At the heart of the new 99CD-S is an in house designed
optical pick-up and servo assembly.
Every aspect of the new component has been tuned for optimum
data recovery without the technical compromise that would have
resulted had a proprietary off the shelf optic been used.
As a result, jitter and clock noise levels have been reduced
significantly. The servo-control software has been carefully optimised
to ensure data integrity under all conditions, providing an exceptional
level of immunity to data errors, from even the most badly treated
discs.
The DAC and analogue output stages follow a similar lack of compromise.
A class leading Crystal Semiconductor DAC is used. The DAC outputs
are filtered and buffered using some of the best components available,
the number of active devices in the signal path are minmised for
a good measured response without sacrificing sound quality. An
elegantly simple 2-pole non-inverting analogue filter is used.
The result is a published performance close to theorectical maximum
for the format but more, more importantly, a great sound.
The player is mains powered, unlike its predecessor, and also
has a pair of RCA phono outputs. For the existing QUAD 99 user,
the product incorporates QUADlink connectivity. QUADlink is a
smart interconnection system allowing control of the system as
a whole. It boasts fully balanced audio interconnections, affording
recording studio standards for signal integrity, with minimum
of fuss.
