Musical, deep. You thought the harshness was coming from your cheap amplifier. It was your CD player. Cheap, cheap, cheap! Cheaper than the unit it replaces.

Needs some solid feet like the Njoe Tjoeb offers. I'm looking for a good set of solid aluminum feet that will make it look less cheap cheap cheap.

Got a set of fat-sounding tubes to compensate for my solid state system, a set of Kimber PBJs to further calm things down, and it was a revelation. Beats the old Rotel unit I was using without breaking a sweat--even before proper tube breakin. I couldn't be happier. This unit includes all the factory upgrades (except the useless digital out) PLUS a John Rish power cord upgrade that goes above and beyond the factory. I couldn't have spent a better $300 for any upgrade at any point in my system. When I get a pair of truly audiophile speakers and monoblocks, I'll pull this CD player out of the family room and into my office. I'll use its remote-controlled variable output as a direct control for the power amp, so I can have a true short signal path from source to speaker. Until then, it's at home in the family room system, doing part-time stereo duty through a pair of KEF RDM2s when the surround is switched off. It sounds beautiful. Bottom line: Like going from a pauper to a king.

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Rotel, NAD, Carver, Jap crap.

the swappable tubes and op-amps

you're kidding

Bought the Super tube from Kevin at Upscale.What a great unit. There is absolutely nothing for even double the price that could touch this unit. The sound quality is superb. I have two sets of tubes with the stock units being good, but the 'etched' upgrades show tremendous detail and imaging. I can't wait to get more tubes and the swappable op-amps to experiment. If you are looking for a cd player, buy this one. You absolutely will not regret it. btw, the new upsampler dac is soon to arrive and then nothing will touch this unit for many times the price!

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linn,rotel,denon,sony

buttons

To much and to high high

This amplefier has a pro look and has gold platted in and outputs but that doesn''t say anything. I think, after using a cheap AX-492 Yamaha amplefier. This Marantz machine has to much irritating high. Doesn''t care what kind of music, but the irri sissing is to high. Because my ears are very good I can hear this too loud, and i don''t like the sound.

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Yamaha cheaper but better natural sound

Expressive midrange, lifelike dynamics.

Could use more vibration dampening.

Believe the other reviews re: this CD player - it has an amazing sound and is an amazing value. This machine is replacing my five-times-the-price Sony XA20ES / Parasound D/AC 2000 Ultra combination. If you've ever wanted to get into vacuum tube components the Toejb is a perfect point of daparture. You'll be surprised at the differences that various models and brands of tubes can make. Kevin Deal at www.upscaleaudio.com (the US importer and direct retailer of the Tjoeb) knows as much about vacuum tubes as anyone your're going to encounter. He also has the best selection of NOS tubes in the country and probably the world. If you do open up your Tjoeb to swap out the tubes, notice the high quality components and great care the Ah! folks use when upgrading the Marantz platform. This is no hack upgrade. My advise is, if your interested enough in high end audio to be reading this review, take a chance and purchase an Ah! Tjoeb. You'll be amazed at the quality of sound for the money spent. Also, if you have no prior experience with vacuum tube components (as was the case with me) you'll understand what all the shouting's about.

System:
Ah! Tjoeb CD Player (w/ SuperCrystal and AC NoiseKiller)
SAE 8000 Tuner
Adcom GFP-750 Preamp
B&K ST-1400 Amp
NHT 1.5 Speakers
Tara Klara Speaker Cable
BRL Interconnects

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There are few CD players with a tube output stage available, none in this price range.

sound quality

build quality

this is a wonderful sounding player, very smooth, yet
detailed, and makes many unlistenable cd's on my Marantz 63,
listenable! I have not changed stock tubes, sounds great
as is. I have compared it with the latest Jolida 603, and
though some may prefer the Jolida's more up-front presentation, and thumpy bass, in my system, the Ah! works
best. I've used it with my ASUSA k2003 SET, as well as the
JoLida 1701 hybrid, both terrific designs. The Marantz 38
is not built like the 63, smaller and lighter, with less
features and a flimsier tray, but it sounds better!
The only real complaint I have is it requires a Torx T-10
tool to remove the screws on the top plate....but we all
have one of those laying around, right? RIGHT! One last
note of interest, my first unit came with only 3 feet!
Obviously, it was removed during modification, and not
replaced when shipped. Kevin, at upscale audio, was kind
enough to Fed Ex me a replacement, now that's customer
service! Price vs sound quality, it's a no-brainer this
one deserves a 5.

