Grundig Fine Arts CD-9009 specifications

Category : CD-Player

Brand : Grundig

General

connectors

Tech nical data

special features

CDM-1 MKII aluminium die-cast drive (Philips )
Pitch function for variable playback speed
Electronic components in the device with copper sheet metal shielded from each other
Separate Digital/analog part
FTS
DOT-Matrix Display

One of the best Hi-Fi CD Player ever built. The finest Philips technology with solid Grundig quality. Sonically a great pleasure. Used prices in good condition range from about 700 € to well over 1000 €.

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 parallel 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 the best displays of all players I have seen (save for the Levinson) (legible from my seat 3 m away), discreet understatement look, good ergonomics etc.
Inside - it compares only to the Accuphase s 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. The bass is earthy, 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 Basic CD9009 Fine Arts is very similar in nature, I could probably not be able to tell them apart immediately. But the ergonomics 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 high-end CD Player was developed from Grundig -Germany in Fürth.
It was made from one of the best HiFi developer in the Grundig Laboratory 2.
All production measuring devices was made by Grundig "Measuring instrument laboratory" plant 2.