I FINALY got the Opus 21 here to the house as of yesterday afternoon. It was
shipped in a very nice wooden shipping crate, well padded with foam inside.
Strange thing though, it has a hinge on the top lid on one side, with 2 velcro straps
on the opposite side holding it closed. All one would have to do to open it up is to
simply pull lightly on the 2 strips and it opens right up... I was shocked to see that
they did not nail or screw the lid down to prevent theft during shipping!
I first hooked it up and plugged it into my childs small stereo system in the other
room to an aux. input to make sure it was functioning properly. All seemed to work
well, so I turned it off after checking out all the functions, and it made a VERY loud
pop followed by a HORRIBLE high pitched squeal that lasted for a second or so. It
warns in the owners manual to be sure to turn off your amp first, so I will be certain
to do so before shutting the player down, or else I guarantee that it will do serious
damage to your speakers.
For starters, it still has the cheap, plastic remote like the CD-55 did, but now with
far fewer buttons. They have eliminated the polarity reversal button that the CD-55
had as well. It has a much larger display on it now, and a 4 position dimmer for the
display as well, being bright, medium, low, and no display. They also have done
away with any indicator at all on the unit that lets you know that it is decoding an
HDCD.
I have put about 20 hours on it so far, and it sounded pretty good right from the
start. The first thing I noticed is that it is that I heard far less noise with it hooked
direct to my tube amp than I did with the CD-55... that was a much welcome
change. The background during music is also noticeably quieter, and details seem
to be a little bit better as well. I am also noticing a bit deeper and wider
soundstage, with more 3-D "air" than the CD-55 had. So far, the sound has changed
just a little bit since arriving, and I will give it a few more days of breaking in
before I say for certain what its final characteristics are, but so far, so good... I will let you know more in a few days.
