2026 Awards – Digital Disc Replay

Don’t heed the naysayers – the Compact Disc is still alive, thriving, and a viable option more than 40 years since its invention. Gold Note clearly agrees and even envisions a future for the format, having introduced such a remarkable player to the market in 2024 in the form of the CD-5. Indeed, a player like this is absolutely essential to maximise the CD’s potential.

Spellbinding performance

The CD-5 conforms to Gold Note’s now familiar half-width form factor and echoes the minimalist fascia design of its siblings. Its front panel is occupied by a crisp, monochrome display and a CD drawer that opens and closes swiftly and silently, while the neat, functional rear panel accommodates an array of useful connections – RCA and (particularly welcome on an ‘entry-level’ player) XLR outputs, digital coaxial and optical outputs, a socket for connecting the optional external power supply unit (PSU-10 EVO), and a USB-C for firmware updates. The Gold Note has been thoughtfully designed and is a pleasure to use, too.

It’s also a real pleasure to listen to, as Chris discovers when he loads up Harry Christophers and the Sixteen’s 2016 release, ‘Song of the Nativity’. “It was by turns subtle and majestic, and I sat spellbound through the nearly 74 minutes of music on this disc,” he says, noting the player’s extensive, depthy soundstage and impressive musical intuition. It says a lot about a product’s accomplishment when all a reviewer can criticise about it is the small size of its bundled remote control!

Reviewed in Issue 241

Gold Note • goldnote.it

Reviewed in Issue 241

Read more Gold Note reviews here

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Fell Audio has, you could argue, been rather bold in a) launching a brand-new hi-fi company in the UK in this current climate, and b) making one of its first two products a CD player. And yet it has done the right thing by introducing the Disc, because CD players as capable as this seldom cost as little as this.

The Disc’s arguably unlikely success is more understandable when you consider the brand has the backing of venerated British hi-fi retailer Peter Tyson and therefore been privy to unrivalled knowledge of the hi-fi market and its customers. The decision to design and construct products here in the UK gives Fell products an edge where overall quality, sustainability and repairability are concerned, too.

Stunning debut

Playfully reminiscent of iconic British hi-fi components from back in the day, the standard of the Disc’s finish is impressive at this modest price level, its aesthetic characterised by a black fascia with green illumination, a slot-loading mechanism and a green-on-green dot-matrix display. Standard RCA outputs are complemented by coaxial and optical outputs so that the Disc can be used purely as a transport.

Sonically, the player is short of treble bite but nothing else. “Its even, undemonstrative tonal balance makes recordings sound coherent and unified from the top of the frequency range to the bottom,” says Simon Lucas in his review. The midrange is forthright, the bass punchy and well controlled, and alongside that open (if overly polite) treble it is all presented in a large, organised and carefully defined soundstage. 

Make no mistake, Fell Audio’s arrival is a welcome one.

Reviewed in Issue 245

Fell Audio • fellaudio.co.uk