Hello everyone,
This is a review and measurements of the Yamaha CD-S2000 CD/SACD and transport.
This is my 5th review of a CD/SACD Player and generally the SACD additional license somehow guarantees good performances, at least as a CD Player.
Released in 2007at roughly 1500€, it was an expensive player but still not the top of Yamaha's line which included the CD-S3000 at more than 3 times this price! This one is an impressive device with same width and depth and weighting a comfortable 15kg (33Lbs)!
So it reads the CD and SACD, that's all, no digital input to benefit from the internal DAC with other external sources:
We get the luxury touch of the balanced outputs. You might have seen the side wood panels:
This, with the look, the weight and the visible quality of the device, provide the user with a real sense of "high-end". The aluminum tray adds on top of that feeling, it's beautiful:
Attention to details also below the unit:
Feet are in two parts, one is magnetic to ease installation and avoid loosing it but I still only have 2 out of 4, and I could find only one source that does not send to Europe, too bad for me.
What really surprised me, and I can't take a photo of that, is the built quality inside out. I had to read the service manual to know how to open it. If that is a first, it's not the reason for my surprise. It's the way this player if built, mechanically, how parts assemble, the obvious hours spent to design the chassis. It was a delight to see that. No fancy copper chassis inside, nor shiny aluminum parts, just proper well engineered design. What a pleasure.
Let's have a look at the inside:
Functions are well separated and isolated too. Two power supplies on the left for the digital and analog sections, drive in the middle and conversion of the right. Same with the central reinforcement plate removed:
We get two BurrBrown PCM1792 24bits DACs, used in mono:
Note the rubber protection on the computer cable, I've never seen that before. Like I said, the PCM1792 is used in mono mode and the analog output stage is as per the below (one channel shown):
I very much like the ground plane separating left and right channels:
On a user experience point of view, not much to say, except that the drive is on the slow side, but still ok. I was surprised to hear a faint noise when it spins a disc, but I could not hear from beyond 1 foot (30cm), so I guess it's ok.
There are no filter selection, just a useless "Pure Direct" mode (no impact on measurements), so it's just open the pray, put the disc and play it.
Ok, enough of pictures and blah-blah, let's go to measurements, as a CD Player first and then as an SACD player (in a following message).
Yamaha CD-S2000 - Measurements (CD Audio)
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
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.
I measured 2Vrms at the unbalanced and balanced outputs. The channel imbalance was a low 0.08dB from RCA and a higher 0.14dB from XLR, I prefer measuring less.
----
As usual, let's start with my standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from the Test CD (XLR out):
This is near best in class trace, and a good start. Only one channel is evaluated in the dashboard, but left and right are shown. There is 2dB more distortion in right channel than the left one (-109dB) and that is negligible.
Unbalanced outputs are a little less performing:
We get some low level random noise at the foot of the fundamental.
Back to XLR, jet's have a look at same but 6dB lower:
Distortion is very low, as we like to see, and we lost exactly 1bit of resolution, as anticipated.
----
I guess you saw the small PS related leakage with balanced output:
From the above zoomed view (20Hz - 1kHz), you can see it's only one very low level spike (50Hz as I am in Europe).
----
Next is the bandwidth:
For once, I extended the view to 22kHz (20kHz usually) so to see this small increase of the bandwidth at top frequencies. You can also see from that view the L-R channel imbalance.
And let's have a look at the job of the oversampling filter, with a wider bandwidth:
This is a sharp filter fully active at 24kHz (good) and of -90dB minimum attenuation (very good). The two test tones (19kHz&20kHz) are attenuated by more than -100dB which I like to see.
I recently showed wider bandwidth views of the same, to get to know how the delta-sigma modulator behaves when it comes to reject noise, so here we go:
The noise shaper rejects noise beyond 100kHz, which is very good.
----
Let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much:
As good as it can be from the CDA!
----
The jitter test shows a less happy player:
Not much Jitter per say but elevated noise floor. This is because of the higher frequency test tone. I saw the same behavior from when it plays single tones at higher frequencies. I don't know the reason and I would have preferred not to see that.
