Hello Everyone,
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Myryad Z210 CD Player.
For once, I go to more modern gear than I usually review, and that was an opportunity (budget wise) to get to know this brand.
Myryad Z210 - Presentation
As you can tell from the front face, this British CD player offers the minimum (no phones out), to focus on performances, and was presented as an "audiophile" device. It was released in 2013 as part of the "Z200" series also including an integrated amplifier and a tuner. The retail price was relatively high, roughly $1'000+.
The front face is made of thick aluminium as well as the buttons. No plastic can be seen from the outside, that gives it a touch of luxury.
The back panel exhibits the essential too:
We find a pair of RCA outs and only one digital output (Coax - I personally prefer optical).
Let's have a look at the inside which is simple and neat:
On the left side the linear power supply, an ASATech drive in the middle (I suppose DVD type drive, with servo control below it), and the conversion board on the right.
Let's have a look at the proprietary muti-layers main board:
We can't see the DAC which is a Cirrus Logic CS4392.
(With upgraded glasses): We can see the DAC, which is a Cirrus Logic CS4392, bottom right just above the Xtal.
Compared to the Sony CDP-557ESD which I previously reviewed, the drawer is extremely slow to open and close. But the drive is quick to skip tracks, which I always appreciate with my test CD, having often to skip 10 or 20 tracks at once. The buttons on the front are not plaisant to use as they have a metallic sound which is not really luxurious.
Funny note: the person who sold it asked me what was my current CD player. When I replied I had a 37 years old Sony player (thinking of the CDP-557ESD, which was the first to come to my mind), he mentioned that I should "...see a huge improvement, such as much wider soundstage...". So let's see in the measurements if I can find that wide open soundstage
Myryad Z210 - Measurements (Analog Out)
All measurements performed with a Cosmos E1AD (grade G).
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The Myryad outputs 2Vrsm from its RCA outputs. The two channels were very well balanced (less than 0.02dB), which is very good. The single-ended outputs are non-inverting.
As usual, let's start with my standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from the Test CD (RCA out):
Left and right channels are shown but only one gets evaluated in the dashboard. Both channels have similar performances, though. Plot is on H2 (-103dBr and -107dBr).
Right channel has a little more harmonic distortion, but nothing of concern.
Note that, around the fundamental, we get interaction with power supply with the lateral spikes you see on both sides. This is a very low level (below -110dBr) and so will be easily masked by music. Other than that, these are very good performances for a CD player (very close to the theoretical maximum of the format), just not best in class.
Next is the same view but at -6dBFS, as I usually show:
The distortion has decreased in the left channel (-113dBr), not in the right one (where it remained at -102dBr). But in both cases, this is a very good result. The distortion is made of nearly only the second harmonic (H2) and so it will be easily masked. It is good to see random and correlated noise decreasing (by 1dB).
As per the datasheet of the Cirrus Logic DAC, the THD+N is -100dB at full scale (0dBFS), and -91dB @-20dBFS. This means the performance of this DAC improves with lower levels, and its THD+N is likely noise driven. Actually, the below view shows it. It is the same 999.91Hz sine, but at -1dBFS:
As you can see, if the signal has decreased by 1dB, but the THD+N remained nearly the same (decrease by 0.2dB). This means that a Full Scale signal generates noise in the converter. This is not a concern with CD Audio, with that type of noise.
I've seen this player is very silent at lower levels with minimum distortion. And again, the noise is the limiting factor. So, I wanted to analyze how deep we can go, with CD Audio and modern mastering techniques, that are using noise shaping. So I used a -40dBFS sine with rectangle dither (1/2LSB) and shape dither, and I overlaid the two results in the below view:
You can see that with shape dither, the noise floor is lowered by roughly 10dB (up to 6kHz), which means the resolution of this CD Player can reach 17.5bits, with the support of shape dither. That also means the dynamic range is roughly 105dB (unweighted but to 6kHz only) which is in line with the specs of the Cirrus Logic CS4392. So, after all, this is a very good implementation of that DAC in this player. Well done to Myryad.
You probably noticed a decently silent player, and we can zoom in from 20Hz to 1kHz:
We see very small spikes from mains (50Hz in Europe, and harmonics), but you can find two higher ones at 700Hz and especially 900Hz probably meaning a little interaction between the PS and the signal (seen mainly at or near full scale, as I mentioned above). Again, we are below -110dBr and close to the fundamental, so all of that will remain hidden to our ears. We shall be happy with this result, especially because I use a 512k FFT size and average 32 times which lowers very much the random noise in the view.
