SCIENTIST SERIES – ULTRA MACHINE PLANCK2
The machine:
PLANCK2 is Audionet’s final statement re. the classical compact disc. No other machine on the market plays with such utmost precision, formidable ease and deep-rooted musicality. PLANCK2 even surpasses our worldwide successes VIP and ART.
Want to hear the music breathe? Here’s the best available lung on this planet:
The body construction completely made of non-ferromagnetic materials combined with a massive slate board optimizes the resonance characteristics of PLANCK2. The new design with non-visible fixation screws and with a massive and solid aluminium cover pleases both eyes and ears alike.
Converting from digital to analog, newly developed discrete output modules with extremely fast, wide-band high-performance class A output drivers ensure the perfect sonic experience. The current-voltage converter comprises absolutely temperature stable and sonically neutral high-precision resistors.
Our high-precision clock generator eliminates the infamous jitter: PLANCK2 gets all music data at the right time and with its correct value. And the internal frequency compensation equipped with custom made mica capacitors of highest grade guarantees absolute precision in the analog domain.
Also, we gave the digital input section a completely new design. PLANCK2 uses the same outstanding USB Audio 2.0 technology as Audionet’s famous DNx machines:
- USB Audio 2.0 support up to 192 kHz / 24 bits.
- Asynchronous data connection and re-clocking ensuring a clean digital music signal.
- The USB Audio circuitry is completely galvanically isolated from the rest of the PLANCK2. Therefore no harmful reactions apply from the PC and its “dirty” power supply.
- Separate and user-selectable electrical and optical digital inputs (SPDIF) – also using DNx technology and up to 192 kHz / 24 bit for enhanced playback of other digital sources.
In short: In PLANCK2 we tuned all relevant parts with scientific meticulousness and musical passion to achieve the ultimately possible sonic quantum leap. Including two separate DACs, one for each channel and carbon fibre turntable.
The science:
Special features PLANCK2
- Top loader, decoupling aluminium and slate body construction.
- Massive aluminium body, resonance-optimized fixation with invisible screws and Teflon bedded massive disc drawer cover made of 10 mm aluminium.
- Additional decoupling of the drive unit, PCBs and high precision clock generator by Audionet Aligned Resonance Technology.
- Reference drive unit CD-PRO 8 on HQ aluminum chassis with carbon fibre turntable and cover.
- Adaptive high precision puck and puck mounting made of POM, toroid Neodym magnet.
- Completely separated power supplies for pickup and converter unit, digital and analog section.
- Completely DC-coupled, no capacitor in the signal path.
- Newly developed discrete output modules with extremely fast, wide-band high-performance Class A output drivers.
- Current-Voltage converter with absolutely temperature stable and sound neutral high-precision resistors and with custom made mica capacitors of highest grade for internal frequency compensation.
- D/A converter function with separate and user-selectable digital inputs: SPDIF electrical (Cinch) and optical (Toslink) as well as USB Audio 2.0 (USB type B socket).
- All digital inputs up to 192 kHz / 24 bit.
- Digital outputs SPDIF (electrical and optical) and AES/EBU output 44.1 KHz / 16 bit (for CD).
- Disengageable digital outputs.
- Remote power on/off via Audionet Link (optical cable).
- Professional concept of operations.
- Rhodium fuse.
- Dedicated WATT/PLANCK Audionet metal remote control in matching color.
Function
Reference Compact Disc Player.
D/A converter for audio data via USB by a computer or via SPDIF.
Special Features
- Dedicated WATT/PLANCK Audionet metal remote control in matching color (included).
- D/A converter with USB Audio 2.0 / SPDIF digital input (electrical & optical).
- Toploader, aluminium and slate casing.
- Massive disc drawer cover made of 10 mm aluminium, Teflon-bedded.
- Decoupling of the transport unit by Audionet Aligned Resonance technology.
- Special stabilizer made of POM.
- Separate power supplies for digital and analog sections.
- Audionet Intelligent Sampling technology.
- Discrete, extremely fast and stable filter and output stages.
- Fully DC coupled, no capacitors in the signal path.
- Disengageable digital outputs.
- Capable of de-emphasis processing.
- Optional external power supply Audionet AMPERE for the analog section.