----
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):
Basically, the oversampling interpolator does not have any headroom to prevent intersample overs, as many others.
----
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 very good trace and we see really minimum noise.
----
Other measurements (not shown):
The Dynamic range is the best that can be measured (unweighted) with the Audio CD. By the way, I computed -97.8dB(CCIR-2k).
Crosstalk is inexistant up to 1kHz and we get a low -100dB at 10kHz.
Pitch error is good for audio.
The Yamaha will properly apply de-emphasis CDs requiring it, with 0.0dB deviation at 11kHz per the defined correction curve.
----
Last and not least, I like to run a THD vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I did not overlay with other CD players, because it's near a best in class trace that I got:
----
As I did with the Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results of the Yamaha compared to others:
The Yamaha is close to the best, which is not bad for a near 20 years old device!
Yamaha CD-S2000 - Testing the drive
Before going to SACD specific measurements, let me talk about the drive tracking capabilities, since these tests are performed from a CD Audio.
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.
Here are the results:
These results are very good. And surprisingly, the Yamaha did better in successive dropouts tests. I could hear the drive reading multiple times the same section, as a CD-ROM would, and all without suffering an interruption of music. But other drives do better.
Yamaha CD-S2000 - Digital Optical Output (from Audio CD)
Ok, so let's verify if the Yamaha outputs a "perfect" digital stream, in case you think or want to verify an external DAC can do better. This is from my standard 999.91Hz @0dBFS file:
This is what is in the original WAV file.
Same with the standard Stereophile 3DC test:
No modifications of the signal to be seen here.
My ultimate proof of "perfect" digital output is when I reuse the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, like I did for the TASCAM CD-200 review. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. So here we go:
We get the 0.69dBFS overshot and no distortion. This is the same as the original WAV file, hence "bit perfect" output.
Partial conclusion (As a CD Player)
The Yamaha CD-S20000 is a very precise CD player, one that you'd like to own...
There is a small issue with rising noise floor when it has to play sine tones above 10kHz, but since it does not impact the multitone test, I guess this is to be ignored.
I personally was nothing else but impressed by this CD/SACD player, on a quality built perspective. I liked the simplicity of it, and it sounds perfect to my ears. I'm not sure I want to let it go to other hands...
And... on top of that, I got this CD/SACD player from the wife of a retired Swiss watchmaker. The poor man suffers from Alzheimer and had to go to a specialized home. He designed crazy horn speakers, and got several high end CD/SACD players, which I bought from his wife. My dad went the same way, I know too well the route and the end of it. And so, I will cherish this one player.
To be continued with SACD tests...
This is a review and measurements of the Yamaha CD-S2000 CD/SACD and transport.
This is my 5th review of a CD/SACD Player and generally the SACD additional license somehow guarantees good performances, at least as a CD Player.
Released in 2007at roughly 1500€, it was an expensive player but still not the top of Yamaha's line which included the CD-S3000 at more than 3 times this price! This one is an impressive device with same width and depth and weighting a comfortable 15kg (33Lbs)!
So it reads the CD and SACD, that's all, no digital input to benefit from the internal DAC with other external sources:
We get the luxury touch of the balanced outputs. You might have seen the side wood panels:
This, with the look, the weight and the visible quality of the device, provide the user with a real sense of "high-end". The aluminum tray adds on top of that feeling, it's beautiful:
Attention to details also below the unit:
Feet are in two parts, one is magnetic to ease installation and avoid loosing it but I still only have 2 out of 4, and I could find only one source that does not send to Europe, too bad for me.
What really surprised me, and I can't take a photo of that, is the built quality inside out. I had to read the service manual to know how to open it. If that is a first, it's not the reason for my surprise. It's the way this player if built, mechanically, how parts assemble, the obvious hours spent to design the chassis. It was a delight to see that. No fancy copper chassis inside, nor shiny aluminum parts, just proper well engineered design. What a pleasure.
