ddutch

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5, 18.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00 from second hand

Summary:
Finally a new review of this great product! I was lucky to buy this Tjoeb for a very nice price, especially since it wasn't used that much cause the former owner used to listen more to his recordplayer. Thats why it was still in unmodified condition when i bought it, apart from the nice tjoeb-shoes.

First i've listened to it at my brothers place in combination with a Sony TA3ES amplifier, Cardas crosslink interlink, Tannoy R2 loudspeakers and Kimber 4TC loudspeaker cable.
Here it was already much better in all areas than the Sony 505ES it replaced. The main thing that i notiched was that the music was much more alive with a greater soundstage en depth and a clearer seperation of sounds and instuments. Also basscontrol improved a lot and sounded tighter.
After a couple of weeks i bought a new pair of NOS Philips E88cc goldpins.(Heerlen, Holand 1964 production, O-getter, for the freaks)
Now things really improved to another level! The hights and the mids became much more detailled but never bright or harsh. The soundstage was even deeper now with even more separation between instruments and sounds. It was a bit like as if the true nature of the player was reveiled from behind a thick, dark coloured curtain! It easily outperforms my heavily modified 1994 Creek CD60.

What i like a lot about the Tjoeb is the concept of using a good basic CD-player with a very good mechanism, the VAM 1204, also used in marantz own CD14, and change all the parts wich have a big influence on the soundquality. Things like the complete analogue outputstage, the powersupply, the mutingcircuit and the clock/crystal are all changed for new and better parts. The only thing the Tjoeb has in common with the original Marantz CD4000 is the outer case, the remotecontrol and the cd-mechanism. Due to this concept an excellent player can be delivered for a very reasonable price.

Every Tjoeb owner should change the very poor sounding original Jan Philips ECG88 tubes for something better or you'll miss a lot of the sonic qualities of the player! So if you own a Tjoeb and still use the Jan Philips tubes, go find a matched pair of nice(New Old Stock) tubes. BUT be careful with the expensive, much praised Siemens E288CC tubes! They sound quite bright in the Tjoeb 4000, and like a lot of the Siemens-Halske tubes, they are not as good as often said and certainly not everybodies taste. Try Amperex, Philips SQ and Miniwatt or Mullard.(Ecc88,E88ccE188cc,6DJ8,6922,7308 types). Even the Sovteks can be nice.

The same can be said of the standard opamp which still is in place in my Tjoeb. This Opa 604 from BurrBrown is proven by a dutch audio-engineer to be one of the worse sounding opamps used in audio-gear,oeps! The more expensive BB opa 627 is much better. Hope to change mine for something better very soon! Changing the opamp is very easy cause its placed in a socket. This is not an option when your Tjoeb has the upsamplerboard or you have plans buying one in the future cause the upsampler uses the sockets of standard opamps and has its own dedicated opamp.

Strengths:
Marvelous value for money. Very lively, natural sound with a great sense of space. Upgradebility

Weaknesses:
Soundquality depending on used tubes and opamps, Upsampler is a bit expensive.

Similar Products Used:
Sony CDP505Es, modified Creek CD60, Arcam CD72, Marantz CD5000

My system; Sony TA3ES amplifier/Musical fidelity A1, Dynaudio Contour 1.1 with Ocos cable, QED Qunex2 interconnect

garthman

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.27 of 5, 11.00 votes

Price Paid:  $650.00 from Upscale Audio

Summary:
I purchased the Ah Njoe Tjoeb 4000 largely because of the high praise it recieves from users on several sites. Over time I have grown to appreciate the subtlety that tubes can provide. It is a fact that tubed equipment can give additional headaches but they provide opportunities to contour the sound for a sort of easy mod too. The Ah Njoe Tjoeb is already a hot rodded commercial player, but with upsamplers, tubes, op-amps etc., the player becomes an audiophile's haven for tweakdom. I have done little to the player, but I have come to appreciate its qualities so much that during a period when the player broke, I found that I could not return to my Sony ES CD player because the sound seemed so lifeless and dull compared to the Ah. The Ah is not short on bass , detail nor extention. However the player does seem to take quite a while to open up when new. The final result for me has been that the Ah is involving, smooth, and detailed, and has punch or slam. It is quite a bargain as audiophile products go, and now has received such wide aclaim that even Stereophile mag has it as a recommended component. It's reputation is well deserved. I tried the original Marantz player on which the Ah is based and let me say that I found the original flat. The evolved Ah is nothing like a stock unit and has led me into learning to hear more as I have spent time with it. Now, Upscale Audio and Kevin Deal are as pleasant to deal with as the the Ah is to own. As I said I did have a problem with the player after the warrantee expired. Kevin treated me as if I paid a few grand for the player. He sent me components to try out so that I could swap them out in order to diagnose the problem. The cost is much less than it would be to send the unit and pay for labor and shipping and insurance. The price I paid to fix my own unit was so little that it was laughable. Big cudos to Kevin, and many thanks.

