Bearing Primare’s well known design and build quality, and available in brushed black or titanium finishes, the new BD32 MkII universal player builds on the company’s BD32 platform with improved circuit design, 4K upscaling and Netflix support. 

This is a multi-format/multi-channel Blu-ray, DVD, CD, SACD and

DVD-A disc player combined with a media player. It has the ability to convert any audio format to PCM or play them in their native formats, including DSD. The built-in media player can reproduce files (music, video, pictures) at up to 24/192 resolution from USB and DLNA compatible sources via a wired network, and Wi Fi with the USB dongle supplied. The BD32 MkII is equipped with a proprietary Primare audio stage, multiple custom-engineered power supplies and comprehensive input and control functions.

The Primare audio circuit is capable of decoding all native audio formats including DSD, Dolby True HD and DTS Master audio. It has a fully-balanced stereo (XLR) output, an unbalanced stereo RCA output, and an 8-channel unbalanced RCA (7.1 multi-channel) output.

The stereo output circuitry uses the flagship Crystal DSD DAC CS4398 in conjunction with Primare’s fully-balanced analogue output stage comprising Burr-Brown OPA2134 OP-Amps, WIMA and EPCOS polypropylene filter capacitors and large MELF resistors; and a single-ended output stage comprising a single MOSFET transistor fed by an active current source rather than passive resistors. As in the BD32, the SACD (DSD) circuit has its own dedicated relay-controlled-filter signal path.

The BD32 MkII adds 4K (3840 x 2160) up-scaling capabilities to all video sources, transforming picture definition with four times the resolution of Full HD 1080p.

HDMI 1 is the primary output, run by the Marvell Qdeo Kyoto-G2 video processor for up-scaling and video adjustment functions, as well as aspect ratio conversion (stretch zoom) to 2.35:1 (with anamorphic lens).

In the BD32 MkII, Primare has further isolated the power supplies for transport, video board and display from the audio section by using individual power supplies for each of these sections. They use a separate master switch mode power supply for the mech/video/display section and a quiet C-core transformer for the audio section, similar to that deployed by their reference PRE60 preamplifier. The BD32 MkII’s analogue power supply utilises an expanded 82000uF capacitor bank (larger than its predecessor), split between many smaller 2200 and 4700uF capacitors for lower ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance). Power is first pre-regulated by LM317/337 regulators and then fed to a super-fast, entirely discrete regulation circuit placed as close as possible to the analogue side of the DAC board.

BD32 MkII is capable of playing both stereo and multichannel DSD files in DFF or DSF formats via USB hard drives, USB thumb drives, and SMB at the supported sampling rate of 2.8224 MHz (DSD64).

As with all Primare products, the front panel’s display circuitry is isolated from the audio/video signal circuits by a discrete section of the player’s aluminium chassis.

Software upgrades for the BD32 MKII will be available on-line. On initial set-up, the player will automatically seek and download the latest software from the Primare website.

Typical retail price inc VAT: £3500 and it will be available November 2014.