Excellent build quality, esoteric looks, sounds excellent on frequency extremes (low bass and upper registers),rich sounding on well recorded CD's.

Remote, delay in reading disc and tracks, audible buzz and pop when disc has been read and track begins to play, glass door scratches with normal use from sliding back and forth, very plane face plate, front buttons feel "cheap", no HDCD.

At 795.00 thru AudioAdvisor, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try this player out. I've never had the pleasure of hearing a belt-drive machine and with the drop in price of $1000, I had to try it.

Unfortunately, I have to say the player has left me a bit disappointed. This is not to say it isn't a very good player, because it is. Is it the best for $800? Maybe, but I don't think it is. Is it the best for its retail of 1795.00? I say it definitely isn't. When compared to my other digital gear, the value of this machine is not as lofty as I had anticipated.

First off, the display on my unit was installed crooked at the factory, or else it popped loose in transit. It doesn't seem loose and the box arrived undamaged, so I think the prior is the case. Unacceptable for a unit at its price.

The glass on the sliding door is already scratched from sliding in and out of the machine. Now, granted, it isn't visible most of the time and doesn't effect sound quality, but does look bad on such an otherwise elegent piece of gear when light hits it.

When selecting a track near the end of a CD, the machine takes too long to access it. Track ten takes 11 seconds to start playing after it is selected. For those CD's with 20 or more tracks, it can approach 20 seconds. Once the track is read, the player emits an audible buzz and then a pop when the track starts playing. Perhaps these items are not typical of the machine and mine WAS in fact damaged in transit. I have AudioAdvisor checking this for me now.

Now for the sound. As mentioned above, the lower bass and upper treble are first rate. The upper registers have a noticable air to them while the bass, while not the last word in extension, is tight and deep enough to be satisfying. I noted no smearing of bass notes and individual instruments came through. The machine possesses very good imaging and a better than average soundstage. Listen to "Angel" on the City of Angels soundtrack and note how well the bass notes on the piano shine through.

The machine has a nice, rich sound but tends to let a little brightness through on some discs. This really surprises me after what I read about the machine in other reviews. It also has a more forward presence that my Transport/DAC. My outboard DAC has HDCD. Without question, on those discs encoded with HDCD, my dedicated CD components outshine the 5100Z in bass extension, soundstage depth and height, and overall presence. My transport is a bulletproof, older Yamaha 845 5 disc changer and my DAC is an Audio ALchemy DDE 3.0 w/ HDCD. Both are connected by a first rate MIT digital interface. The system has sounded excellent since I mated the two.

The smoothest player that I currently own is, don't laugh, my DVD player. From top to bottom, no frequencies outshine the other. When compared to the 5100Z, the DVD 940 has less grain and leaves the listener with no fatigue. Also, the soundstage and imaging are noticably better. The DVD player has a 24 bit DAC which has been said to smooth out the sound of these players. Their is no perception of a "veil" over the sound. While close, I don't feel the 5100Z quite has the smoothness of the Philips DVD.

I bought MIT Terminator 2 interconnects and speaker cables a week before the C.E.C. They are astonishing cables and made a wonderful difference in the sound of my system (I was using older MIT and Tara Labs cables prior). For 200.00 on sale, I couldn't have made a better investement in my system. The difference these cables made far outweigh the suble differences in some areas of the sound that the 5100Z has made.

I am returning my 5100Z, but this move certainly doesn't say the player is not a contender. In my system, the cost of the C.E.C versus any improvement in sound just doesn't justify me keeping it in my system. With all of the advancements in digital sound, my advice is to wait to see what new formats and products come on the scene in the next couple of years.

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No all in one players except for my Philips DVD 940 player. My dedicated CD front end has always consisted of transport and DAC. See below for more detail.

Balance, musicality, elegance

Slow cue time; one can get used to this and is a design feature resulting from the belt.

Sonically, this unit strikes the balance for me between the too-laid-back Planet and the hyper-detailed NAD. Both good players depending on system and taste no doubt, but not for me.
Bass is good; not world-class but approaching it. I agree with reviewer #11 in that it is probaly not a contender at $1,795 but certainly is at $800, particularly given the 30-day trial (I attach a value of at least 10% to this feature alone. Who anymore lets you audition for 30 days except low-end sellers like BB/CC/Sears?).
Detail is fine but not fatiguing. I don't feel like I'm missing info like I did with the Planet (what is the deal with the cult status of this thing, anyway?). The NAD left me exhausted in minutes.
Sound can be a bit (a BIT) forward, but I'm not done playing with cables yet. This player is equally balanced with classical, jazz or pop vocals.
Its looks clinch the deal for me. I got the gold with some trepidation, thinking it might be too gaudy, but I was ready to take a risk. It is not really gold but a very classy-looking champagne.
I don't have any gripes with the remote or the buttons. When I play a CD, I listen to the whole thing because I choose music I like. I had a programmable Sony and never once used any of the fancy features I paid $$ for. For me now, it's simplicity and function first.
This is a player that gets it right without yelling "Look at me!" I am sure there are better, but not for the money.

