Let me introduce you to the beautifully but conservatively designed, Italian-crafted, Audia Flight FL CD Three S Player out of Civitavecchia, Italy, 70 km north of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that CDs will never die and the engineering excellence that has gone into refining CD players over the last 40 years—as displayed in this AudiaFlight FL CD Three S Player—has justly earned a permanent place in HiFi history.

Streaming, like the earlier usurper mp3 file, has displaced, for the moment, other forms of HiFi listening in the mass market; but sales of CDs in the U.S. have risen in 2021 to 46.6 million units, yielding $585.2 million since their meteoric drop over two decades ago—a cause for celebration! Vinyl is in a justifiable renaissance; even cassette sales have risen to approximately 300,000 units as of 2022, doubling unit sales from 2020. Yikes! What’s happening? Well, we’ll leave that discussion for later since this great CD player is the centre of our attention; but these sales facts, although perhaps sounding slightly tangential to our review, are intimately wound up with this great CD player.

The Audia Flight FL CD Three S Player (USD 3900) exudes a presence of alta qualita. The refinement of the metalwork on the outside is reinforced by its significant 10kg. weight, with a width of 45 cm, a depth of 43 cm and a height of 10 cm. The face of this player is a sensuously curved smile—Sophia Loren sensuality—with an attractive OLED display. Everything about the casework of this machine suggests longevity, gravitas and a high-minded aesthetic; all of which can be said also of the ergonomic remote control, expertly crafted from solid aluminum. As I said, alta qualita.

The Audia Flight FL CD Three S player, built upon the excellence of the earlier Audia Flight FL CD 3 player, employs a CD drive optimized for single-speed playback, not just another computer drive, an innovation of StreamUnlimited, an Austrian company. In addition, the FL Three S has replaced the earlier 24/192 multibit section based on the CS4398 from Cirrus Logic with the newer 4493EQ chips from AKM which can process data up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD512. Let me explain this change in the Audia Flight without getting too far into the weeds. To many of you, this will be digital history 101. Bear with me.

All of the digital reality of recording and audio is based on the Nyquist-Shannon theorem of the 1940s. This theorem—not just a theory—states any audio analog waveform can be fully, digitally reproduced with all the necessary amplitude, frequency and phase information completely intact as long as there are at least two samples captured per waveform cycle. Or to put it another way, to remove “all” possibilities of aliasing, which is the distortion which occurs in the normal process of sampling an analog sound wave, you need to sample the sound wave at a rate that exceeds twice its highest frequency component. Frequencies below the Nyquist frequency will be accurately captured or reproduced. Frequencies above the Nyquist frequency will not be accurately reproduced and will show up in the nasty form of aliasing. To capture a frequency of 20 kilohertz, considered to be the top end of most human hearing, we would need a sample rate of at least 40 kilohertz; this is why the sample rate on the traditional Compact Discs was 44.1 kHz. Now, a bit, as in 32-bit, which is the standard for this CD player, translates the amplitude of the sound wave with greater or weaker quantization. The higher the bit depth the greater the quantization of the audio sample and greater fidelity. When compact discs came out they had 16-bit resolution allowing for 65, 536 values for measuring the audio; now AudiaFlight has moved away from the 24bit, 16,777,216 values CS4398 from Cirrus Logic, to the 4493EQ chips from AKM (Asahi Kasei Micro Devices Corp) which can process data up to 32-bit/384kHZ and DSD 512. This increase in bit depth and the resolution it provides translates to serious gains in dynamic range in the audio sample. What is the result? A very refined representation of audio samples, resulting in superior fidelity; quantization noise is reduced; the 384kHZ sampling rate captures more samples per second resulting in smoother waveforms, less aliasing, and, ultimately, what every human ear wants, a more natural sounding “analog-like” finished sound—this is the quality of sound one gets from the Audia Flight. An overused phrase to be sure, but the company has done its best to “future-proof” their CD player. And in my opinion, they have succeeded in spades.

DSD (Direct Stream Digital) simplifies things significantly by using just two values: 0 (if the new sample is lower) or 1 (if it's higher). Therefore, DSD 512 operates at a whopping 22.6 MHz—please note that the unit multiplier represents 1 million Hz—which is 512 times the standard CD sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. In other words, it's a 512 times oversampling of the original analog signal. Finally, instead of quantifying the amplitude of the original analog sound wave directly, DSD captures the rate of change of the waveform. That is, DSD gets slightly closer to emulating the true shape of the analog audio wave by using its 1-bit samples to represent the shape/slope of the waveform. This is why the AKM 4493 chip is known as the “velvet sound technology”—just that much closer to analog.