Next is the bandwidth:
This is very flat (-0.2dB) and, like I said previously, the two channel are nearly matched in level which I like to see.
The Cirrus DAC includes the filtering which can theoretically be selected, and if the user can't select one via a button, Myryad has obviously chosen the sharp one:
The blue line is from periodic white noise, up to 80kHz. The purple trace is the standard AES IDM test (18kHz+20kHz played at the same time).
I compared the result to what's published in the datasheet to find the same behaviour. The attenuation is -90dB, as documented by Cirrus Logic. I measured a stop band at 24.11kHz, again very precisely what Cirrus documented in its datasheet (0.454xFs).
What's not documented is the noise shaping technique in use here, and that we see kicking off at roughly 30kHz. This is standard for delta-sigma digital-to-analog conversion.
Next should be the multitone test which you and I like to see, but unfortunately I realised I forgot to save that measurement. I'll update this message the day I get back the Myryad on the bench.
Let's move on to the jitter test:
The red trace is from the digital output of the Myryad (Coax) while the blue one is from its analog output. Without the obvious interaction between the PS and the fundamental (again), this trace would have been perfect. That said, this is still very good and an interesting demonstration that jitter can find one of its source into noise spreading from the Power Supply. The lateral spikes are very low and very close to the fundamental, that means they will remain hidden to our ears.
Started with the Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
I kept some references and will keep the same for other reviews, so you can quickly compare. The results of the Myryad Z210 are a very good surprise. In fact, I have a dedicated test file where I can subsequently test resistance to inter-sample at +1.01dB, +2.01dB and +3.01dB, and the Maryad still achieved a THD+N of -68.3dB at +2.01dB. So that means the oversampling filter will not saturate before +2dB IS over, which is too rare. All of this is very good news if you listen to "hot masters", as the oversampling filter of the Myryad is unlikely to add distortion to the signal (no saturation up to +2dB overs).
Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
This is a good result even if I've seen a better. We get a little noise but we clearly recognize our 3DC levels as they should be represented, and the symmetry is equally good.
Other measurements (not shown):
Let's have a look if this is confirmed by the sweep of THD vs Frequencies (@-12dBFS):
Yes it is, the trace goes down instead of doing up as I usually see. The result at 1kHz (see the plot) is extremely good (actually the best by far that I measured), and at higher frequencies too. Note that for this review, I used the beta version of REW, and after many tests, it seems that this beta version performs better measurements with sweeps. Indeed, all the above results concur with my previous measurements (of unique sine as well as dual and triple tones).
All that said, these results show an unusual high level of distortion at low frequencies. So, let’s have a look at an FFT of a 100Hz test tone @0dBFS:
This is 14dB more in THD than at 1kHz, and so THD+N becomes harmonic distorsion dominated (by H2 actually) instead of being Noise dominated like it is usually the case with CD Audio players.
Why is that? I am not sure but, with the good intersample-overs resistance we saw before, I suspect special processing within the oversampling filter (maybe including upsampling to DSD?) which could explain this type of side effect.
I you have other ideas/suggestions, feel free to share.
Myryad Z210 - Measurements (Optical Out)
I've seen several of you reviewing CD players using their digital outputs, in case the results could be improved from an external DAC.
Because of the limited clock instability (only 14ppm), we get a stable digital output. It means I had no issue getting a constant reading without windowing errors in the FFT calculation , due to the absence of PLL to filter the clock deviations in this test, for up to 8 averages. With that, I can say that the digital output is as what we expect it to be, perfect (999.91Hz @0dBFS without dither):
This is precisely what I obtained with the Sony CDP-557ESD previously reviewed and which is nearly 30 years older. Who said drives can sound different?
Myryad Z210 - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
The drive was able to consistently continue playing, without generating typical digital clicks, with dropouts of up to 1.25mm. The interpolation effect remained hidden to my ears when it kicked-off but failed to maintain a constant flow beyond 1.5mm as I could hear couple of clicks, even if it did not stop playing. The Myryad had no issue with variable linear velocity and/or track pitch, as well as with HF detection. These results are similar to ancient Sony drives with KSS heads, so I consider them good.
