The connection options of the Planck are versatile - for him the musical world shall be more than just a disc. In order to function as a D/A converter for other digital sources, it features one coaxial S/PDIF input, one optical TosLink interface and one USB B-type interface, which allows for USB audio 2.0. This input got its technology from the Audionet network sources, it works in asynchronous mode and carries out a complete galvanic isolation with fully separated electric grounds. In addition signals from the USB interface are re-clocked before further processing. The TosLink interface supports data streams up to a resolution of 192 kilohertz / 24 bit as well, although its original definition was only intended for 96 kilohertz - premium receivers make the higher bandwidth possible.
To output digital signals the Planck provides one AES/EBU output, two coaxial S/PDIF outputs and one TosLink interface. These digital outputs can be deactivated, which is a quite rare, but all the more a commendable feature. Thus any interference they may cause, no matter how negligible it seems, can be avoided.

Centre of mass

True connoisseurs like the haptic experience, there is no doubt about this, too. They will particularly appreciate the top-loader drive with a heavy sliding cover, waiting to be handled manually. This drive cover, made from aluminium, offers haptic delight by the kilo and glides in Teflon-coated guide rails as soft as butter. Inserted CDs are fixed rigorously, nevertheless sensitively at the same time: a stabilisation puck provides for appropriate contact pressure, adapting to slightly varying thicknesses of discs with the help of a strong neodymium magnet and a rubber ring. Its diameter is small, thus little mass works outside the rotation axis. The centring of the mass is important, because a bit of space between the shaft and the puck is necessary to put it on smoothly. But exactly this little distance, in combination with tiny irregularities of the CD surface, could cause a minimal incline of the puck which then again results in a tumbling motion of the speedily rotating disc. All this is about differences within a few tenths of a millimetre, but this is just the beginning of Audionet’s perfectionism.

While puristic CD reading units slowly disappear from the market and give way to computer drives in many high-end CD players, Audionet uses a dedicated CD transport for the Planck, namely the Philips CD-PRO2LF. This excellent drive sits on an eight-millimetre-thick basis, which is manufactured from a solid block of aluminium. High mass is favourable here, in order to make the resonance behaviour of the housing design as neutral as possible. Therefore also the case cover, the chassis and the front side are made from this non-ferromagnetic metal, between twelve and twenty millimetres thick. As in the case of the other Audionet players, a heavy ground plate provides for additional dampening, but due to a new resonance tuning concept, the bottom plate inside the Planck is manufactured from slate.

Event horizon

I have listened to the Planck primarily in its function as a CD player, but it also had to proof its qualities as an external D/A converter for other digital sources: via the electrical S/PDIF input with a network client and via the USB input with Audirvana Plus running on a MacBook. Disturbed make the start with their cover of »The Sound of Silence«; after David Draiman has let out his anger about the »silence« full of superficialities, for quite a while this emotional impact just leaves room for one thing: the same wonderful song performed by James Blake. Unfortunately it is only available online, as an excerpt from his BBC radio show with an MP3-sound track. Anyway, that does not harm the chastening effect this outstanding interpretation has, also thanks to the Planck’s sensitive staging.

This pinpoint sophistication creates an immense attractive power, pulling me towards electronic music like a maelstrom. All those tiny, meticulously arranged effects on Yello’s album »Touch«, I know them inside out, not least from intense experiences with the ART G3. Their minute positioning within an almost infinitely extended room seems even more definite than familiar, but another characteristic of the Planck leaves me indeed lost for words after the track »Speechless« by Kruder & Dorfmeister: the Planck performs with pervasive charisma.

Compositions that appear quite one-dimensional on the face of it, reveal all their complexity now, because of the extremely accurate reproduction in terms of micro dynamics and timing. Within Anja Schneider’s »Surrender« the Planck takes up every arch of melody that seems neglected in direct comparisons, uncurtains very subtle sounds and hidden, very very quiet samples, interspersed in the midst of mightily pumping bass lines. It detects rhythmic and tonal threads and weaves them together again, into what they had been in the recording studio: an exceptional masterpiece of techno house, multifaceted and intriguing.

The Planck always lets the listener in on the musical intention, guides him didactically through the opus and far beyond merely cognitive hearing. Surpassing this horizon one falls through the CD’s center hole, right into the music. Now playing »Les Jeux d’eau a la villa d’Este« from Franz Liszt’s »Années de pèlerinage III«, interpreted by Hélène Grimaud, with her very own, easy characteristic. With this striking intensity I had experienced the brilliancy of her performance and how much she is taken up in it only once, in fact during the »Water«-tour last summer. The Planck’s performance is like an event horizon, from which there is no escape. Also time vanishes in it, but that doesn’t matter, since such musical experience is a constructive use of time. However sentimental minds should be warned: it may well be that you have to recollect yourself afterwards.