Rob

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.33 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $249.00 from ebay

Summary:
This is a piece of electronic art. If you can find one of these on ebay, snag it. I got this in an attempt to upgrade to mid-fi from the usual suspects: Denon, Marantz, etc. Looking at the reviews on this site, I decided between the RCD 971 and this one. Rather than take you through all the "my system is comprised of..." or "the soundstage blah, blah, blah" garbage, I'll simply state that this machine provides a marked sonic improvement over all other CDP's I've had in my system. When I first racked it, I thought I'd use a coax digital line to my DAC. I didn't hear a big difference. So I put my CD changer back on the coax, and straightwired the 975's "analog out" with some good RCA's. I guess there's something to be said about a quality on-board DAC...and that something is "don't mess with it". The dual 20-bit/18x oversampling chips are outstanding as stand-alones. The difference in sound was almost incredible. Yes, incredible. So noticeable, even my sonically-challenged wife commented when I popped-in her favorite Peter Cincotti CD. I'm feeling a little guilty about getting this for just $250, with the improvement it's made on my system. But I'll get over it. The build quality is exceptional, the control functionality is impeccable, and the sleek profile make it a joy to look at. If you believe it's "all about the music", I recommend you find an RCD 975. Yeah, it's older, but it kicks the pants off most of the newer consumer-grade stuff you'll listen to (Sony, Denon, Harmon-Kardon, etc.).

Strengths:
Incredible sound. What more could you ask for?

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Marantz, Nakamichi, Denon, Sony

Price Paid:  $400.00 from Audio Den, Lakegrove

Summary:
I love the Rotel RCD 975 for its sound and looks. Its punchy without being tiresome,detailed without extending into hyper detail,reflects good and bad equipment but not to the point of making cheaper equipment sound worse. Its not a Wadia or a Mark Levinson,but for about $700 it was a honey of a player. Im not sure of the model year,so i guessed. Ive had this player for about 4 years. I purchased it as a demo player. The only complaints i have is the draw dont open and close properly now(seems to be a common problem),and i have to get it fixed,but i love the sound so much that im going to get extra parts to keep it running longer. Ill never sell it,and may even look for a back up used,seeing that they no longer offer this unit. My brother has a Marantz 67se. We purchased our units about the same time,and the Rotel has more extention in the highs and lows,and just sounds more balanced to me. The staging might be a little more focused on the marantz,but overall the Rotel sounds a bit better. Also,how come everyone except the first few reviewers only rated an overall rating and not a value rating? I think the sweet sound of this player has made all of you lazy!!!

Strengths:
Sweet balanced sound with some authority. Looks nice. Detailed,open,good bass extention.

Weaknesses:
CD draw has a common problem of not opening and closing properly after awhile. Could use a removable power cord. A volume control would have been nice,because eliminating the preamp would have given some more punch and dynamics to the sweet sounding player. It is dynamic,dont get me wrong,but it would have probably given a bit more edge without the preamp in the line.

Similar Products Used:
marantz 67 se,cal power boss,sony,pioneer,classe,theta,adcom,carver

Price Paid:  $650.00 from Audio consultants

Summary:
I am not going to restate all the great things about this player, which I agree with fully. I will though add my personal experiences. Do you want to bring it up a notch to easily compete with the $1000-$1400 players. 1st, have your local repair center convert it with an EIC socket to be able to use a detachable high-end power cord. 2nd, add chassy dampening material to top, sides, bottom, and back. 3rd, add very small amounts of blue tack to D/A converters, digital clock (enclosed in a rubber thingy), and op amps. What will you hear? Tighter better defined bass, clearer midrange, deeper sound stage, smoother highs, removeal of a veil covering musical presentation, more air and less confussion in complicated music passages. You dont need a 24 bit processor or tube output on this fine player. You just need more current to the great power supply (power cord) and a well dampened chassy like the real high priced units. Go for it and you will blow away the new Jolida jd-100, Micromegas, Arcams, etc. The Jolida lacks true deep bass, the Micromegas smear the sound, and the Arcams are thin sounding.

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Price Paid:  $568.00 from Advance

Summary:
I just purchased this cd player after reading the reviews here and testing various other brands. I tried the cambridge audio player. Sounded quite decent though I couldn't see myself paying 500$ for a player that I couldn't read the display on. I listened to a Rokson caspian. It was too warm and colored the sound far tooo much for my lieing. I also considered if it ever had to be repaired(expensive to do). I went with the Rotel 975. It cost me 500$ used, but is an exceptional player. Dual DA converters 20 bit 16 times OS with a self calibrating DAC ( changes depending on heat and voltage. ). I know of no other player which has this feature. The transport and lazers in it are by philips. The cd creators. The display is easy to read. You press play with the tray open and it closes automatically and starts playing. The sound stage is very accurate and the use of really good cables shows the entire musical range. It also played a sheffield labs burned cdr that my sony wouldn't. It has .002 THD and better that 106 db. A really really wicked player. NO COLORING just transparent great sound. It even sound better than both newer models of rotel I listened to the 961 and to 1070. GO figure. I guess cd's were at there height in the 95-98 period. Hence the grat quality. I actually like the sound of the 20 bit players as opposed to the 24 bit. I think cd's have just gone way overboard in the present, and they need new formats sacd, hdcd, etc. I think it's more so for the sell a $5,000 player factor. I am running a Rotel 975 cd, Belden 9860 custom interconnects(78% VOP), NAD 7100 pre amp section, Bryston 3bst amp, NAD take deck, sony ns415dvd, Torens TD 160, and B and W 604 series 3 speakers bi wired with acoustic research 12 gauge. If you can find one of these cd players for sale grab it, you won't be sorry. I think the other reviewer should remove his outboard DAC and let the players DAC take over though.

Strengths:
simple with exceptional design and twin self calibrating DAC's. Solid buttons and tray seams solid also.

Weaknesses:
crappy round plastic base feet, just replace with cones.

Similar Products Used:
NAD 513(crap), sony ns415 dvd, fisher, and about a 1/2 dozen other.

Price Paid:  $711.00 from Almas Hifi

Summary:
I felt it was time to give this player a review since I've just bought a brand new Pioneer Elite DVD-A,SACD player to compare it with. Lets just say this, I'm still trying to get the pioneer to sound as good as my Rotel. I took my sacd of Alison Krauss and played it with both players and I can't tell a difference. I do have the Rotel connected to a outboard Parrasound Dac. But the rotel is 8 years old and I still can't believe the sound. If anyone can buy this player for 300.oo or in that area, it surely is a great buy.

Strengths:
very open soundstage(with good pre-amp,amp set-up)will send everything through to speakers. Some systems that might not be the best thing, but with a good system, just awesome.

Weaknesses:
even after 8 years my drawer still opens, so none so far. Maybe one. It makes it hard to find better components in the future.

Similar Products Used:
Jvc 7 disc cd player,Sony dvd, Pioneer Dvd-a, sacd