Summary:
I had bought a Rotel 855 CD sometime in 1991. It had serviced me well for many years. For the last couple of years, the drawer began to take on a life of its own. It was very sensitive and would close erratically. I decided it was time to go audition new equipment. I set a limit of $1000. I brought home a California Audio Labs and a new set of interconnects. The result was impressive, until I switched the interconnects to my Rotel, which then began producing near similar sounds in extensive A/B tests. I didn't think the CAL was worth it. I auditioned an Arcam at home as well. This unit is nearly identical in sound to the Rotel. It also seems rather cheaply made - the entire chasis seems to be made of plastic. So, I decided to up the ante and break the $1000 limit. The Parasound is barely over this limit, but the difference was very significant. The sound is fuller than any player I listened to. It has a soft high end and bottom end that helps dampen the affects of CD's to my ears. I like the interaction with the top loader and counter weight. If you are looking for player in the $1000 range without a separate D/A, this is a great choice.
Other equipment: Linn Intek, Krix Equinox, Linn Soundek, Audio Truth Interconnects.

Summary:
I bought this machine from Audio Advisor, who offer a 30 day trial purchase. I liked the player. It had very good definition, presence, and bass response. It was clearly better sounding than my Denon DCD820, but I felt it didn't do enough to mitigate the CD harshness which I object to. The belt drive transport was easy to use and absolutely silent during operation. The machine seemed quite well made. It has balanced as well as RCA outputs. The remote didn't always work on the first try. Audio Advisor graciously took it back and granted a refund.I ended up buying a used McIntosh MCD7007 which I like very much.
If you audition this machine, allow a good 36 hours of continuous break in (use the repeat mode) before passing any judgements. This is typical of most or all CD players as well as audio components in general.

Summary:
Surprisingly, this combo has not been reviewed here. I bought them as the final change in upgrading my system, started 12 months ago thinking I was just going to get a more powerful amp than my little Naim, looked at Carver on mail orderstarting reading this site, started auditioning, and now with a McCormack TLC/1, DNA.5 combo driving my new Legacy Sig 3s, I have the whole shebang upgraded (and the bank balance seriously downgraded).
I was looking to replace my 5 year old Rotel 945ax, found no satisfaction with Marantz 63SE or even the Rega Planet and realised I probably needed to step up to a serious player. Got a great deal on these as an ex-demo clearance from a Parasound dealer and could not resist. I use the standard coaxial link (TARA Decade). Nice simple design (though my wife could not figure out how to set the DAC once when I unplugged in a storm and upon power-up, it defaulted to AES/EBU - she claims she pushed every switch and could not get it to work before giving up). As long as it's plugged in, the DAC will keep a memory of the normal setting. Loading is a bit fiddly with the clamp and the remote control is the worst I have ever experienced - limited functionality and extremely narrow range of operation. But these are fairly minor quibbles soon forgotten when the music starts.

I am not a huge believer in expensive digital and with so much change imminent in format and sampling rates etc. I was tempted to sit on my Rotel for another year or so to see what happened. However, opportunity arose and the money spent on this has never been regretted (but then do we ever regret anything once we've bought it and it is not a disaster?). Compared to others, it is super smooth, emminently musical, and seems to just give back more of the music. It's not simply a matter of detail to my ears, this player seems to control everything and sound more solid than other players. Not as warm and bassy sounding as the Rega, but it makes the Rotel sound a bit rough in comparison. I have not tried the DAC with my old Rotel so I can't say which component is more important, but the combination of the belt driven transport and the dac is very satisfying to my ears.

Physically, the transport weighs a ton, it makes other players seem like toys. The dust cover needs to be kept closed as the laser tray is a dust trap. Player automatically stops when the door is slid back. Read a review in one mag that said you could hear the transport whirring during quiet passages - I've not experienced that, mine is silent. Aesthetically it's a bit plain - all black, slightly industrial/utilitarian style, no real effort (or money) put into making it look expensive, and that's fine by me if the rest of the package is good, and in this case it is.

I subscribe to the garbage in- garbage out school of reproduction, but I conclude from my last year of listening that the CD component made the smallest incremental change in sound. I got the most drastic difference switching to Sig 3 speakers from my Kef 103/2s, and then from the amp change. The front end was the icing on the cake and leads me to view all claims for super improvements in cd players with caution. I suppose if I feel motivated I could set up all combos of amp/speakers/front end since I kept my old system and moved it to the bedroom, but right now, things sound so nice I can' t be bothered changing anything. This is the best system I ever owned and I have never heard better in anyone's house. So, in short, I recommend this combo, and now that Audio Advisor are selling the DAC at 25% off list, I think they may be available at the right price. I seriously doubt I would have paid anything close to the list price of $3500 for them or any CD player.

Final review - great sound, but poor remote and very pricey at list, so 4 stars. If you can get the pair for under 2k, then a great 5 star set-up.