Strengths:
Detail, delicacy, slam, smoothness, involvement and better than average soundstage.

Weaknesses:
Poor display.. flimsy chassis. (Needs ropecaulk and deadening panels.. easy to do.)

Similar Products Used:
Just other Cd players. Most of them in the under $1,000 range are not anything to rejoice about.

wiseguytx3

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.33 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $950.00 from Upscale Audio

Summary:
I reviewed Tjoeb 4000 CD player on Audio Review shortly after I first bought it about 3 or so years ago, but since then, about 2 years ago, I upgraded with the upsampler, powercord and Tjoeb feet. Also, I have done a lot of tube rolling and I thought I would pass on my experience with various tube types. First, I would say the upsampler transforms this player into a truly audiophile product, greatly increasing the soundstage and providing far better top to bottom sound. Bass and highs are more detailed and the mids really open up. Without the upsampler, it's merely a good sounding CD player, but there are some China imports that are much better sounding at the "basic" 4000 price point. Simply put, the upsampler is a must have upgrade. With respect to the other upgrades, the powercord seemed to bring more immediacy to the sound and a quieter background. I think it's worth the price. The Tjoeb feet on the other hand, are not worth it, doing very little to still the vibrations from the flimsy Marantz-sourced cabinet. Instead of the feet, I would recommend buying Audioquest Sorbothane Gel Big Feet. In fact, what I did was sandwich the CD player between two sets of Sorbothan feet, adjusting the shelves on my stand to put slight pressure on both sides. This really helped. Lastly, the subject of tube rolling. When I bought this player from Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio, he told me that the tubes are a buffer in this player and really peform the function of "flavoring" the sound, but that they do make a difference. With that in mind, note that the types of tubes that will sound good here are not necessarily the same as those that would really sing in your tube pre-amp. I tried the following tubes: Siemens E188CC goldpins (70's vintage, radar select), Siemens & Halske E88CC, Amperex 7308 (US), Amperex 6922 (US), Mullard CV2493, Mullard E188CC, and Sylvania 7308 (60's, D-Getter, goldpin, lab grade). I didn't even give the stock Philips 6922 steel pins a chance, so I have nothing to report on their sound. The Siemens E188CC and Sylvania tubes were too neutral, almost disappearing to the point of just not doing anything for the sound. Bass was very tight with both, though. It was nearly the same thing with the S&H E88CC, tight bass and neutral to the point of not giving any flavor, but I did get a little nicer, smoother, midrange. Both of the Amperex tubes sounded very nice, smooth with a great soundstage, in fact, the best soundstage of all of the tubes. But they were a little on the cool side, lacking warmth and that sweet tube sparkle. (By the way, I could not detect a difference in the sound of the 6922 vs. the 7308 in this circuit. So, if you're inclined to go with Amperex, save some bucks and go with the 6922). Lastly, the Mullards. These are the winners in my book for this particular CD player. They added body and warmth to the sound and had that wonderful Mullard midrange. Bass was not quite as good as with the more neutral tubes, and the soundstage was not as good as the Amperex tubes, but those wonderful mids more than made up for it. I wound up leaving the CV2493's in, but did not find any real difference between the CV2493 and E188CC. In fact, they appear to be the same tube. (If you are swayed by my review that CV2493's are the best, please note that there are at least three different types of this tube, one made in Holland, essentially a Philips E188CC, and two made in England. One of the English-made ones has a great deal of midrange depth, but is a bit light on bass. The one that worked for me, was the one most like the Mullard E188CC). On the rating I am giving this player, please note that I am comparing it with CD players that are generally within its price range, at about $1,000 with the upsampler.

Strengths:
With the right tubes and the upsampler, truly top-level audiophile sound.