Let's have a look at the inside:
Functions are well separated and isolated too. Two power supplies on the left for the digital and analog sections, drive in the middle and conversion of the right. Same with the central reinforcement plate removed:
We get two BurrBrown PCM1792 24bits DACs, used in mono:
Note the rubber protection on the computer cable, I've never seen that before. Like I said, the PCM1792 is used in mono mode and the analog output stage is as per the below (one channel shown):
I very much like the ground plane separating left and right channels:
On a user experience point of view, not much to say, except that the drive is on the slow side, but still ok. I was surprised to hear a faint noise when it spins a disc, but I could not hear from beyond 1 foot (30cm), so I guess it's ok.
There are no filter selection, just a useless "Pure Direct" mode (no impact on measurements), so it's just open the pray, put the disc and play it.
Ok, enough of pictures and blah-blah, let's go to measurements, as a CD Player first and then as an SACD player (in a following message).
Yamaha CD-S2000 - Measurements (CD Audio)
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
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.
I measured 2Vrms at the unbalanced and balanced outputs. The channel imbalance was a low 0.08dB from RCA and a higher 0.14dB from XLR, I prefer measuring less.
----
As usual, let's start with my standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from the Test CD (XLR out):
This is near best in class trace, and a good start. Only one channel is evaluated in the dashboard, but left and right are shown. There is 2dB more distortion in right channel than the left one (-109dB) and that is negligible.
Unbalanced outputs are a little less performing:
We get some low level random noise at the foot of the fundamental.
Back to XLR, jet's have a look at same but 6dB lower:
Distortion is very low, as we like to see, and we lost exactly 1bit of resolution, as anticipated.
----
I guess you saw the small PS related leakage with balanced output:
From the above zoomed view (20Hz - 1kHz), you can see it's only one very low level spike (50Hz as I am in Europe).
----
Next is the bandwidth:
For once, I extended the view to 22kHz (20kHz usually) so to see this small increase of the bandwidth at top frequencies. You can also see from that view the L-R channel imbalance.
And let's have a look at the job of the oversampling filter, with a wider bandwidth:
This is a sharp filter fully active at 24kHz (good) and of -90dB minimum attenuation (very good). The two test tones (19kHz&20kHz) are attenuated by more than -100dB which I like to see.
I recently showed wider bandwidth views of the same, to get to know how the delta-sigma modulator behaves when it comes to reject noise, so here we go:
The noise shaper rejects noise beyond 100kHz, which is very good.
----
Let's have a look at the multitone test that a lot of you like very much:
As good as it can be from the CDA!
----
The jitter test shows a less happy player:
Not much Jitter per say but elevated noise floor. This is because of the higher frequency test tone. I saw the same behavior from when it plays single tones at higher frequencies. I don't know the reason and I would have preferred not to see that.
----
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) |
| Sony CDP-X333ES | -30.5dB | -24.8dB | -16.3dB |
| BARCO-EMT 982 | -32.7dB | -24.5dB | -16.3dB |
| TASCAM CD-200 | -73.5dB | -36.3dB | -19.7dB |
| Sony CDP-597 | -30.4dB | -24.7dB | -16.5dB |
| SMSL PL100 | -53.1dB | -31dB | -19.1dB |
| SMSL PL200 | -94.8dB | -97dB | -39.5dB |
| OPPO BDP-95 | -39dB | -28.8dB | -19.2dB |
| Yamaha CD-S2000 | -29.7dB | -24.1dB | -16.6dB |
Basically, the oversampling interpolator does not have any headroom to prevent intersample overs, as many others.
----
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 very good trace and we see really minimum noise.
----
Other measurements (not shown):
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -92.3dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -105.4dB
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -105.2dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -98.2dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -105.4dB
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 1:4) : -98.1dB
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -112.5dB
- IMD TDFD (13'58Hz & 19841Hz 1:1) : -111.4dB
- Dynamic Range : 98.7dB unweighted (without dither @-60dBFS)
- Crosstalk: 100Hz (<-140dB), 1kHz (-140dB), 10kHz (-100.6dB)
- Pitch Error : 19'996.71Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie +14.5ppm
- Gapless playback : Yes
- De-emphasis compliance (deviation at 11khz) : Yes (0.0dB)
The Dynamic range is the best that can be measured (unweighted) with the Audio CD. By the way, I computed -97.8dB(CCIR-2k).
