Audiolab's 8200CD was arguably the best reviewed, best selling audiophile CD player of all time, so it's natural that when the company announced the launch of the all-new 8300CD, people would instantly compare it to the outgoing 8200. However, to do that would be to slightly miss the point, because in reality, the 8300 is actually the replacement for the 8200CDQ, which was the 8200's big brother, with built-in pre-amp and a price tag of £1000.

The 8300CD shares that RRP and also has the all-important pre-amp on-board (so you can connect it to either an integrated amp or straight into a power amp) but the new model boasts many improvements over any of the 8200 players, in that it has a much more contemporary look, an excellent new slot loading mechanism, 32 bit /  384 kHz handling (compared to 24 / 96) four extra filter options, a bigger OLED display, DSD compatibility and a variety of subtle but significant component changes to its power supply and signal pathway.

Those improvements all add-up to very real advantages in functionality and performance for the 8300 compared to the outgoing 8200, but don't detract from the features that made the older series so popular in the first place. So the 8300 still gives you a superb CD player, a state of the art DAC (with external inputs that will dramatically improve all your digital sources, including iTunes/PC files) plus a brilliant pre-amp, all housed within one ultra-slimline, beautifully finished unit - with full remote control over all functions. Simply add on a power amp or (preferably) a pair of Audiolab's awesome new 8300MB mono-blocks, plus a pair of good speakers and you've got yourself an outstanding yet compact audiophile system, capable of playing just about any digitally stored music to an incredibly high level.

Considering everything it does and the standard to which it does it, (superb CD player / DAC / Pre-amp) the 8300CD has to be one of the audiophile bargains of the decade!