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Marantz 63SE special edition

Warmth, Sound stage depth, imaging

Bottom end bloat

I have the player with the Crystal Mod and Amperex 7308 tuubes. I have compared it extensively with My Rotel RCD971 player which I found only marginally inferior to my old ADCOM GCD 750. The ah tjoeb has incredible life compared to the Rotel. I believe it has the edge to the rotel in the high frequencies, but a bit more bloated on the bottom end. Since I am using the Paradigm Active 20 speakers, the bloating may well be the an artifact of their reproduction.

I just wish this unit had HDCD because I find it important to me. But then again, for what price?

What is really nice is I can owe the Ah Tjoeb and my Rotel for less than the price of a Meridian or The Adcom and feel totally guiltless.....which in my estimation, makes it sound better!

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RCD 971, Adcom GCD 750

Clarity and reproduction of strings, horns, and voices.

Cheap remote and no ability to turn power on/off with the remote.

This is a fantastic product especially for the price. You can read the rest of the reviews for all the hyperbole (and it is justified). However, for informational purposes,
I took my Tjoeb 99 to a friend's place to try it on his system and compare it to his CD player (a Rega Planet).
His system consists of the following components:

Odeyssey Monoblock amplifiers
VTL 2.5 preamplifier
MSB Gold Link DAC
PSB Stratus Goldi speakers
JPS labs speaker cable

Obviously my friend is an audiophile.
We started the test by playing the two CD players without the benefit of the DAC. Playing the same CDs through both of our players, we both determined that the Tjoeb 99 was better.
It was more dynamic. The highs were higher and the lows were lower. The Rega was also muted. It seemed if it was playing through a fog or from a great distance away.
The input into the preamp was through Silver Sonic RCA style interconnects.
Next we played the two players through the DAC using both the RCA style interconnects and using a digital out cable instead. Again my Tjoeb sounded better. The same responses as last
time was experienced by both of us. It was definitely more obvious at this time though I must admit the clarity at the upper end was slightly better on the Planet. My friend didn't feel that
way. He felt the Tjoeb was beeter all around (just so you have an opposing point of view).
The final test was to put his two jitter reducers in the stream between the CD players and the DAC. At this point the Tjoeb was totally blown away. Not even in the same neighborhood. Even discs that
sounded terrible on both players prior to the jitter reducers sounded great on the Planet. They didn't seem to make much of a difference to the TJoeb.
My conclusions are this. The Tjoeb is a great CD player. For the price it will outperform many players that are three times as costly. With tweaking you can get the full potential out of the
more expenxive units but again that is additional cost. While the sound quality of that kind of tweaking is exceptional, the sound quality that I have at !/3 or less the cost is already fantastic.
I don't regret my purchase and I would highly reccomend one to anyone who cares about music. Perhaps with some tweaking myself (different types of tubes) I might get even better sound.
Now if I can only get them to upgrade it to 24/96 output...........

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Harmon/Kardan TL8500

open, 3-dimensional sound; stability.