In- and Outputs
| Digital audio inputs: |
1 USB Type B socket, USB Audio 2.0
1 RCA, electrical digital (SPDIF)
1 TosLink, optical digital (SPDIF)
(all digital audio inputs up to 192 kHz / 24 bit) |
| Analog audio outputs: |
1 pair RCA analog (Furutech), gold plated, teflon insulated
1 pair XLR analog, gold plated |
| Digital audio outputs: |
2 RCA digital (SPDIF), gold plated, 600 mVss in 75 Ω
1 AES/EBU digital, 110 Ω, gold plated
1 SPDIF optical digital (TosLink)
(All digital outputs disengageable!) |
| Remote activation: |
1 Audionet Link, optical (TosLink)
2 Audionet Link, optical (TosLink) |
| External power supply AMPERE: |
5-pin input |
| Mains: |
IEC male power insert connector with Rhodium fuse |
Laser system
Modified and customized CD-Pro 8 mechanism, HQ semiconductor laser by SANYO SF-HD850 OPU, 780 nm wave length.
Norms
- CD / CD-R / CD-RW (finalized and non finalized discs).
- Disc sizes 80 and 120 mm, IEC 908 conform.
Converter
| Stereo channels: |
192 kHz / 24 bit,
Dual-Mono-DAC,
Multibit-Delta-Sigma method |
| Sample rate: |
44.1 kHz |
Technical Data
| Audio bandwidth: |
0 – 75,000 Hz (-3 dB) (reconstruction filter) |
| THD + N: |
< -109 dB (A-weighted) @ -6 dBFS |
| SNR: |
> 111 dB |
| Channel separation: |
> 134 dB @ 10 kHz |
| Output impedance analog: |
33 Ω real |
| Output level analog: |
3.5 VRMS |
| Power consumption: |
< 1 W Stand by, max. 40 W |
| Mains: |
220..240 V or 110..120 V, 50..60 Hz |
| Dimensions: |
Width 430 mm
Height 120 mm
Depth 370 mm |
| Weight: |
23 kg |
Color choices:
| Ultra: |
C-32 (light bronze) with white display
|
| Classic: |
Silver with blue display
Silver with red display
Black with blue display
Black with red display |
The WATT/PLANCK Audionet metal remote control is included in the matching color.
Materials
| Front: |
Brushed aluminium, 12 mm, anodised, text & symbols engraved |
| Top/cover: |
Brushed aluminium, 20 mm, anodised |
| Disc drawer: |
Brushed aluminium, 10 mm, anodised |
| Chassis: |
Slate, aluminium, anodised, text printed |
Reference – new tests of PLANCK2 upcoming
Stereo
“In the listening room the Berliners showed no mercy to either the connected loud speakers or with the various competitors we ranged against them. […] The conclusion is simple: Audionet equipment has never looked better – nor sounded better!!
Sound Quality 100%!
SoundRebels
SoundRebels, Poland, loved PLANCK. Their enthusiastic 2017 review, currently in translation, reads like this:
highendnews.info, Finland
“The real purpose of audio equipment is to give happiness and other positive feelings to its owner. If it really does this, nothing else matters. Audionet Planck gives those things to me. So, I feel that my choice was the right one. There is less and less alternatives available for a high quality CD player, but luckily Audionet players are still available. Hallelujah for Audionet and the old Redbook! Besides my praises and cheers to keep going on, I still deliver one complaint to Audionet: Planck really misses a preamplifier of the same kind! But as for the Planck, I have no complaints at all. Its performance is superb, sonically and practically, and it is really a pleasure to own. Nowadays, for me, listening music from the old CDs delivers more honey than never before. I cannot ask more from a single source!”
High Fidelity
“PLANCK offers a sound that is sort of a finite story. It is an entirely different product than other top players, both CD and SACD. It presents features of both, but using them to create something new, as the writer tells new stories using the same words as others. Its sound is dark and velvety. The softness is extremely natural and both bass and treble extension is simply remarkable. Lower end is as good as the Gryphon Mikado’s, that for years, for me, set the highest standard in this respect. This is an incredible device that plays digitally encoded music – both from CDs and files – in a very natural way, without losing focus, detail and emotions. Built quality is simply exemplary, and if this is “your” sound, if this set of features appeals to your taste, it is very likely to be the last CD Player you’ll ever buy. One important thing – among all players mentioned in this text as references it is, by far, the cheapest one, even if you decide to by additionally, external AMPERE power supply.”
RED Fingerprint.
Best Product 2016
i-fidelity.net
“SUPERB. Outshines anything else that handles compact discs. … Compositions that appear quite one-dimensional on the face of it, reveal all their complexity now, because of the extremely accurate reproduction in terms of micro dynamics and timing. … The Planck’s performance is like an event horizon, from which there is no escape. Also time vanishes in it, but that doesn’t matter, since such musical experience is a constructive use of time.”
Reference.
Clearly the work of
© Audionet GmbH