AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CD Players
AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CD Players
USER REVIEWS
[Dec 11, 2012]
Willem
AudioPhile
I have bought my Njoe Tjoeb 4000 second hand and it had already the super clock in it, aswell as the direct power cord and the Tjoeb sjoes, the Tjo Upsampler was build in later by the HifiShop in the Netherlands, so mine is now a reference one with all upgrades.
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[Feb 05, 2011]
Harding Conn
Audio Enthusiast
I would simply like to add to the positive reviews already posted regarding this excellent product. I purchased this player several years ago from Upscale Audio and it is truly one fine component. I've gone the upgrade route to include the enhanced feet, power cord and upsampler board as well as some tube dampers. To me the most compelling part of the player's performance is in the midrange--both male and female vocals are presented intimately with a liquid smoothness. I am presently using it in a home office setup with the following components:
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[Nov 23, 2009]
XUM
AudioPhile
Price paid in 2007 (Brussels): € 700,00 (second hand)
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[Oct 17, 2009]
mreinh8936
AudioPhile
YADA YADA YADA....Everyone is right...Its awesome...enough said....So many say that at this price point.....its hard to find a better player...I have to agree and disagree. Depends upon the tubes living within it. I think it would be hard to find a better sounding player at any price point. This is a recent epiphany for me having owned this unit for 5 years. Bought this unit off audiogon from an Australian living in Canada...hmmm go figure...it had Sovtek 6922 tubes in it at the time and sounded nice...with these tubes I knew other units might sound better..Got some RCA Jans from Kevin Deal...they're nice too. Having recently retubed my Sunfire Classic tube preamp with Amperex Bugle Boys...I was tickled pink with the B boys improving the Sonic performance of my sytem. Alright..thought I'd try some in this player.....OMG!!! WOW! NICE!!!!!!! The Bugle Boys in this unit are a sonic match made in heaven. Reallyreally. A couple of points tho on the unit I might address is that the players upsampler is a bit fragile. When you socket the pins into place, BE CAREFUL!
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[Jun 06, 2009]
s_d_gilchrist
AudioPhile
Like many here, I upgraded from the Tjoeb 99.
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[Feb 18, 2009]
benita
Casual Listener
If possible, and if time permits, I'd like to thread 4 yellow rubberrings around my husbands erect manhood and walk naked through the streets of an high-income neighbourhood. In summer of course, or else the rubberrings might fall off. |
[Jun 04, 2006]
ddutch
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Marvelous value for money. Very lively, natural sound with a great sense of space. Upgradebility
Weakness:
Soundquality depending on used tubes and opamps, Upsampler is a bit expensive. Finally a new review of this great product! I was lucky to buy this Tjoeb for a very nice price, especially since it wasn't used that much cause the former owner used to listen more to his recordplayer. Thats why it was still in unmodified condition when i bought it, apart from the nice tjoeb-shoes.
Customer Service Very good. A friend of mine got a second hand Tjoeb '99 and some troubles were solved due to excellent free advise from AH! in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Similar Products Used: Sony CDP505Es, modified Creek CD60, Arcam CD72, Marantz CD5000
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[Sep 23, 2005]
garthman
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Detail, delicacy, slam, smoothness, involvement and better than average soundstage.
Weakness:
Poor display.. flimsy chassis. (Needs ropecaulk and deadening panels.. easy to do.) I purchased the Ah Njoe Tjoeb 4000 largely because of the high praise it recieves from users on several sites. Over time I have grown to appreciate the subtlety that tubes can provide. It is a fact that tubed equipment can give additional headaches but they provide opportunities to contour the sound for a sort of easy mod too. The Ah Njoe Tjoeb is already a hot rodded commercial player, but with upsamplers, tubes, op-amps etc., the player becomes an audiophile's haven for tweakdom. I have done little to the player, but I have come to appreciate its qualities so much that during a period when the player broke, I found that I could not return to my Sony ES CD player because the sound seemed so lifeless and dull compared to the Ah. The Ah is not short on bass , detail nor extention. However the player does seem to take quite a while to open up when new. The final result for me has been that the Ah is involving, smooth, and detailed, and has punch or slam. It is quite a bargain as audiophile products go, and now has received such wide aclaim that even Stereophile mag has it as a recommended component. It's reputation is well deserved. I tried the original Marantz player on which the Ah is based and let me say that I found the original flat. The evolved Ah is nothing like a stock unit and has led me into learning to hear more as I have spent time with it. Now, Upscale Audio and Kevin Deal are as pleasant to deal with as the the Ah is to own. As I said I did have a problem with the player after the warrantee expired. Kevin treated me as if I paid a few grand for the player. He sent me components to try out so that I could swap them out in order to diagnose the problem. The cost is much less than it would be to send the unit and pay for labor and shipping and insurance. The price I paid to fix my own unit was so little that it was laughable. Big cudos to Kevin, and many thanks. Similar Products Used: Just other Cd players. Most of them in the under $1,000 range are not anything to rejoice about. |
[Aug 11, 2005]
wiseguytx3
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
With the right tubes and the upsampler, truly top-level audiophile sound.
