Price Paid:  $0.00 from Hi-Fi Store

Summary:
No problems with the sound but build quality is not what it should be. CD is very flimsy and shutting has been intermittent since purchase. Usually have to push tray in to finish closing. This machine is a poor tracker. The cheap player in my old Pentium II plays CD tracks that the Rotel cannot access.

Strengths:
sound quality

Weaknesses:
poor build quality of tray nechanism poor tracking ability

Price Paid:  $120.00 from another music listener

Summary:
I can compare this to Rotel's 971 CD player. I bought this from another individual for $120. I was surprised that it looked a little ordinary. I had heard it was a decent player, and I expected a little bit of a racy look, but it's very boring looking. I heard it, and I was surprised again. It plays marvelously. The tone is very nice, the detail is quite sufficient. I have this hooked up to a Marantz 2385 receiver and AR-2ax speakers. It sounds incredible. That's mostly due to the Marantz reciver, but the CD player is still great in its own right.

I think if you want to get really picky, the S/N ratio is not quite 100 dB by my best guess, the detail is very subtly less than the 971 and the overall build quality is good, but not great. It works fine though and feels pretty solid, even if it looks average. Besides those minor quibbles, I think that for the money, it is an excellent player that competes very well with my Rotel 971 that I paid $400 more for, and the 940BX has nothing to be ashamed of. For the money, you can't go wrong and for that I feel like I got a helluva deal and give it 5 stars for value.

Strengths:
Very nice detail, good tone, plays excellently.

Weaknesses:
Not quite as good of a signal-to-noise ratio as other players made today. Transport tray is not as solid as I'd like.

Similar Products Used:
Rotel 971

Summary:
Just purchased a used RDC-940BX for $150 for a secondary system in my study. Replaces an older Onkyo. Very meaty sonically with good detail. My best friend has the RCD-950BX that replaced the 940. The 950 has slighlty better imaging but overall they are very similar. My main system has a Cambridge CD6. While the CD6 is superior, I am do not experience any let down when in my study listening to the Rotel. Not many of these were made, but if you find one for sale somewhere be sure to pick it up. Using the 940 with an NAD 312 Amp and B&W DM601 speakers.

Summary:
Finally replaced by dying dbx DX-5 CD player with the Rotel. The dbx was top-of-the-line in the mid-80s (dual 16bit, 4x oversample, dbx controls) and I didn't expect to hear much difference. The less expensive Rotel is a dual 18bit/8x oversample job. Very stripped down.
The Rotel sounds much better than the DBX. Smoother, with a better high-end; And surprisingly, much better imaging. Using Audioquest Turquoise 'connects to my Nak receiver. I also demoed higher-end Rotel when I purchased the 940BX, and I didn't hear much of a difference. Build quality is so-so. However, Rotel fixed my CD player when it was just out of warranty for nothing. They've earned my loyality!! This model was discontinued soon after I purchased it. Apparently, it was too good for the $$$.

I'd like to get a 24/96 CD with the HDCD decoder as my next stop -- Or a DVD with an outboard processor.

For the money, 4 stars.