In my last blog post, I discussed completing the narrative by incorporating HI-FI into my life on a budget. A fairly successful journey, I should say, in which the Helicon 800 MK2 delivered stunning sound into my life along with a Lyngdorf amplifier and a high-end music feed provided by a Cambridge CXN streamer. Though successful, something was still lacking. I remember from my younger days putting on a CD and listening to the music streaming through the speaker; the music experience was more of a whole listening to the whole CD or LP for that matter, compared to the more “hit and run” behavior that I adapted on an online streaming device, where everything is “selected artists” and “selected music.”

Then I discovered a used Advance Paris X-CD1000 EVO, the latest audio CD player from the French hi-fi forge Advance Paris, and it is said to be a really distinctive solution of its kind. The French discuss a high-tech CD player with an audiophile tube output stage. This is supposed to offer a solution with a familiar, elegant look that appeals to even demanding hi-fi enthusiasts and provides them with a tool for playing their CDs at a high level of quality, and Wow, its sound is just stunning.

This CD transport not only enabled me to listen to CD, but it changed how I listened. The analog outputs on RCA and XLR use tubes in its Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) in its analog output stage, and it delivers a warm, smooth sound, which can soften the harshness or “digital aggressiveness.”. To me, it comes across as a more natural and engaging listening experience with added harmonic richness, a sense of depth, and a more organic sound quality compared to solid-state components, which I am experiencing from the Cambridge Streamer.

• Advance Paris X-CD1000 EVO

Now here I was, with a high-end CD player in front of me, but no CDs to play. Years ago, in a moment of madness, I gave away all my records and CDs to a second-hand charity shop. Regret? Oh yeah, it’s real. Luck was on my side when the guy who sold me the CD player also had 300 CDs for sale, perfectly matching my taste in music. I bought them all; and now my house is a glorious mess! But my luck didn’t stop there; he also had a stash of high-end XLR speaker cables. I snagged both the CDs and cables for next to nothing. Talk about a jackpot!

Now that the journey is almost complete, the only outstanding point is finding a more suitable way of placing the units and putting the CDs in my home without making a mess. VM Acoustics seems to be where I am heading, and let’s see if we can find these on a budget as well.