Crosstalk is inexistant up to 1kHz and we get a low -100dB at 10kHz.
Pitch error is good for audio.
The Yamaha will properly apply de-emphasis CDs requiring it, with 0.0dB deviation at 11kHz per the defined correction curve.
----
Last and not least, I like to run a THD vs Frequency sweep at -12dBFS as it shows how the conversion has evolved over time. I am currently using the beta version of REW and I discovered that this sweep gives better and more reliable results than before. I did not overlay with other CD players, because it's near a best in class trace that I got:
----
As I did with the Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results of the Yamaha compared to others:
| CD Player model or DAC | Calculated ENOB (999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither, THD+N span = 20Hz - 6kHz) | Percentage of max resolution achieved (higher is better) |
| OPPO BDP-95 | 18.7bits | 100% |
| SMSL PL-200 | 18.7bits | 100% |
| SMSL PS-200 (from CD player) | 18.6bits | 99.47% |
| Pioneer BDP-LX58 | 18.5bits | 98.93% |
| Denon DCD-900NE | 18.5bits | 98.93% |
| Yamaha CD-S2000 | 18.4bits | 98.40% |
| Onkyo C-733 | 18bits | 96.26% |
| SMSL PL150 | 18bits | 96.26% |
| SMSL PL100 | 17.9bits | 95.72% |
| Sony CDP-597 | 17.5bits | 93.58% |
| Onkyo DX-7355 | 17.3bits | 92.51% |
| Denon DCD-3560 | 17.2bits | 91.98% |
| Yamaha CD-S303 | 16.8bits | 89.84% |
| Revox B-226S | 16.8Bits | 89.94% |
| Accuphase DP-70 | 16.6bits | 88.77% |
| Sony CDP-337ESD | 16.6bits | 88.77% |
| Teac VRDS-25x | 16.5bits | 88.24% |
| Marantz CD-73 | 14.9bits | 79.68% |
The Yamaha is close to the best, which is not bad for a near 20 years old device!
Yamaha CD-S2000 - Testing the drive
Before going to SACD specific measurements, let me talk about the drive tracking capabilities, since these tests are performed from a CD Audio.
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.
Here are the results:
| 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) | 2mm |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Pass |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | 2.4mm |
These results are very good. And surprisingly, the Yamaha did better in successive dropouts tests. I could hear the drive reading multiple times the same section, as a CD-ROM would, and all without suffering an interruption of music. But other drives do better.
Yamaha CD-S2000 - Digital Optical Output (from Audio CD)
Ok, so let's verify if the Yamaha outputs a "perfect" digital stream, in case you think or want to verify an external DAC can do better. This is from my standard 999.91Hz @0dBFS file:
This is what is in the original WAV file.
Same with the standard Stereophile 3DC test:
No modifications of the signal to be seen here.
My ultimate proof of "perfect" digital output is when I reuse the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, like I did for the TASCAM CD-200 review. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. So here we go:
We get the 0.69dBFS overshot and no distortion. This is the same as the original WAV file, hence "bit perfect" output.
Partial conclusion (As a CD Player)
The Yamaha CD-S20000 is a very precise CD player, one that you'd like to own...
There is a small issue with rising noise floor when it has to play sine tones above 10kHz, but since it does not impact the multitone test, I guess this is to be ignored.
I personally was nothing else but impressed by this CD/SACD player, on a quality built perspective. I liked the simplicity of it, and it sounds perfect to my ears. I'm not sure I want to let it go to other hands...
And... on top of that, I got this CD/SACD player from the wife of a retired Swiss watchmaker. The poor man suffers from Alzheimer and had to go to a specialized home. He designed crazy horn speakers, and got several high end CD/SACD players, which I bought from his wife. My dad went the same way, I know too well the route and the end of it. And so, I will cherish this one player.
To be continued with SACD tests...
Last edited:
but still to expensive to have the thing only collect dust.
