Stereophile review of the McCormack UDP-1

When reading Stereophile, or any other high-end magazine, one must learn how to 'read between the lines'. They can't just come out and say the unit is a poor performer, lose too much advertising $$$.
Or maybe, measurements don't mean anything.

Considering the rave reviews that this player has received, I too, am surprised at this review and especially the measurements by JA. KR loved the sonics of the unit, but the measurements were relatively horrible!
The high rez portions of the player had no better signal-to-noise ratios than the CD section! JA commented that according to the measurements the player offered no better resolution of Sacd and Dvd-audio than it did on CD's.
Do you all think this could have been a defective unit?

I've listened to the McCormack at a dealer (using both Classe and Krell amps/pre). I'd originally gone to the dealer looking to upgrade my Classe CDP to a Cary 303-200. While I was listening to the Cary CDP the dealer dropped the McCormack on top of the Cary connected the wires to a another input and left the room.

This dealer had always told me I was better to get a dedicated CD only player and DVD player. After demoing for an hour (CDs only) I'm not sure that I like the McCormack better than the Cary303-200 but it was close enough.

The thought of upgrading my CDP to a $3000+ CD-only player is now gone with the McCormark UDP at $2995(dealer price). Although I didn't take the plung, for the first time I felt that CD-only players are not in my future...

I have heard recently that McCormack gear was actually made in Korea. Is this true?

This is just a hunch, but I suspect that the analog output stage and power supply play a larger role in the sound of this player than JA thinks they should. I have seen that be the case before. I have heard (and in the past owned) a modified Sony player where the only major difference in the modded unit was the analog output stage. And lo and behold the sonic difference was staggering.

I purchased a UDP-1 in the fall, prior to hearing of the Stereophile review. Always hate it when I buy a piece of equipment and then it gets a questionable review from one of the major rags. That being said, the UDP-1 sounds great; I've not heard a universal player yet that sounds as good in all 3 major formats (CD, SACD, DVD-A). The video performance is not great, but is good enough. The remote is lame too. But I wanted to get as musical a universal as I could find, and I'm hopeful the UDP-1 will get the job done.

Anyone still enjoying this Player in 2023?

 

Happy Listening!