CD players are now, finally, their niche market, emerging as a serious form of high-end audiophile sound source having spent years in the wilderness. The massive profits from CD sales in the 80s and 90s produced CD players that were just good enough. Older CD players, and please recognize I am speaking in general terms, did not rigorously address the issues of jitter, high-frequency noise and vibration—let alone sound issues such as bright midranges and “chrome plated bass sound.”

When companies attached to the production of CD players were making substantial profits and the demand was high, it was quite easy to produce machines that worked, but not much more. Now, of course, Research and Development departments like those of Audia Flight spend less time justifying their time and research to cost-accounting pinstripes in the room and more time debating what innovations can be integrated into their new piece of equipment. AudiaFlight, along with a select group of other companies, is the quintessential niche company. One cannot listen to this wunder machina for the length of time as I have, without coming away incredibly impressed with its solid build, its clarity of natural musical reproduction and its natural musical consistency. AudiaFlight will place the newest and most advanced integrated circuits within their CD player for one reason: because their goal is to transform digital reproduction into the most refined sound source possible.

Finally, the last technical detail, as I said earlier, the data on each channel on the FL CD Three S Player is processed by the AKM 4493EQ chip with 32-bit working resolution, offering that unique Velvet Sound Technology. And it’s because of this chip you have the option of choosing one of six digital filters that you can adjust the sound to meet your delectation. Now, these filters work in pure CD mode; however, they are enhanced with the optional purchase of the built-in digital board which can replace a complete stand-alone DAC. This optional board has two optical interfaces: an AES/EBU input, a coax connection and a USB interface. In addition, the Audia Flight, as befits a niche player striving for sound excellence, has two toroidal transformers, one of smaller size (36 VA) for the digital construct, and one of larger size (58 VA) for the analog circuits—very unusual for an analog output of the DAC powered by its analog power supply. And, naturlich, the output section is conceived and realized in a fully discrete form with the circuits in Class A—pure and perfect! Throughout my listening, I kept coming back to filters number 4 and 5, 4 because it offered my ear, through my supply chain of equipment, the most overall balanced sound and 5 because of its slight diminution of the uppers to create a very generous sonorous sound.

Specifications

Frequency response: 0.5 Hz ˜ 20 KHz ± 0.1dB

Dynamic Range: 126 dB

THD: + noise: <0,01%

Noise: >- 113 dB

Balanced and Unbalanced outputs

Maximum output voltage: 2.5 Vrms

Output impedance: 200 Ohm

Digital Output: PCM S/PDIF

Stand-by power consumption: less than 0,5 W

Operation Power consumption: 30 W

Main voltage AC (50-60 Hz): 100, 110-115, 220-230, 240 V

Dimensions: 450x110x430 mm (WxHxD)

Weight: 10 Kg

Shipping dimensions: 550x250x580 mm (WxHxD)

Shipping weight: 15 Kg

Optional Digital Board:

Inputs:

• 1 XLR AES/EBU

• 1 coaxial SPDIF

• 2 opticals

• 1 asynchronous USB

All digital inputs are insulated.

The USB input can accept files 32-bit 384KHz and DSD512

Before I get to our first example, it’s time to give thanks. Bryan Taylor of The Gramophone located in the Strathcona district of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, must get my first heartfelt thanks for the extended and most generous length of time I had with his Audia Flight FL CD Three S player. No greater patience could one have asked for. Thank you, Bryan. And, this is becoming a most enjoyably repeatable moment, I must extend a very heartfelt thanks to the gentleman of audio itself, Don Corby (Corby’s Audio) in Flamborough, Southern Ontario, Canada, for the extended loan of his Tektron Volcano Integrated AB class 50 W amp. I don’t know what I’d do without Don. Please check out both of these fine gentlemen’s websites and always consider supporting high-end HiFi Canadian retailers.

Now to our first example. Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem is unlike other famous and revered Requiems of the 19th century in that Brahms eschewed texts from the Latin Mass for the Dead, and chose texts from Luther’s translation of the Old and New Testaments. There is no “hell-fire” here, no anguish of those cast into Hell, but an overwhelming sense of compassion for the living and the dead. Brahms used no verses of strict Christian doctrine. Brahms stated later he wished he could have named his piece, A Requiem for Mankind, so much did he want a Requiem representing what he believed to be the mercy and compassion of God for all.

