Grant Fidelity Reference Tube CD-1000 CD Player [Ultra-Expensive Disc Player, Tube and Solid State Circuits, Tube Analog Output, Sounds Like My $15 Discman]

I love to poke fun at the companies out there that are toting really expensive versions of fairly cheap technology. There just seems to be something inherently wrong with someone telling me that a 32GB USB flash drive is worth $200 because some high-end car company has allowed them to emblazon it with their logo. Please. The same goes for audio companies like Grant Fidelity that are clearly trying to convince people that a technology that has been around for decades (might as well be eons in the world of electronics) is worth spending thousands of dollars on when you can get what boils down to the same gear for orders of magnitude less. That being said, it is my duty and great honor to bring you the latest overpriced CD player, the Grant Fidelity Reference Tube CD-1000, a.k.a. The Impression II.

The Grant Fidelity Expression II is basically a 2009 CD player with a 1989 price tag. According to the marketing geniuses at Grant Fidelity, the Expression II comes with the best layout you could ask for from a high-end CD player. I didn’t actually know that there was a good layout. Anyway, they’ve strategically placed all of main sections of the player (power supply to tube and solid state circuits, tube analog output, tube headphone amp, CD drive) in the four corners of the unit. This leaves the middle of the player which is encased in an isolated aluminum chassis without interference from all of the other stuff inside. The more I read about it, the more I think I want one. Damn, these guys are good.

Along with all that, you get a slew of other goodies that only a true audio nerd would understand like completely separated left and right channels with 2x BB PCM1794 D/A converting IC chip and 10x OPA2604 / OPA 604 for IV converting and low pass filtering. And just in case you were wondering if you get defeatable up-sampling with 3 optional frequencies, you do. Who couldn’t use more defeatable up-sampling?

The Grant Fidelity Reference Tube CD-1000 CD Player (Expression II) is available for sale now for a mere $3,200. Did I mention that this thing weighs 50-lbs? Take a surf on over to www.grantfidelity.com to check out some more glamour shots of this and plenty of other crazy expensive gear.