Does this company require introduction? At one time it was tiny, and known mainly in places its founder could phone without incurring long distance charges. Today SimAudio and its products -- amplifiers and preamplifiers in different price ranges, with more products on the way -- are familiar to audiophiles on most of the world's continents. Our view of the company is well known, since one of its amplifiers, the Moon W-5, powers our Omega reference system.
     We always get a little nervous when an established audio company wanders outside its area of proven competence: say a turntable maker bringing out amplifiers and speakers (remember Alphason?), or -- as in this case -- a famous amplifier maker getting the urge to make a CD player. Shouldn't the shoemaker stick to his last?
     Still, we knew how long and hard SimAudio had worked to make its Eclipse player a reality. The most encouraging sign was that the company had always used great sources (both analog and digital) for its show demos, and that meant it had a standard of comparison. Early prototypes of this player were no better than mediocre, but of course the company knew that.
     The hard work has paid off.
     Those early prototypes were built into standard SimAudio boxes, a version of the Moon preamplifier chassis with a slot cut in it for the disc drawer. The final version is radically different, with a top-loading well and a look that one of our panelists characterized as "macho masculine." It certainly isn't crude, however. One the contrary, the finish is gorgeous, as it is on the company's other products, and there is evidence of considerable thought on the details. For instance, though the programming controls are on the front panel, the actual operational buttons are on top, where you can see them when you're up close. Next to those buttons is an LCD screen that repeats the track number so you don't have to bend down to see where you are. Nice ergonomics, and thanks for making the effort.
     We should add that the player's actual appearance has been mutating faster than a flu virus. The actual machine we tested had the "old" look, with the bluish front panel and the large gold SimAudio badge. For the pictures you see on this page and the next, the company lent us a newer version, with the modified logo, but even that's not final. The player shown in the company's ads (but not in production at test time) banishes the SimAudio name to the rear panel in favor of the Moon brand. You can see the new version in SimAudio's ads. These shifting names are okay by us, but we hope everyone else can keep up.
     (By the way, the picture above indicates what we believe to be another mutation: the word "audio" in SimAudio is no longer capitalized, and there seems to be a space creeping in between the two parts of the name. Some people were already referring to the company as Sim, and the logo seems to be adjusting to the reality.)
     Behind the Eclipse's squarish front is the rounded box familiar from other Moon products, with side heat sinks (which are of course merely a styling element in this case) and the four pillars with the built-in spikes that allow easy stacking of components (a powerful argument for staying with the brand). The rear panel has good quality connectors, both RCA and XLR. And it also has a pair of BNC digital connectors you might not expect on an integrated player.
     The reason is this. The Eclipse's digital-to-analog converter uses a 24-bit/96 kHz decoding chip, but the transport is a conventional Philips CD drive. Not only is there the usual digital output from the transport, but there is also a digital input, allowing the DAC to be used with another source. The input is selected from a front panel control. This turns out to be more of casual interest, as we shall see.

Model: SimAudio Moon Eclipse
Price: C$7000
Dimensions: 43 x 36 x 10.5 cm (player), 29 x 34.5 x 7 cm (power supply)
Warranty: Two years to first purchaser, one year if resold