There are so many outstanding recordings of Brahms’s work, from the opulent majesty of Klemperer’s 1962 reference recording with the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer Dieskau as soloists, to the vibrato-minumus period instruments of Sir John Elliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and his Monteverdi Choir recordings of 1991 and 2008. I will use Gardiner’s 1991 landmark Decca recording for this review with soloists Charlotte Margiono, soprano, and Rodney Gilfrey, baritone. The overall work of Gardiner’s 1860s Brahms-like orchestra, the brisker tempi that Gardiner creates and, most significantly, the Monteverdi Choir make the 1991 recording a stunner. The Monteverdi Choir stands out on top of all the choral work I have listened to so far.

What makes this recording so unique? First of all, Gardiner takes the seven selections of the Requiem faster than 90% of all other recordings. What one notices immediately, upon close listening, is the revelation of the rhythmic vitality that comes from Brahms’s writing and the percussive consonants in the German text when the tempi are faster. The text begins to dance, as does the music. Slow the piece down, as in Antoni Wit’s recording, and one hears the predominance of long syllabic vowel sounds producing a very legato and beautiful sound, but the rhythmic vitality is gone. When that solemn slowness gets mixed in with what Gardiner calls a “Wagnerian sostenuto” approach to Brahms, one forfeits hearing Brahms’s inner strata of voices, both orchestral and choral. You have created a homogenous and sometimes thick lugubrious gestalt without the original edges to the sound.

So how does our beautiful AudiaFlight player translate Decca’s CD? I am pushing the Audia Flight through the Tektron Volcano Integrated AB Class Amp and out through the new and very impressive PSB B-50 Bookshelf speakers, with the whole system tied together with Rob Fritz’s magnificent silver-tongued Audio Art Cables. The outcome? An audio delight. I sang the Brahms in university and I will never forget the deep sense of wonder, a wonder I never tire of, with the opening repeated pianissimo F concert quarter notes in the double basses with that flattened seventh in the cellos resolving and the quiet choral entry on “Selig sind, die da Leid tragen” (Blessed are they that mourn). Magic, pure magic. In this recording, the Audia Flight reproduces that magnificent grit in the violas, cellos and double basses as they translate Brahms’s harmonic perambulations in the introduction.

The second movement of the German Requiem is set into three somewhat contrasting sections based on texts from Peter, James and Isaiah. Utterly faithful and capable of the highest level of resolution and authentic reproduction of Gardiner’s orchestra and choir, the AudiaFlight delivers an intensely detailed musical experience, all the while offering its unique tasteful sound, a sound of digital warmth. There is no brittle sterility in the soundscape, whether in the midrange or the upper registers of the choir or orchestra. The tenors in “Denn alles Fleish ist wie Grass” (For all flesh is as Grass) in the huge build-up in section one of movement two—where the timpanist is given a crescendo on repeating eighth notes, climaxing in the above-mentioned text—are voiced perfectly with that masculine edge in the tenors double forte sound. The realism in the reproduction of sound is impressive. Nothing is smoothed over from the original performance. The choir, as in the original recording, is more front and centre than in most recordings of the Brahms and the AudiaFlight does not alter that balance one bit. You feel the intensity of the performers and Brahms’s original intentions. Perfectly reproduced and faithful to the performance. What more can one ask of a CD player?

The second listening example is, in my opinion, the finest recorded performance of Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Pierre Monteux’s 1958 recording on Decca with the London Symphony Orchestra. The beginning of “Nimrod”, the 9th variation brings the concept of triple pianissmo to a new audio landmark. Never have I heard a whisper generated orchestrally. What makes the Monteux recording so spot on, so filled with vitality, is perhaps paradoxically, its wild energy, its French predilection for colour and this reliance on bold dynamic definitions—i.e. the beginning of “Nimrod” and the fantastically exciting final variation, variation 14. The beginning of “Nimrod” is without any electronic background, pure triple pianissimo strings. Painted upon a landscape of utter electronic silence begins the LSO and never let anyone tell you that silence or its close-to-equivalence is without musical information. The Audia Flight renders the near silence of the opening bars of “Nimrod” magical with a Caribbean waters-like clarity that announces “…I shall render onto the listener the faithfulness of the conductor’s vision. And it was so.” The thrilling final variation and all of its information, the magnificent trombone and horn harmonization at fortissimo levels, the timpani frequency, and the counterpoint in the woodwinds, all are handled with transparency that utterly satisfies the requirement of high fidelity. Again, the Audia Flight delivers an impressive reproduction of the CD’s micro and macrodynamics, a listening experience that continues to underline the musicality and coherence of AudiaFlight’s goal as a company.