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Rega Planet, NAD 540

Very good as a transport, both in warmth and detail. Very well built.

Lacks hyper detail as a stand alone player. Slow track to Track access.

For $800.00 it is a fairly good cd player. It is very warm sounding and maintains a very black bounground. On the other hand, it does not bring about the hyper detail that a good $2000.00 cd alone would. That is not to say the the detail is not very good, it is. It is just not in line with good cd players in that price catagory. As a transport, this player sounds much different. I pair mine with an MSB link. The two make an outstanding pair, making me believe that the weekness in detail is solely due to the outdated D to A converter contained in the unit. You get both the warmth and hyper detail of a good $2000-$3000 player without the cost. The only downside is that you loose a little of the black background (the silence of the background though is still within excellent parameters). I use a kimber KCAG silver coaxial digital cable between the two which seems to work very well. So, for the price as a stand alone CD player I give it a 4. For performance as a cd transport I give it a five.

built like a tank,superb sound,and a great bargan for only $795.00 from Audio Advisor

remote's build quality don't stand up to the unit

It's been a little over a month since I got the unit. When the unit arrived,I carried it down to my listening room. Then I said to myself, damn this thing is heavy for a cd transport! I cracked open the box and I was please with the beautiful gold finish. Hooked it up and it sounds so... good I instantly noticed the difference from my Sony DVPS7700 DVD Player. I sounds so good that I went though almost my whole CD collection. Let's just say I spent hours enjoying the unit that day. I have to say it is the best CD player I've heard so far. My next purchase will be a better DAC.

My system: DENON AVR4800 as my DAC and pre amp
Mcintosh MC352
JM Lab Electra915
MIT Cables

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none that will give you the same sound and build quality for this low price.

very musical performance, great build quality

cheap remote, delay time in disc load, popping noise when changing tracks

Everyone's already mentioned the excellent build quality, ditto to that.
I picked this up for about $400 (used) and was extremely pleased with it.
I was most happy with it's musically involving performance, it certainly has less of that CD harshness that many other players suffer from.
It's bass is very good and very tweakable! I got best performace from the
CEC when I used some carbon blocks underneath it. Spikes and absorbant feet
also produce a different bass signature.
Interesting to hear people mention the amount of detail they were hearing,
I thought detail extraction was good but nothing exceptional.
On the negative side is it's slow loading time and time to change between
tracks (due to it's belt drive). And also I heard a faint popping sound between
each track that was annoying.

All in all a very good unit for the price, in fact I had to spend a lot more
($900 for the Teac) to get much of a noticeable difference in performance.

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Sony xa55es, Teac vrds25xs

Beautiful player.Well built heavy chassis. Great feel to the
top-loading mechanism.

Puck clamp seemed to get stuck pulling on the transport spindle occasionally when lifted. Detail average. Somewhat congested at high volumes.

The player is warm and musical overall, but with a somewhat bloated and non detailed bass. The warmth comes at the expense of transparency. Sounds nice and rich at low to moderate volume levels, but gets congested and less detailed at higher volume levels. I would have kept it, but I believe my systemn (Plinius M16 pre, Plinius SA250MkIV power, Dunlavy SC-IV, and cables by Siltech and Ensemble)
would benefit from an even better player. Overall, I haven't heard better for $800.00. But, it is not as good as the DAC1/DVD combo (cost $1300-1500) or some better one box separates.

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BelCanto DAC1

Nice build, nice looks.

HELP! I sent my first CEC back because when i changed from one track to the next i could hear popping thru the speakers and it was HORRID! The second one came and i'm having the same problem. any ideas out there on why this is happening or how to fix it?

The popping SUCKS! I don't think the detail is as nice as some say and it's a bit piercing on teh high ends. i guess for $800 i could do worse but my hopes where built up with this thing and shattered by the popping and shrieking treble.

In case it helps evaluate my system is as follows:

audio research d-60 mono amps
audio research pre amp
acoustat electrostatic speakers
other stuff

I DO LOVE AUDIO ADVISOR HOWEVER. They were quick to take the first one back and all my other purchases from them have been beautiful and smooth.

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Rotel cd player