SCIENTIST SERIES – ULTRA MACHINE PLANCK²

The machine:

PLANCK² is Audionet’s final statement re. the classical compact disc. No other machine on the market plays with such utmost precision, formidable ease and deep-rooted musicality. PLANCK² even surpasses our worldwide successes VIP and ART.

 
Want to hear the music breathe? Here’s the best available lung on this planet:

The body construction completely made of non-ferro­magnetic materials combined with a massive slate board optimizes the resonance charac­teristics of PLANCK². The new design with non-visible fixation screws and with a massive and solid aluminium cover pleases both eyes and ears alike.

Converting from digital to analog, newly developed discrete output modules with extremely fast, wide-band high-performance class A output drivers ensure the perfect sonic experience. The current-voltage converter comprises absolutely temperature stable and sonically neutral high-precision resistors.

Our high-precision clock generator eliminates the infamous jitter: PLANCK² gets all music data at the right time and with its correct value. And the internal frequency compen­sation equipped with custom made mica capacitors of highest grade guarantees absolute precision in the analog domain.

Also, we gave the digital input section a completely new design. PLANCK² uses the same outstanding USB Audio 2.0 technology as Audionet’s famous DNx machines:

• USB Audio 2.0 support up to 192 kHz / 24 bits.
• Asynchronous data connection and re-clocking ensuring a clean digital music signal.
• The USB Audio circuitry is completely galvanically isolated from the rest of the PLANCK². Therefore no harmful reactions apply from the PC and its “dirty” power supply.
• Separate and user-selectable electrical and optical digital inputs (SPDIF) – also using DNx technology and up to 192 kHz / 24 bit for enhanced playback of other digital sources.

In short: In PLANCK² we tuned all relevant parts with scientific meticulousness and musical passion to achieve the ultimately possible sonic quantum leap. Including two separate DACs, one for each channel and carbon fibre turntable.

The science:

Special features PLANCK²

• Top loader, decoupling aluminium and slate body construction.
• Massive aluminium body, resonance-optimized fixation with invisible screws and Teflon bedded massive disc drawer cover made of 10 mm aluminium.
• Additional decoupling of the drive unit, PCBs and high precision clock generator by Audionet Aligned Resonance Technology.
• Reference drive unit CD-PRO 8 on HQ aluminum chassis with carbon fibre turntable and cover.
• Adaptive high precision puck and puck mounting made of POM, toroid Neodym magnet.
• Completely separated power supplies for pickup and converter unit, digital and analog section.
• Completely DC-coupled, no capacitor in the signal path.
• Newly developed discrete output modules with extremely fast, wide-band high-performance Class A output drivers.
• Current-Voltage converter with absolutely temperature stable and sound neutral high-precision resistors and with custom made mica capacitors of highest grade for internal frequency compensation.
• D/A converter function with separate and user-selectable digital inputs: SPDIF electrical (Cinch) and optical (Toslink) as well as USB Audio 2.0 (USB type B socket).
• All digital inputs up to 192 kHz / 24 bit.
• Digital outputs SPDIF (electrical and optical) and AES/EBU output 44.1 KHz / 16 bit (for CD).
• Disengageable digital outputs.
• Remote power on/off via Audionet Link (optical cable).
• Professional concept of operations.
• Rhodium fuse.
• Dedicated WATT/PLANCK Audionet metal remote control in matching color.

Color choices:

Ultra:	C-32 (light bronze) with white display
Classic:	Silver with blue display Silver with red display Black with blue display Black with red display

The WATT/PLANCK Audionet metal remote control is included in the matching color.

 

Materials

Front:	Brushed aluminium, 12 mm, anodised, text & symbols engraved
Top/cover:	Brushed aluminium, 20 mm, anodised
Disc drawer:	Brushed aluminium, 10 mm, anodised
Chassis:	Slate, aluminium, anodised, text printed

Stereo

“In the listening room the Berliners showed no mercy to either the connected loud speakers or with the various competitors we ranged against them. […] The conclusion is simple: Audionet equipment has never looked better – nor sounded better!!

Sound Quality 100%!

 

Link to the test report

 

SoundRebels

SoundRebels, Poland, loved PLANCK. Their enthusiastic 2017 review, currently in translation, reads like this:

 

Link to test report (polish language)

 

highendnews.info, Finland

“The real purpose of audio equipment is to give happiness and other positive feelings to its owner. If it really does this, nothing else matters. Audionet Planck gives those things to me. So, I feel that my choice was the right one. There is less and less alternatives available for a high quality CD player, but luckily Audionet players are still available. Hallelujah for Audionet and the old Redbook! Besides my praises and cheers to keep going on, I still deliver one complaint to Audionet: Planck really misses a preamplifier of the same kind! But as for the Planck, I have no complaints at all. Its performance is superb, sonically and practically, and it is really a pleasure to own. Nowadays, for me, listening music from the old CDs delivers more honey than never before. I cannot ask more from a single source!”

 

Link to the test report

 

High Fidelity

“PLANCK offers a sound that is sort of a finite story. It is an entirely different product than other top players, both CD and SACD. It presents features of both, but using them to create something new, as the writer tells new stories using the same words as others. Its sound is dark and velvety. The softness is extremely natural and both bass and treble extension is simply remarkable. Lower end is as good as the Gryphon Mikado’s, that for years, for me, set the highest standard in this respect. This is an incredible device that plays digitally encoded music – both from CDs and files – in a very natural way, without losing focus, detail and emotions. Built quality is simply exemplary, and if this is “your” sound, if this set of features appeals to your taste, it is very likely to be the last CD Player you’ll ever buy. One important thing – among all players mentioned in this text as references it is, by far, the cheapest one, even if you decide to by additionally, external AMPERE power supply.”

RED Fingerprint.
Best Product 2016

 

Link to the test report

 

i-fidelity.net

“SUPERB. Outshines anything else that handles compact discs. … 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. … 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.”
Reference.

 

Download test report