ADC 16/2R CD-player Review

Long recognized as a major source of phono cartridges and equalizers, ADC extended its product line into the digital age in 1984, when it began making compact disc players. Partially engineered by dbx, the players have been especially notable for their simplicity and moderate prices. ADC also promotes the players’ transport ruggedness, tracking ability, advanced error-detection/correction circuitry, and resistance to shock.

The ADC 16/2R, the latest in the line, provides all the basic operating features required of a CD player, but unlike many of today’s players it has an open, uncluttered front panel. Its principal controls are two large, rectangular pushbuttons, which are clearly and unambiguously labeled stop/open and play/pause. The 1-inch-square controls for track-skipping and fast-scan modes are logically identified as skip, rev, and ff, with the usual arrows to show direction—no cryptic or confusing nomenclature here. There are smaller buttons for displaying the time remaining on the disc, setting the player to repeat the current track or the entire disc, and controlling memory functions.

The ADC 16/2R can be programmed to play sixteen tracks in any order, during a pause or stop or while a disc is playing, in a simple process using the ENTER/SET and SKIP buttons. Any single entry or all entries can be deleted with the CLEAR/ALL CLEAR button.

The only other front-panel feature of the 16/2R is a power button. The rear apron contains two audio output jacks. The ADC 16/2R, which is finished in black with contrasting white markings, measures 17 inches wide, 11-7/8 inches deep, and 3-1/8 inches high. It weighs 10 pounds. The player is supplied with a very compact wireless remote control, measuring only 4-3/4 inches long, 2-1/4 inches wide, and 5/8 inch thick; it duplicates all of the front-panel controls except the power switch. Price: $250.

Lab Tests

The output signal level of the ADC 16/2R from a 1,000-Hz 0-dB track of a test record was 1.95 volts into a standard EIA load of 10,000 ohms in parallel with a 1,000-pico-farad capacitor. The two channels had identical outputs. The harmonic distortion at 1,000 Hz was 0.0018 percent at 0 dB, 0.004 percent at —10 dB, and 0.019 percent at —20 dB. The — 20-dB reading included a number of low-level spurious (nonharmonic) signals.

The A-weighted noise level was — 98.8 dB referred to 0 dB, and the dynamic range (the THD + noise level of a — 60 dB signal, referred to the output from a 0-dB signal) was 89.7 dB. Channel separation decreased from 93 dB at 1,000 Hz to 68 dB at 20,000 Hz. The player’s square-wave response confirmed its use of analog low-pass filters, and the phase shift between channels, which increased from about 4 degrees at 1,000 Hz to 81 degrees at 20,000 Hz, showed that its two channels shared a single d/a converter by multiplexing. The converter had a slight nonlinearity at very low signal levels, its output being low by about 1.5 dB at — 90 to — 100 dB. The player’s frequency response, which was extremely flat over most of the audio range, fell off slightly below 50 Hz, to —0.6 dB at 20 Hz, and had a peak of about 0.5 dB at 16,000 Hz.

The slew time of the laser tracking mechanism was 4 to 5 seconds, slightly slower than some others we have tested but still quite satisfactory. It made a perfect transition between two adjacent tracks unseparated by a silent interval. The calibrated defects on the Philips TS5A test disc could be played at their maximum levels with no signs in mistracking. The 16/2R was fairly sensitive to impact on its case, however; it mistracked with moderate finger tapping on the top or side.

Comments

The ADC 16/2R is a good example of a moderately priced, relatively “no-frills” CD player that delivers excellent sound quality with enough operating flexibility to satisfy most people. Moreover, it is easy to use. We found nothing in the character of its sound to distinguish it, for better or worse, from a host of other CD players, most of them more expensive.

Of course, it is not the equal of many of the others in its range of operating features. Some of those the 16/2R does not have may be important to certain people and of no interest to others. Among the ones that come to mind are phrase-repeat capability, direct access to (or at least identification of) indexed portions of a disc, elaborate programming systems such as random play, a headphone output, volume control, external timer control, and direct access to numbered tracks.

On the other hand, most of these features increase cost but never have a commensurate effect on sound quality. If you just want a good, functional CD player, the 16/2R should be a satisfactory choice. Its impact resistance is not ideal, but that should be no problem if your floors are reasonably free of vibration. We would expect the ADC 16/2R to have a special appeal to people who prefer simplicity to a dazzling display of colored lights or a panel full of controls. This is a product that appears to have been designed with their needs in mind.

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