Grundig Fine Arts CD-9009

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Data

General

  • Manufacturer: Grundig
  • Model: Fine Arts CD-9009
  • Type: CD-Player
  • Years of manufacture: 1989 - 1993
  • Made in: Portugal by Grundig
  • Color: Black / Gold
  • Remote control: Yes
  • Power consumption: approx. 20 W (at 220V)
  • Dimensions: 475 x 117 x 354 mm (WxHxD)

Weight: approx. 11.7 kg / 12.2 kg (without / with wooden cheeks)

  • Original price approx.: 2'998 DM


Connections

  • Number of inputs: 0
  • Number of outputs: 6
    • 1x Cinch (variable)
    • 1x Cinch (fixed)
    • 1x XLR (female) analog, balanced
    • 1x Digital out, coaxial
    • 1x Optical out (Toslink / TOShiba-LINK)
    • 1x Headphone (variable)


Technical Data

  • Converter: 2 TDA 1541A S1 (Silver Crown)
  • Laser: AlGaAs, half unit, 780 nm
  • Frequency response: 20Hz - 20kHz +/- 0.05 dB
  • Dynamic range: > 98 dB
  • Signal to noise ratio: > 116 dB
  • Distortion factor: < 0.002 % (at 1'000 Hz)
  • Phase linearity +/- 0.5
  • Channel separation: > 105 dB (at 1'000 Hz)
  • CD-Text: No

MP3 support: No

  • Auto play: Yes
  • Shuffle: Yes
  • Title programming: Yes (positive and negative)
  • Repeat: Yes
  • Timer: Yes
  • Up to 9 different "USER" programmable
  • Plays CD-R/CD-RW: Yes/No


Special Features

  • Pitch function for variable playback speed
  • Electronic components in the unit shielded from each other with copper sheeting
  • Separate digital/analogue section
  • FTS


Remarks








Pictures

  • Extract from brochure: Grundig Fine Arts CD-9009

Grundig Fine Arts CD-9009-Prospekt-1992.jpg


Reviews

  • One of the best hi-fi CD players ever built. Finest Philips technology with solid Grundig quality. Soundwise a high pleasure. Used prices are in good condition from about 700€ to well over 1000€.

Test judgement: Stereo 2/90 "Absolute top class".


Some history of the Grundig CD9009 Fine Arts:

  • It is the show-off of Grundig company, player made without any cost restrictions, just as a statement. Their flagship. The icon of the long gone era pre-globalization, pre-cost cutting, pre-bean counters domination in corporations. All copper-plated steel chassis and body, all components - premium type (all Made In Germany), best transport at all time - CDM1-MKII and TDA1541A DAC from tight tolerance selection S1 (single crown), in double paralleled mode. Two power transformers, copper inter-stage shielding, jewellery connectors and sockets, etc. A true overkill. Someone said that it was designed and built for Grundig by a high-end company RESTEK from Germany. Adrianus Elschot, founder and mastermind of RESTEK, declared that they developed some products for Grundig, but neither the CD9000 nor the CD9009.

It also has one of the best displays of all players I have seen (save for the Levinson) (legible from my seat 3 m away), discrete understatement look, good ergonomy etc.. Inside - it compares only to the Accuphases and so on, and the famous Revox looks like.

The schematics is very impressive (for most engineers - I am sure). It has so many op amps in the audio path that I lost the count. No wonder the stock unit sounds like 12 op-amps in series. With false feeling of macrodynamics, glassy, harsh, falsely detailed, totally un-listenable sound. Test drive with lampizator revealed another character. Earthshaking bass, pure liquidity, tonal warmth, richness, and most of all - the sense of body. Instruments sound like living vibrating creatures, not skeletons, silhouettes or cardboard imitations.

The TDA1541A /S1 chip is "just only" 16 bit and single ended only. But so is the Sony/Philips red book format - 16 bit. And since Philips invented CD, so shouldn't their best chip ever - make the best music!

Compared to Revox B226S - our Grundig CD9009 Fine Arts is very similar in nature, I probably couldn't be able to tell them apart immediately. But the ergonomy of the Grundig CD9009 Fine Arts makes big positive difference. Both machines are very "Teutonic" in design, but Grundig more than Revox. Grundig CD9009 Fine Arts is an Audi A8 Quattro W10 so to speak.


Note: This Highend CD Player was developed from Grundig-Germany in Fürth. It was made from one of the best HiFi developers in the Grundig Labor 2. All production measuring devices was made by Grundig "Meßgerätelabor" Werk 2.


Links

  • External link to website "The Vintage Knob": [1]
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