"Tjoebing a week". Together with my collegue I made an appointment with Rob Wilms to go and listen to the Tjoeb. After a brief listening-session and a comparison with the Marantz CD63KI, we agreed that we couldn't deny the existence of the Tjoeb. Such a good cd-player for such a reasonable price, didn't make the decision to buy one, very difficult. In the meantime I have an one week experience with the Tjoeb at my own place with my own equipment. I can't say anything else than that the difference with my previous player, a Marantz CD63SE, is extremely big. Especialy the transparency, the excellent detail and the beautiful three-dimensional soundstage, are quite obvious. The sound completely seperated from the speakers. Placement of instruments and vocalists was very stable with a lot of 'air' between them. With the Tjoeb a new era in CD-music-reproduction started for me. Gone is the gritty and harsh cd-sound. Instead of that, the Tjoeb gives a liquid analogue-like cd-reproduction, being utterly musical in every aspect. My compliments to the Tjoeb-team!

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Marantz cd63SE

incredible sound, even more incredible price

feels light, somewhat cheap

I got the upgraded crystal, amperex tubes, ac noise killer, also came with digital out for recording or external dac. It sounded decent out of the box and now that it is burned in, it sounds awesome. I would heartily recommend this cd player to anyone looking for great sound and a great value. Just look at the reviews here, it easily outperforms players costing 2 and 3 times as much.

Used with:
Acurus ACT3
Rotel 985
AH! TJOEB 99
Boston Acoustic VR M60s
Boston Acoustic PV600

Smooth... Tweakability... Service

At this price.. very little.

I wouldn't buy into the better than $3000.00 players crowd. I honestly don't take the advice of either slammers (it sucks!) or the fanantic ( best player in the world!!). I can say, I really like what I got for the money invested. Compared to the Perpetual Technologies DAC & anti-jitter/upsampling boxes ($1650.00 without the transport, 2000.00 with one) it has fewer details. I found the Perpetual stuff just picked up everything on the CD. Is that good? I guess if you want to hear everything, I don't. I found myself enjoying the music with the AH Thoeb opposed to listening to the equipment. The Perpetual stuff has more of the Wow factor but for long term enjoyment I liked the AH Toeb. Don't take this too seriously though, the $1500 price differnce had a huge impact on what I bought and personal preferences will really play a roll. My personal preference was to pocket the $1500 and buy a Thoeb! :)

I've read the reviews (TNT, Sterophille). They don't praise the Thoeb like the people here. Why? I would say that much of audio is subjective. Don't take any one source's opinion too highly unless you know what they like and your taste are similiar. The TNT review mentions the output voltage being very high and that that might contribute to the confusion in complicated passages. Of course the reviewer either didn't know or mention that the output voltage can be changed. How much credence should you give a reviewer that doesn't even understand the equipment they are reviewing?

His quote: "Speaking about noises: the Tjoeb's output voltage was a damn loud 3.5V, where 2V is the norm. With my amplification this meant that only the lowest 10% of the volume control's range could be used.
Owners of passive preamps will love this, but all others are left wondering about the why of this blast. (Hell, I'd rather see all digital sources at a much kinder 500mV or so, or, alternatively, the total gain of the downstream amplification should be reduced!) "

and also relevant:

"It is funny how this valve CDP handles loud and complex passages in the music: Be it a Monteverdi choir trying to reach the roof of a cathedral, or the Walkabouts' electric guitars in full battle with a string section, the Tjoeb sounds laaarge. Larger than the Rega.
But it also muddles, loses detail and the specificity of individual sounds, turning everything more or less into a homogenized mass as the volume level soars. This always in a very controlled and gradual manner, mind you, so that not too much attention is drawn to this phenomenon. "


I don't know whether changing the output voltage would have cured these attibutes for the reviewer but we will never know because he didn't do it! I'm not trying to slam TNT (ok, just a little). They have tons of good info on their site but I consider not knowing or using the output voltage change to be a major error in reviewing the product.


By the way, everything said about Kevin at Upscale Audio is true. A really great person to deal with. I bought a tube pre amp from him that I'm very happy with.

This is a fun product to own. If you like to tweak it will appease that tendency. I rate it a 5 for both value and overall simply because it really is a great product at this price.

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Perpetual Technologies PA1 & P3A, Toshiba & Pioneer DVD players and an old Technics CD player.