Conclusion
I was not expecting anything special with this player. And so, the non-typical results of the Myryad are good news, on my perspective. The low distortion at high frequencies as well as the very good resistance to intersample-overs are both to be appreciated.
In addition, the total absence of visible distorsion at very low levels (ie -60dBFS) and low noise in that case are remarquable, even if not a first with good delta-sigma conversion. The player can resolve more than the CD Audio, but with shape dither, the limit of the DAC is reached at around 17.5bits, limited by low level noise.
If I initially laughed at the soundstage which would open, I must admit that the guaranteed low distortion of this player, from 300Hz on and with low level signals, were good surprises. Is it specific to that Cirrus Logic converter? Some further investigations (see below interactions with @Scytales) show it’s the case.
The higher than usual distortion at low frequencies, and the little random + correlated noise when playing high level tones, are the limiting factors. I think there's some sort of processing happening before conversion, and explaining the good resistance to IS overs).
And of course I listened to it, through a good old Accuphase C200X preamplifier (with OPPO PM3 headphones), and I could not spot anything unusual/abnormal. And no, sorry mister seller, the soundstage wasn't wider
From all the above, I can recommend this CD player, if you get lucky enough to cross one.
Cheers
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Myryad Z210 CD Player.
For once, I go to more modern gear than I usually review, and that was an opportunity (budget wise) to get to know this brand.
Myryad Z210 - Presentation
As you can tell from the front face, this British CD player offers the minimum (no phones out), to focus on performances, and was presented as an "audiophile" device. It was released in 2013 as part of the "Z200" series also including an integrated amplifier and a tuner. The retail price was relatively high, roughly $1'000+.
The front face is made of thick aluminium as well as the buttons. No plastic can be seen from the outside, that gives it a touch of luxury.
The back panel exhibits the essential too:
We find a pair of RCA outs and only one digital output (Coax - I personally prefer optical).
Let's have a look at the inside which is simple and neat:
On the left side the linear power supply, an ASATech drive in the middle (I suppose DVD type drive, with servo control below it), and the conversion board on the right.
Let's have a look at the proprietary muti-layers main board:
(With upgraded glasses): We can see the DAC, which is a Cirrus Logic CS4392, bottom right just above the Xtal.
Compared to the Sony CDP-557ESD which I previously reviewed, the drawer is extremely slow to open and close. But the drive is quick to skip tracks, which I always appreciate with my test CD, having often to skip 10 or 20 tracks at once. The buttons on the front are not plaisant to use as they have a metallic sound which is not really luxurious.
Funny note: the person who sold it asked me what was my current CD player. When I replied I had a 37 years old Sony player (thinking of the CDP-557ESD, which was the first to come to my mind), he mentioned that I should "...see a huge improvement, such as much wider soundstage...". So let's see in the measurements if I can find that wide open soundstage
Myryad Z210 - Measurements (Analog Out)
All measurements performed with a Cosmos E1AD (grade G).
I am now consistent with my specific measurements for CD Players, as I described them in the post “More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The Myryad outputs 2Vrsm from its RCA outputs. The two channels were very well balanced (less than 0.02dB), which is very good. The single-ended outputs are non-inverting.
As usual, let's start with my standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from the Test CD (RCA out):
Left and right channels are shown but only one gets evaluated in the dashboard. Both channels have similar performances, though. Plot is on H2 (-103dBr and -107dBr).
Right channel has a little more harmonic distortion, but nothing of concern.
Note that, around the fundamental, we get interaction with power supply with the lateral spikes you see on both sides. This is a very low level (below -110dBr) and so will be easily masked by music. Other than that, these are very good performances for a CD player (very close to the theoretical maximum of the format), just not best in class.
Next is the same view but at -6dBFS, as I usually show:
The distortion has decreased in the left channel (-113dBr), not in the right one (where it remained at -102dBr). But in both cases, this is a very good result. The distortion is made of nearly only the second harmonic (H2) and so it will be easily masked. It is good to see random and correlated noise decreasing (by 1dB).
As per the datasheet of the Cirrus Logic DAC, the THD+N is -100dB at full scale (0dBFS), and -91dB @-20dBFS. This means the performance of this DAC improves with lower levels, and its THD+N is likely noise driven. Actually, the below view shows it. It is the same 999.91Hz sine, but at -1dBFS:
As you can see, if the signal has decreased by 1dB, but the THD+N remained nearly the same (decrease by 0.2dB). This means that a Full Scale signal generates noise in the converter. This is not a concern with CD Audio, with that type of noise.
