High-end CD player from Onkyo demonstrates that optical discs remain a viable medium
Onkyo Introduces the Icon C-30 CD Player: A Focus on Sound Quality
Onkyo, a renowned name in the Hi-Fi industry, has returned to the business with a new series called the Icon. The Icon series includes a pre-amp, a power amp, and a streaming amp, but today we're focusing on the Icon C-30 CD player.
Priced at $349, the Icon C-30 is an affordable addition to the Icon family, with its more expensive counterparts boasting four-figure price tags. This CD player is designed to focus on sound quality rather than a large feature list, making it an attractive option for audiophiles seeking a high-performance CD player.
The Icon C-30 features a 24-bit/192kHz DAC for high-resolution analog output and Onkyo's proprietary Vector Linear Shaping Circuit (VLSC) technology to remove pulse noise from the signal path, ensuring a clean, distortion-free analog output.
The front of the Icon C-30 is sleek and stealthy, with tactile transport controls, a small LCD display, and a headphone output with volume control. The build quality is evident in the vibration-resistant, blast-finished aluminum front panel, which Onkyo claims reduces resonance and improves playback clarity.
The Icon C-30 offers a variety of outputs, including Hi-Fi-grade RCA (analog), optical, and digital coaxial outputs, making it easy to integrate with a variety of premium audio systems. It plays standard CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs, plus supports MP3 and WMA file playback.
While the Icon C-30 does not play SACD, does not have DSD or MQA decoding, and its DAC can only be used with its CD drive, Onkyo claims that the Icon C-30 produces clean, distortion-free output with a low signal to noise ratio of 107dB.
The Icon C-30 is set to be available from October 2025. While the exact pricing in the UK and Europe is yet to be announced, given typical currency conversion and market pricing, we can expect the Icon C-30 to retail in the range of £320-£380 or €350-€400.
In a world of compressed music being streamed online, the Icon C-30 offers a refreshing return to uncompressed audio, making it an exciting addition to the Onkyo Icon series.
The Icon C-30, a component of Onkyo's Icon series, aligns well with technology, boasting features such as a 24-bit/192kHz DAC and Onkyo's proprietary Vector Linear Shaping Circuit (VLSC) technology. This gadget caters to audiophiles seeking a high-performance CD player that prioritizes sound quality over extensive technology features.