Our final listening example is the “garishly divine” Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler, which, Emil Gutmann, the impresario and organizer of the premier performance of Mahler’s work called “a symphony of a thousand”—yes, there were 858 singers and an orchestra of 171 members performing in Munich on September 12, 1910. After weeks of rehearsal, Mahler was on the verge of cancelling the first performance, so dissatisfied was he with the outcome of the rehearsals. Bruno Walter trained the choirs to assist with Mahler’s anxiety but after weeks of rehearsals, Mahler was ready to cancel the performance. Anyone who knows even a little of Mahler’s exactitude and uncompromising ferocity as a conductor would not be surprised by this last-minute fear. However, the performance went ahead, and never had a performance of any of Mahler’s works been so enthusiastically embraced by the listening public as this symphony. The first night was attended by the cream of European intelligentsia, artists and writers all wishing to experience what had been rumoured for weeks to be a work that had to be heard. Attendees included Schoenberg, Klemperer, Stokowski, Clemenceau, Siegfried Wagner, Casella, Anton Webern, Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann and Max Reinhardt; Goldmark, Franz Schmidt, d’Albert, Korngold, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninoff and Weingartner. Such an intellectual glitterati was not seen again until three years later in Paris with the premier of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps in 1913.

Let’s put Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 into context. Mahler’s first four symphonies combine seemingly disparate musical elements, rustic scherzos, local folk dance tunes, choral work, vocal soloists, and melodies of lieder he had written earlier, now placed within his symphonic movements. The texts of these lieder were to lend the symphony an overarching philosophical meaning to assist in the practical organization of the music. A great deal more can be said of these first four symphonies, but for our present purpose let’s stick to the bare bones. Once we arrive at Symphonies 5, 6 and 7, however, we are hearing Mahler the absolutist. Gone are the extra-musical texts, gone are the choirs, gone are the vocal soloists—we are in the realm of the Germanic symphonic tradition of Brahms and Beethoven, à la Mahler. Mahler, just as Brahms had done at an earlier point in his career, began studying Bach and one starts to hear much more independent voice lines in Mahler’s writing; or, to give it a musicological term, Mahler started working with greater polyphony in his composition. His textures are leaner, and the motivic or thematic development and interconnections between themes based on smaller melodic and harmonic cells are brought to a very sophisticated technical level. His 6th symphony is the most impressive example of this. It is this sophisticated motivic and melodic cell development learned in the 5th, 6th and 7th symphonies that Mahler now applies to the 8th—only now bringing choirs, soloists and orchestra together for the first time since his 3rd symphony, at a far more sophisticated musical and textual level.

I have selected Maestro Ozawa’s Phillips recording of 1980 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Boston Boys Choir and to name just a few of the outstanding soloists, Faye Robinson (soprano), Florence Quivar (contralto), Kenneth Riegel (tenor) and Gwynne Howell (bass). Such an underrated master of Mahler was Maestro Ozawa. His attention to detail and Mahler’s inner voices are legendary and it is the 8th with Boston, in my opinion, that illustrates the apotheosis of his Mahler output. If you have never understood the theosophical mysticism of Mahler or never recognized it in his output, you must listen to Ozawa and Boston perform this symphony, particularly their performance of “Part 2”. The Swedenborgian vision that Goethe so admired and incorporated into Part 2 of his Faust, Mahler gives us his brief musical picture of Goethe’s vision. Ozawa captures this whole Part 2 with a chamber-like sensitivity, a trait that is completely absent from the much more lionized performance by Solti.

From the opening authentic pipe organ Eb major chord to the stunningly dense plagal chord ending of Part One with its masterful string flourishes and orchestra build-up, the Audia Flight delivers a balanced, warm, never sterile sound that modulates freely from the super pianissimos to the triple fortes, from the double basses, bass trombone and tuba up through the tenor range of the orchestra and voices to the stratospheric violin parts of Mahler’s masterpiece. Regardless of the density of voices and orchestra, this CD player offers transparency, timbre realism, range balance, audio fidelity and most importantly—the human energy of the original recording! The opening of Part 2 begins with a double pianissimo high Eb tremolo in the violins and a delicate Eb minor melody in the flute and clarinet with a simple “walking bass” in cellos and double basses, displayed perfectly with no electronic backdrop. The hush is magnificent Ozawa’s perfect interpretation of the opening of Part 2 is reproduced with utter fidelity.

Conclusion

Let me recapitulate my essential observations about this wonderful CD player by Audia Flight. The digital world is here to stay; the only question is, of what quality and standard do we wish this world to be. To me, it is the empirical faith in companies like Audia Flight, those niche companies, whose vision is to transform the digital world of CDs into the best possible audio sound financially viable for the likes of you and me. The Audia Flight FL CD 3S player (USD 3900) is an exemplar of this attitude and goal. This is a worthy addition to everyone’s Hifi world. Viva Italia!

Further information: Audia Flight