I've seen this player is very silent at lower levels with minimum distortion. And again, the noise is the limiting factor. So, I wanted to analyze how deep we can go, with CD Audio and modern mastering techniques, that are using noise shaping. So I used a -40dBFS sine with rectangle dither (1/2LSB) and shape dither, and I overlaid the two results in the below view:
You can see that with shape dither, the noise floor is lowered by roughly 10dB (up to 6kHz), which means the resolution of this CD Player can reach 17.5bits, with the support of shape dither. That also means the dynamic range is roughly 105dB (unweighted but to 6kHz only) which is in line with the specs of the Cirrus Logic CS4392. So, after all, this is a very good implementation of that DAC in this player. Well done to Myryad.
You probably noticed a decently silent player, and we can zoom in from 20Hz to 1kHz:
We see very small spikes from mains (50Hz in Europe, and harmonics), but you can find two higher ones at 700Hz and especially 900Hz probably meaning a little interaction between the PS and the signal (seen mainly at or near full scale, as I mentioned above). Again, we are below -110dBr and close to the fundamental, so all of that will remain hidden to our ears. We shall be happy with this result, especially because I use a 512k FFT size and average 32 times which lowers very much the random noise in the view.
Next is the bandwidth:
This is very flat (-0.2dB) and, like I said previously, the two channel are nearly matched in level which I like to see.
The Cirrus DAC includes the filtering which can theoretically be selected, and if the user can't select one via a button, Myryad has obviously chosen the sharp one:
The blue line is from periodic white noise, up to 80kHz. The purple trace is the standard AES IDM test (18kHz+20kHz played at the same time).
I compared the result to what's published in the datasheet to find the same behaviour. The attenuation is -90dB, as documented by Cirrus Logic. I measured a stop band at 24.11kHz, again very precisely what Cirrus documented in its datasheet (0.454xFs).
What's not documented is the noise shaping technique in use here, and that we see kicking off at roughly 30kHz. This is standard for delta-sigma digital-to-analog conversion.
Next should be the multitone test which you and I like to see, but unfortunately I realised I forgot to save that measurement. I'll update this message the day I get back the Myryad on the bench.
Let's move on to the jitter test:
The red trace is from the digital output of the Myryad (Coax) while the blue one is from its analog output. Without the obvious interaction between the PS and the fundamental (again), this trace would have been perfect. That said, this is still very good and an interesting demonstration that jitter can find one of its source into noise spreading from the Power Supply. The lateral spikes are very low and very close to the fundamental, that means they will remain hidden to our ears.
Started with the Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
| Intersample-overs tests Bandwidth of the THD+N measurements is 20Hz - 96kHz | 5512.5 Hz sine, Peak = +0.69dBFS | 7350 Hz sine, Peak = +1.25dBFS | 11025 Hz sine, Peak = +3.0dBFS |
| Teac VRDS-20 | -30.7dB | -26.6dB | -17.6dB |
| Yamaha CD-1 | -84.6dB | -84.9dB | -78.1dB |
| Denon DCD-900NE | -34.2dB | -27.1dB | -19.1dB |
| Denon DCD-SA1 | -33.6dB | -27.6dB | -18.3dB |
| Onkyo C-733 | -88.3dB | -40.4dB | -21.2dB |
| Denon DCD-3560 | -30.2dB | -24.7dB | -17.4dB |
| Myryad Z210 | -70.6dB (noise dominated) | -71.1dB (noise dominated) | -29.4dB (H3 dominated) |
I kept some references and will keep the same for other reviews, so you can quickly compare. The results of the Myryad Z210 are a very good surprise. In fact, I have a dedicated test file where I can subsequently test resistance to inter-sample at +1.01dB, +2.01dB and +3.01dB, and the Maryad still achieved a THD+N of -68.3dB at +2.01dB. So that means the oversampling filter will not saturate before +2dB IS over, which is too rare. All of this is very good news if you listen to "hot masters", as the oversampling filter of the Myryad is unlikely to add distortion to the signal (no saturation up to +2dB overs).
Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
This is a good result even if I've seen a better. We get a little noise but we clearly recognize our 3DC levels as they should be represented, and the symmetry is equally good.
