Price Paid:  $835.00 from eBay

Summary:
Just upgraded from Arcam 7 CD and amp, 8 tuner to CD92T, A85, P85, T61 divas. I can't believe the difference, mind you I have just bought £168 QED cable too. All I can say is wow, it's like James Lavelle is in my living room. Clarity, detail, imaging and sheer involvement. Beautiful. It's showing just how good my old Linn speakers actually are too.

Arcam truly must be amongst the best. Was listening to my mate's nice Musical Fidelity/Tannoy set-up the other day and it didn't sound as good as my old Arcams, let alone these. I think the upgrade bug has been sated (for the time being anyway ;-))

Strengths:
Musicality. Depth, Detail, Involvement. Everything.

Weaknesses:
Too big to fit on my shelf so is residing on the floor. She won't be happy when she wakes up!

Price Paid:  $700.00 from Where do you think,n

Summary:
First off anybody that disses these players,must have problems in other areas of their stereo,because i hate to break it to them it isnt the cd player,these are classics,with unbeatable sound,and used a steal.Its pretty hard to find a decent cd player,now and in the past,sure you can find a average one,but who wants average not me

Strengths:
the sound

Weaknesses:
The fact that Arcam didnt renew thier licence with dsc and left consumers having to scrouch around looking for used,Cmom Arcam be the man,hook up with dcs again,cmon i dare you,do it.You had a good thing going with dcs you dropped the ball on the 1 yardline at the end of the Super bowl. Game over Score dcs with Arcam 100,Arcam without dcs 0

Similar Products Used:
Too many to name and none comes close to cd92t

Price Paid:  $800.00 from used

Summary:
I love this player!!!!
Combines liveliness and smoothness to produce an effortless sound.Particularly good with Vocals.Cannot really fault the player.Why pay more?My old Naim CD3 sounded like a box of nails in comparison
The DCS Ring-Dac Arcams are the ones to buy.The Cheaper CD7,although good is not in the same league and the newer CD93 and
CD33 do not use the same DAC.Apparently many prefer the CD92 and FMJ23.The FMJ23
is almost the same as the 92 with a few small tweaks to the power supply.

Strengths:
All round.Musical,full bodied.Insightful

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Naim CD3,Linn Karik,Nad,Sony xb930

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I was somewhat under-whelmed by this player. The sound is well balanced, clean & dynamic, but texture is dry and somewhat mechanical and not as musical or lush (read: expensive sounding) as others that can be had for similar or less money. For instance, a Marantz SA14 ($1600 used) sounded smoother and more substantial on redbook (on SACD it blew the Arcam away). Even the less expensive Rotel RCD1072 gave a sweeter and less forced presentation, but it wasn’t as dynamic. The 92T’s deep bass is weak compared to the Marantz. I also question the Arcam’s timing - everything sounds faster through it than the other machines. I don’t feel as relaxed listening to the Arcam for long periods.

BUILT: This is the one area I am most disappointed with. Fair enough, the money went into the guts right? Wrong. The CD92T’s interior is second rate. Parts quality doesn’t measure up given the price – flimsy construction and lots of cheap ceramic caps. It has a plastic transport; the Marantz uses diecast metal. The CD92T has a small power supply compared to the Marantz and, believe it or not, RCD1072. The CD92T uses a conventional transformer for much of its circuitry; both Rotel and Marantz use hefty toroidal transformers (the SA14’s transformer is a thing of beauty). Also evidence of sloppy assembly inside the CD92T– fingerprints everywhere! Pieces of sorbothane appeared randomly stuck to the top of some caps (???). The CD92T is also lightweight for a cd player in its price class (12 lb); RCD1072 weighs 13 lb.; SA14 26 lb! Give Arcam credit for hiding the small power supply caps, they’re not easy to get to (modifiers take note!)

ERGONOMICS: Nice faceplate and controls. But remote looks and feels like some generic device from Radio Shack. Layout is confusing and more than half the buttons don’t apply. The RCD1072 remote doesn’t win any awards either, but it looks like it was designed for the machine and all buttons are smartly laid out and functional. The Marantz remote is in another league altogether.

Bottom line: The CD92T is a good player but no bargain. Obviously a victim of Transatlantic price penalty, it looks, feels and sounds more like it should be priced around $1000! In my opinion the Rotel will sound as good in most systems for less money. Absolute Sound is correct in naming Rotel product of the year. If you can afford the Marantz SA14, buy it. It is the best SACD player under $5K. The old Alpha 9 (essentially a CD92T wrapped in plastic) may be a bargain in its day. But its descendant is outclassed by its peers.

Strengths:
Balance, detail, dynamics

Weaknesses:
Dry texture

Similar Products Used:
Marantz SA14
Rotel RCD1072

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from AV Driver

Summary:
I call it the "other" system doldrums. That's when you have to fit a second/third/fourth room with gear that should approximate your "mother" system at a much smaller budget.

It all began with the search for my upgrade for my 7 year old bedroom system comprised of a CAL Audio DX1 CD plyr, Integra 919, and B&W CDM 2 mini-monitors. The JFET output stages on my DX1 along with their Sigma Delta DACs just weren't doing it for me anymore as with the rest of the gear. I added a MF X24k Dac which kept me satisfied for a year but you know how it goes with this hobby. I decided to ship that system to the summer house and start anew.

After extensive integrated Amp auditions I settled on an FMJ over the MF A3 and very sweet but very slow VTL. The perfect match was the Revel M20 over the Dynaudio 1.1, Nautilus 805, Veritas 2.1, and the ProAc Tablette. The CD92 was my second choice as i couldn't afford the CD23. I bought the CD Player and the Integrated and decided to use it with a pair of Maggie SMGc Speakers a friend had practically given me for free while I saved up for the M20s. I loved them and still do. I ended up not buying the M20s at all.

The system couldn't play very loud with the maggies sucking up all the available current but as it really for bedroom use, it was and is perfect for light pop,jazz, standards, classical, ambient,downbeat or just anything you might want to chill out to. The CD 92 excels at detail and soundstaging and the upsampling function is able to push brickwall filtering way up in the audio band giving it the smoothness lacking in most digital products. For this purpose I'd give it a 5 of 5.

However, I hooked It up to my lounge system comprised of Dynaudio 1.8 mk.2s, an ARC LS16 mk 2 and a Levinson 23.5 using the same MIT Terminator 2 arrays. This may be good or bad but depending on your taste it just had no sound of its own. It had no character. All the musical information was present but despite the ARC's tubes it just felt like it lacked soul. I am by no means a bass head but this CD player sounded a bit thin lacking that 150 - 250 Hz punch.

It therefore lacks the versatility all players at this pricepoint should posses. I have got to bring it down to 4 of 4.

Strengths:
clean, detailed, revealing

Weaknesses:
uninvolving, cheap chassis, generic remote

Similar Products Used:
rega planet, jupiter, sony9000es, DX1-x24k combo, Sony DVD777-MSB Link DAC combo, Sony DVD777-Proceed AVP2 combo.