Weakness:
Flimsy cabinet. Cheap CD player look. I reviewed Tjoeb 4000 CD player on Audio Review shortly after I first bought it about 3 or so years ago, but since then, about 2 years ago, I upgraded with the upsampler, powercord and Tjoeb feet. Also, I have done a lot of tube rolling and I thought I would pass on my experience with various tube types. First, I would say the upsampler transforms this player into a truly audiophile product, greatly increasing the soundstage and providing far better top to bottom sound. Bass and highs are more detailed and the mids really open up. Without the upsampler, it's merely a good sounding CD player, but there are some China imports that are much better sounding at the "basic" 4000 price point. Simply put, the upsampler is a must have upgrade. With respect to the other upgrades, the powercord seemed to bring more immediacy to the sound and a quieter background. I think it's worth the price. The Tjoeb feet on the other hand, are not worth it, doing very little to still the vibrations from the flimsy Marantz-sourced cabinet. Instead of the feet, I would recommend buying Audioquest Sorbothane Gel Big Feet. In fact, what I did was sandwich the CD player between two sets of Sorbothan feet, adjusting the shelves on my stand to put slight pressure on both sides. This really helped. Lastly, the subject of tube rolling. When I bought this player from Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio, he told me that the tubes are a buffer in this player and really peform the function of "flavoring" the sound, but that they do make a difference. With that in mind, note that the types of tubes that will sound good here are not necessarily the same as those that would really sing in your tube pre-amp. I tried the following tubes: Siemens E188CC goldpins (70's vintage, radar select), Siemens & Halske E88CC, Amperex 7308 (US), Amperex 6922 (US), Mullard CV2493, Mullard E188CC, and Sylvania 7308 (60's, D-Getter, goldpin, lab grade). I didn't even give the stock Philips 6922 steel pins a chance, so I have nothing to report on their sound. The Siemens E188CC and Sylvania tubes were too neutral, almost disappearing to the point of just not doing anything for the sound. Bass was very tight with both, though. It was nearly the same thing with the S&H E88CC, tight bass and neutral to the point of not giving any flavor, but I did get a little nicer, smoother, midrange. Both of the Amperex tubes sounded very nice, smooth with a great soundstage, in fact, the best soundstage of all of the tubes. But they were a little on the cool side, lacking warmth and that sweet tube sparkle. (By the way, I could not detect a difference in the sound of the 6922 vs. the 7308 in this circuit. So, if you're inclined to go with Amperex, save some bucks and go with the 6922). Lastly, the Mullards. These are the winners in my book for this particular CD player. They added body and warmth to the sound and had that wonderful Mullard midrange. Bass was not quite as good as with the more neutral tubes, and the soundstage was not as good as the Amperex tubes, but those wonderful mids more than made up for it. I wound up leaving the CV2493's in, but did not find any real difference between the CV2493 and E188CC. In fact, they appear to be the same tube. (If you are swayed by my review that CV2493's are the best, please note that there are at least three different types of this tube, one made in Holland, essentially a Philips E188CC, and two made in England. One of the English-made ones has a great deal of midrange depth, but is a bit light on bass. The one that worked for me, was the one most like the Mullard E188CC). On the rating I am giving this player, please note that I am comparing it with CD players that are generally within its price range, at about $1,000 with the upsampler. |
[Mar 30, 2005]
sundancer
AudioPhile
Strength:
Tweakability, tube rolling, smoothness, "analog sounding", great sound overall
Weakness:
flimsy cabinet, little lack of rythm and pace I bought the player 2 years ago directly in Eindhoven with upgraded powercord, feet and opamps. I was always annoyed by the "cd-sound", a little harsh, sopranos shouting at me, stradivaris with steel strings etc. I bet you know.Before I had a Marantz 63 ki with even more upgrades, but it was hell! I was not willing and able to spend 5000 bucks to get rid of this.IMO most of all hifi gear is horribly overpriced, but thanks to our chinese friends and all the distributors there and their homepages we can realize, that only a fraction of the price is correct value. So now to Ah!. The price/sound relation is great! It is not really cheap, but worth every cent.Finally I can enjoy music of all kinds, classical, jazz, pop and also the many many bad recorded cd`s.Lets face it: most of them are bad recorded, and so I would need a friendly player, which is detailed and smooth and musical. Exactly like the Ah! It is so good that it deserves very good surrounding, with my 300b amp it is singing glouriously. No harshness, space, resolution, atmosphere instead.Seems to be a great match with tube amps. I don`t want to talk about bass, mids, treble, because right now I`m just listening to music. Its all there, don't worry. If something is still wrong in the system, these questions occur, with this player you can forget about this, especially after installing the upsampler, which is a must! Without it is a good player, with upsampling its a different league! Also the tubes, although they are only a buffer stage,are nice to play with. I ended up with e288cc from valvo (red series), in my ears they are even better than the recommended e288cc from Siemens, very warm, detailed and coherent.The stock philips tubes are bad, sorry. And its possible to upgrade the player even more, and for those who can solder its worthn trying.Its the small yellow ero coupling caps and the wima output caps swallowing much of the dynamics and fine detail. I replaced them with Mundorf tinfoils, there is little space but it works. After this mod the sound was getting much more open, detailed, dynamic(bass!) and subtle. I also shunted all the powersupply caps with small 3900 pf silver mica caps, which brought out even more whomp in the bass and more of all the other goodies. One cheap and easy mod is to put a round thin(3 mm) piece of felt under the big transformer and two smaller ones under the screws of the smaller one. Keep the grounding cable grounded!The result is not small, those transformers vibrate like hell! The whole board is swinging, which makes the reading of the disks more difficult.Of course you will loose warranty, but I did all this after a year. Now I´m absolutely happy with the unit and I`m not looking for something else,maybe there are better players, but for shure they are more expensive. Especially voices are very seductive now, its great with all acoustic instruments and great for classical music lovers.One little weakness is that the rythm and pace is a bit less involving compared to my turntable, but its a linn with loads of pace! So its a player for music lovers who dont care so much for the chassis, who want to spend a reasonable amount of money for a very good performance. Highly recommended! Similar Products Used: marantz cd 63 ki signature cambridge d300 |