A slightly idiosyncratically designed CD player, which nonetheless produces great music Reputed to be the only CD player that does not automatically initialise the disc when put in, with some very rugged looking switches in place of the more common soft touch buttons Sonically, this player is very good, although I find that it tends a little towards the hard side of neutral The top cover is hand operated, and YBA advises users to leave it fully open while playing a CD Varying the cover between closed and fully open produces subtle changes to the tonal character Fully open produces an open, clear sound, while keeping it fully closed produces a slightly cool and less bright sound Room lighting plays a large part in how much open the cover is I also prefer keeping the cover fully closed for poor quality recordings where thet treble seems to have a penetrating and ringing quality I chose it ultimately, as it gave just the right amount of neutrality to my otherwise warm sounding set-up, and for the adjustable top cover
Other CD players auditioned were Cary and California Audio Labs delta/sigma tubed CD players, Naim and Arcam Alpha 9 CD players The Cary, was the most musical of all the CD players auditioned, but it rolled off vocals a little bit too much (I would have bought it if I had not listened to opera with it) The Naim and Arcam were close contenders to the YBA, but I preferred the YBA to both of them in terms of overall sound staging and detail.