Weaknesses:
Flimsy cabinet. Cheap CD player look.

sundancer

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.33 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1050.00 from hifiwinkel eindhoven

Summary:
I bought the player 2 years ago directly in Eindhoven with upgraded powercord, feet and opamps. I was always annoyed by the "cd-sound", a little harsh, sopranos shouting at me, stradivaris with steel strings etc. I bet you know.Before I had a Marantz 63 ki with even more upgrades, but it was hell! I was not willing and able to spend 5000 bucks to get rid of this.IMO most of all hifi gear is horribly overpriced, but thanks to our chinese friends and all the distributors there and their homepages we can realize, that only a fraction of the price is correct value. So now to Ah!. The price/sound relation is great! It is not really cheap, but worth every cent.Finally I can enjoy music of all kinds, classical, jazz, pop and also the many many bad recorded cd`s.Lets face it: most of them are bad recorded, and so I would need a friendly player, which is detailed and smooth and musical. Exactly like the Ah! It is so good that it deserves very good surrounding, with my 300b amp it is singing glouriously. No harshness, space, resolution, atmosphere instead.Seems to be a great match with tube amps. I don`t want to talk about bass, mids, treble, because right now I`m just listening to music. Its all there, don't worry. If something is still wrong in the system, these questions occur, with this player you can forget about this, especially after installing the upsampler, which is a must! Without it is a good player, with upsampling its a different league! Also the tubes, although they are only a buffer stage,are nice to play with. I ended up with e288cc from valvo (red series), in my ears they are even better than the recommended e288cc from Siemens, very warm, detailed and coherent.The stock philips tubes are bad, sorry. And its possible to upgrade the player even more, and for those who can solder its worthn trying.Its the small yellow ero coupling caps and the wima output caps swallowing much of the dynamics and fine detail. I replaced them with Mundorf tinfoils, there is little space but it works. After this mod the sound was getting much more open, detailed, dynamic(bass!) and subtle. I also shunted all the powersupply caps with small 3900 pf silver mica caps, which brought out even more whomp in the bass and more of all the other goodies. One cheap and easy mod is to put a round thin(3 mm) piece of felt under the big transformer and two smaller ones under the screws of the smaller one. Keep the grounding cable grounded!The result is not small, those transformers vibrate like hell! The whole board is swinging, which makes the reading of the disks more difficult.Of course you will loose warranty, but I did all this after a year. Now I´m absolutely happy with the unit and I`m not looking for something else,maybe there are better players, but for shure they are more expensive. Especially voices are very seductive now, its great with all acoustic instruments and great for classical music lovers.One little weakness is that the rythm and pace is a bit less involving compared to my turntable, but its a linn with loads of pace! So its a player for music lovers who dont care so much for the chassis, who want to spend a reasonable amount of money for a very good performance. Highly recommended!

Strengths:
Tweakability, tube rolling, smoothness, "analog sounding", great sound overall

Weaknesses:
flimsy cabinet, little lack of rythm and pace

Similar Products Used:
marantz cd 63 ki signature cambridge d300

michkhol

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.91 of 5, 11.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1276.00 from Upscale Audio

Summary:
I decided to do it gradually, that is first to buy it with standard tubes and then upgrade if necessary. I bought the SuperTjoeb version with upgraded power cord, high perfomance feet and CD mat stabilizer. I'm paying a lot of attention to the power cords now after I switched to a custom-made power cord for my amplifier, plugged it directly into the wall outlet and heard the difference. The sound was way better than with my Pioneer Elite DVD player, but still after ~100 hours of break-in was too bright. I asked Kevin for an advice and he recommended Amperex 7308 tubes. After the upgrade the brightness was gone, the bass became tighter, the voice more open but not loosing liquidity. The overall impression was very pleasant, but I had one CD that didn't sound quite right. It was the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Rachmaninov with Helene Grimaud and London Philarmonia Orchestra. After 2 months of listening I decided to go further and ordered the upsampler. And that was the difference. Before I heard a "recording", now it's like I have real instruments in my room. The piano is so real, that I almost can feel strings vibrating, the voice is like the person sings right in front of me without a mike. The soundstage is wider and deeper. The Racmaninov's Piano Concerto sounded big and bold and clear. It was like a musical masterpiece over and behind my speakers, monolithic and yet I could hear any instrument if I wanted to. And if I turn around, I cannot tell if I have any speakers, just the sound coming from nowhere. I never thought the music could be so involving. I feel very reluctant to turn it off even when a have to. Now I think I should have ordered everything at once and saved on shipping. My system (besides the CD player): Musical Fidelity A308 integrated amp, JM Lab Cobalt 816S speakers, SignalCable power cord, interconnects and speaker cable.

Strengths:
Clarity, liquidity, tight bass, deep soundstage, reality.

Weaknesses:
None so far.

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer Elite 45 DVD player, Sugden Optima CD player, Arcam 9 CD player