image, as
with entry-level systems there are much more relevant and unpleasant
troubles and compromises (bass extension and punch, midrange clarity,
overall dynamics etc.).
Compared to similarly priced players, the
CD 723 performance is close to the almost inexistent one of the Teac
1120 and only slightly worse than the aforementioned JVC XL-Z 232.
Considering the price,
there's no much room for complaints. The Philips CD 723 is
solidly and consistently built, only the cabinet shows some excessive
flexibility (i.e. it resonates), even near the RCA line plugs so
beware of killer-grip RCA connectors!
The mains cable isn't
detachable BUT! once the warranty expires...one can always change it
with something better (of the DIY kind, like our free
designs).
One can even think to add a filtered
IEC socket. The coaxial digital output is a dream come true for
audiophiles looking for a cheap transport for their DIY or
second-hand DACs.
Sonically...what else can I say? The price says it all. It is not precise nor detailed, it does not have 3D imageto speak of... but plays admirably smooth and balanced and, for sure, when hooked up to a budget-oriented system, its faults can be easily masked by those, way bigger, of cheap speakers and amplifier.
More or less, the
usual recommendations apply here: let it warm up for 20 minutes at
least, use a decent interconnect cable (Monster Interlink 200 or
something from our DIY
factory) and immediately throw away the stock feet, trading them
for something softer such as doorstoppers.
As always suggested, a
damping session for the cabinet should be taken into serious
account...but avoid spending too much...it would be useless. Even
electronic tweaks can easily become too much of a good thing: an
outboard DAC is the best upgrade you can do to this player. There's
no need to spend big bucks: just browse the second-hand market in
search of DACs from a couple of years ago. Audiophiles sell/change
digital gear frequently (because there's always something
"better"...or so they believe :-)) so good DACs can be
found for sale at ridiculously low prices.
The Philips CD 723
is pretty unique: sporting an extremely useful coaxial digital output
it can be used as a cheap transport...OK, it does not sound like a
Vimak or a Wadi...but it can read anything and the main differences
in digital playback systems come from DACs, output stages and power
supplies.
As a standard CD player it can help building an
inexpensive first system (once they were called "student
systems" :-)) that can be easily upgraded.
For 100 Euro/$ one
can't ask for more.
© Copyright 2002 Lucio Cadeddu - https://www.tnt-audio.com
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