Other measurements (not shown):
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -98.1dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -108.4dB
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -78.1dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -108.1dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -88.5dB
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 1:4) : -77.8dB
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -88.4dB
- IMD TDFD (13'58Hz & 19841Hz 1:1) : -114.5dB
- Dynamic Range : 97.5dB (without dither)
- Crosstalk: -132dBr (100Hz), -120dBr (1khz), -104dBr (10kHz)
- Pitch Error : 19'997.27Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie 13.5ppm
Let's have a look if this is confirmed by the sweep of THD vs Frequencies (@-12dBFS):
Yes it is, the trace goes down instead of doing up as I usually see. The result at 1kHz (see the plot) is extremely good (actually the best by far that I measured), and at higher frequencies too. Note that for this review, I used the beta version of REW, and after many tests, it seems that this beta version performs better measurements with sweeps. Indeed, all the above results concur with my previous measurements (of unique sine as well as dual and triple tones).
All that said, these results show an unusual high level of distortion at low frequencies. So, let’s have a look at an FFT of a 100Hz test tone @0dBFS:
This is 14dB more in THD than at 1kHz, and so THD+N becomes harmonic distorsion dominated (by H2 actually) instead of being Noise dominated like it is usually the case with CD Audio players.
Why is that? I am not sure but, with the good intersample-overs resistance we saw before, I suspect special processing within the oversampling filter (maybe including upsampling to DSD?) which could explain this type of side effect.
I you have other ideas/suggestions, feel free to share.
Myryad Z210 - Measurements (Optical Out)
I've seen several of you reviewing CD players using their digital outputs, in case the results could be improved from an external DAC.
Because of the limited clock instability (only 14ppm), we get a stable digital output. It means I had no issue getting a constant reading without windowing errors in the FFT calculation , due to the absence of PLL to filter the clock deviations in this test, for up to 8 averages. With that, I can say that the digital output is as what we expect it to be, perfect (999.91Hz @0dBFS without dither):
This is precisely what I obtained with the Sony CDP-557ESD previously reviewed and which is nearly 30 years older. Who said drives can sound different?
Myryad Z210 - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
| Test type | Technical test | Results |
| Variation of linear cutting velocity | From 1.20m/s to 1.40m/s | Pass |
| Variation of track pitch | From 1.5µm to 1.7µm | Pass |
| Combined variations of track pitch and velocity | From 1.20m/s & 1.5µm to 1.40m/s & 1.7µm | Pass |
| HF detection (asymmetry pitch/flat ratio) | Variation from 2% to 18% | Pass |
| Dropouts resistance | From 0.05mm (0.038ms) to 4mm (3.080ms) | Up to 1.25mm. |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Up to 1mm. |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | Up to 1mm. |
The drive was able to consistently continue playing, without generating typical digital clicks, with dropouts of up to 1.25mm. The interpolation effect remained hidden to my ears when it kicked-off but failed to maintain a constant flow beyond 1.5mm as I could hear couple of clicks, even if it did not stop playing. The Myryad had no issue with variable linear velocity and/or track pitch, as well as with HF detection. These results are similar to ancient Sony drives with KSS heads, so I consider them good.
Conclusion
I was not expecting anything special with this player. And so, the non-typical results of the Myryad are good news, on my perspective. The low distortion at high frequencies as well as the very good resistance to intersample-overs are both to be appreciated.
In addition, the total absence of visible distorsion at very low levels (ie -60dBFS) and low noise in that case are remarquable, even if not a first with good delta-sigma conversion. The player can resolve more than the CD Audio, but with shape dither, the limit of the DAC is reached at around 17.5bits, limited by low level noise.
If I initially laughed at the soundstage which would open, I must admit that the guaranteed low distortion of this player, from 300Hz on and with low level signals, were good surprises. Is it specific to that Cirrus Logic converter? Some further investigations (see below interactions with @Scytales) show it’s the case.
The higher than usual distortion at low frequencies, and the little random + correlated noise when playing high level tones, are the limiting factors. I think there's some sort of processing happening before conversion, and explaining the good resistance to IS overs).
And of course I listened to it, through a good old Accuphase C200X preamplifier (with OPPO PM3 headphones), and I could not spot anything unusual/abnormal. And no, sorry mister seller, the soundstage wasn't wider
From all the above, I can recommend this CD player, if you get lucky enough to cross one.
Cheers
Last edited:
Me getting old, shame.
