Recently purchased Adcom GCD 700 and find the sound is fantastic, however, the remote control is terrible. Must be almost head on for the unit to work at all. This is very frustrating. Took unit back and exchanged for another one. Had same problem. Guess that Adcom has a design problem; so my plan is to return the second unit for refund. Build quality of unit also seems questionable. Just doen't seem to be up to high-end standards. Too bad. Have lots of other Adcom equipment and am totally satisfied. I'm thinking about trying Cal Audio CL-5. Really looks substantial and remote works great. Rating below is for failure to pay attention to the details.

Frankly,I expected more from this company.

Far too many!

Buy the Marantz,I agree with the other guy this stuff is WAY over priced.SIMPLY NOT VERY GOOD.I took mine back for the Marantz HUGE difference in sound this makes the Adcom look REAL BAD FOR ALOT LESS !!!!

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Marantz 63 se

A very solid CD changer. Looks really beautiful. I like it!!!!Probably one of the best CD changer under $1000.
Good midrange and treble. More bass than my old Marantz CD player.
Go for it....I love this beauty!!

dynamic and detailed w/out being overly bright, tight tuneful bass

clunky 5-disc changer, don't look inside-ouch!(build quality)

I picked this player up NIB for $350. It has worked flawlessly for me so far, and I am very happy with the musical balance this player gives. I auditioned a Parasound CDP-1000 a few months back and was very dissapointed.....the build quality is very good, but the DAC is really horrible...the sound was too laid back, non-dynamic, with no sense of soundstage air (it is a hell of a transport with the MSB DAC). The GCD-700 as a stand alone player is completely different than most "budget" players, dynamics and slam are much better. Detail retrieval is excellant without being overly bright, and sense of space and air is very good. The differences in instrument placement and sound between the Mo-Fi version and the latest 20-bit SBM version of Coltrane's "Blue Train" are easily distinguishble. Bass is much more tight and tuneful than my older Nakamichi, which now sound very flabby.

Where players like the Marantz 63SE fall way short the Adcom delivers on par with the best players, this partially due to 20-bit dual Burr Browns, multiple power supplies, and better op-amp design. One-bit players really do suffer when it comes to dynamics....the Marantz does its best with the 1-bit format, but ultimately if you like how music sounds live you will be suffering listening to 1-bit players.

Just don't take the cover off of the Adcom, build quality was low on the priority list, but sound quality was fortunately highest on the list. So enjoy!

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nakamichi, parasound

Excelent sound quality you can hear.

Tray sometimes squeaks when opening.

Having owned quite a few mid-range cd players, I can honestly say that this Adcom is superior. In A/B testing I can actually hear the sound quality being warmer and more distinct. This is something I was skeptical of until hearing it for myself. Also, the unit has all the necessary buttons on the unit rather than only on the remote as with many other players. My only gripe is that the tray sometimes makes a squeaking noise when opening, but I suppose the important thing is the sound and this unit is top notty in that department - do an A/B test yourself and you will hear.

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Onkyo, Yamaha, Marantz, Sony

Well what a surprize!!!!! I decided after two enjoyable years with my Yamaha CDC-845(Top of the Line) multi-disc player, I would once again
try to do better for under 1000.00. Which really meant time to upgrade
but I still wanted a multi-disc player w/coax out. I bought the Adcom
GCD700 and for a person who is not an Adcom fan I loved this cdplayer.
The build quality is excellent. The cdplayer is much quieter then other
multi-disk changers I've owned and tried. The Sound overall was more
laidback & presented itself with a much better top end then the
Yamaha had. For a multi-disc cdplayer under 1000.00 it would be hard
to find a better one in the same price range.

Compared to previous CD player, great clarity, great lows, great highs. Variable output is great. Nice remote (new model).

Mechanically noisey when changing disks.

I read many articles and reviews before selecting the GCD-700. Because of some critical early reviews regarding the mechanical integrity and the manufacturing quality of the GCD-700 I was somewhat hesitant in selecting it over some other players (i.e. NAD) in the same price range. However, the local Adcom dealer was having a sale and the price was right so I went for it.
Even before purchasing the player I had selected about a dozen CDs from my collection that I would play, first, to put the new player through its paces. Among them, Beethoven's piano sonatas by John O'Connor on Telarc, a disk from The Nexus Percussion group, Of course Dire Straits, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Synchronicity by the Police and some Micheal Hedges.
I was, immediatly, impressed with the improved clarity over my old Sony player. Also, the bass was much less muddy and more powerful and the highs were crystal clear. The Beethoven piano sonatas were truely amazing. I've never heard such harmonics and dynamics coming from a home stereo. Same is true for the Nexus Percussion Group and Micheal Hedges guitar.
I have a Carver 752 receiver, some Klipsch KSF 10.5 front speakers, and some JBL rear speakers and the system never sounded so good. For the first time the Klipsch speakers sounded like they were designed to sound. Stereo imaging and presence is great. I, now, know how importent it is to have a high quality source.
I've had the GCD-700 for about 2 months, now, and I'm still just as happy with it and continue to be surprized when I play some of my older CDs. The only problem is that I'm always playing it and playing loud. Fortunately, my family hasn't complained too much, yet.

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Old Sony 5 CD player

my 700 sounds geat, looks great, and doesn't seem to posess any of the negative qualities discussed in some of the other reviews (ouch, some people have really bad attitudes). at any rate, my 700 works perfectly so far and i have had a few serious audiophiles comment on the sound quality. again, as i mentioned in my reviews of the adcom gfa 5400 and gtp 450, i was initially attracted by the value and am more impressed with the sound every day.

nothing yet.

again, when compared to similarily priced players, the adcom really shines. it seems that most of the criticism comes from snobby "audiophiles" that are probably not impressed by much of anything in our mortal world.

sound,price, variable output so you can connect directly to a power amp

construction

I'd been using this for a while, only once i have to send it to service because the tray didn't open, the cds were stocked, i now know that when this happens i just have to open the case and get cds out. I did this like 3 times after service.
But, besides this minor problems, i have to say, this baby sounds SO good!, to put you in context i'm using a Bryston 4BST power amp, i hooked directly from the cd's variable outputs with monster m550 cables, Nautilus 805 speakers on a very solid stands,with monster 2.4 biwire speaker cables, my room is my bedroom that is about 3x3 meters.
The sound is so alive, so good, that i start to put again cd after cd (here the carrousel becomes handy) to discover sounds in them, the lifelike presence in most of my cds is amazing, try for instance in your audio set up the song 14 of the movie soundtrack Bitter Sugar, its a nice song just the voice and a guitar, you can use this to propose!, romantic, vivid, sweet. This system to me is quite a revelation, i can no recommend more this setup, i haven't heard any other cd player, but i guess this can save you a preamp and let you stop get picky with gear and start to really enjoy music,and get a better life, so to adcom i say, SALUD!

Hmmmm.........

Not going anywhere for awhile want a snickers?

I guess you only get what you pay for is still true!I returned this to one call.I n the process of a full refund,I too have highly revealing speakers and this unit just dosen't cut it.

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Parasound Rotel Marantz