This review is long overdue, since I bought this changer in March. But first here is the associated gear: Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp, McCormack DNA-0.5 deluxe power-amp, Snell Type C/V speakers (bi-wired). Wireworld and XLO interconnects and speaker cables. Listening room 18x12x6.5. When I auditioned the Adcom I still had a 250$ Sony changer and a Kenwood HT pre-power/amp combo, and Infinity speakers.
I auditioned several other changers and players in the 500 $ price range, but the improvements were very small, if even audible.

Enter the Adcom. It played the Sony against the wall, with fundamental bass, and well resolved treble. It extracted a lot more information from my discs than any other player that I had listend to until then.

In the meantime I have upgraded my entire system, but I am still a happy user of this piece. I agree with some of the other reviewers in that that mechanically this player is a bit weak, in particular the Denon changer mechanism is a bit tacky, but I have not had any problems. Also the remote is very weak, but I programmed the signals into my universal learning remote, which has a much stronger output signal. On the positive side this player has a really stable, and strong class A output stage and a decent variable output, that would allow to drive a power-amp directly, and with good results.

Now here is what tops the performance of this player. I am currently auditoning the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 (a 3800 $ piece of equipment, which at least Stereophile rates as "class A"), and which is kind of astate of the art CD player with a tubed output stage.

Now I am not going to tell you that the Adcom beat that player, because it did not - the SFCD is out of this world (at 5 times the price it should be)- but while the SFCD is indisputably better - instruments sound a tad more realistic and there is no haze at all - on the other hand there is no information that I am missing while listening to the GCD-700, i.e. no rolled of treble or suppressed bass.

Therefore, considering price (700$ list) the GCD gets 5 loudspeakers regardless of it's slight mechanical insufficiencies.

I'm not sure why some of the "audiopliles" who reviewed this cd player have been as hard on it as they were. For approx. $550-700 this is a very good sounding player. As always one could spend more money and buy a better piece of audio equipt. CAL is better as previously mentioned. So! We already know this. If we put this player into the proper prespective ie. cost/sound quality the complaints become much less valid. I will agree with the assessments of build quality. I purchased this unit and went through 2 players until the third ones transport finally worked. This almost made me try to find a CAL player.In my area this isn't possible. No dealers here.All in all this is a good cd player. The best ? No. But good ... Yes.

I am amazed at some of the positive comments on this. This player has no depth or breath of life. Good dynamics and low end punch it has, but is lacking in instrument decay, timbre reproduction capability and 3 dimensional presence.

Ok I admit,Iam somewhat biased to Adcom. I think the GCD 700 Is a real advancement in the low end of the high end market. Good job Adcom!

Not a miracle for the money, just another fine machine in the market. And in no possible way this machine can stand up to those names like Wadia or Theta.

I agree that the build quality is somewhat light, but have had no problems. The remote is kinda hard to use with all the small buttons, however it's nice to have options (like opening the carousel from 15 feet away before you get there?). Volume control (reducer) on the remote in conjunction with variable output allows direct connection to amplifier/speaker (make sure they're sensitive). Purer sound and cost effective changer for this reason. Bought after home comparison with Nakamichi MB-1, which was a tad purer compared to Adcom/pre-amp combo (no variable out) and more solidly built (which they've cheapened recently), but an ergonomic pain (have no use for a multi-disc changer which cannot change discs while one is playing and also need multiple time display features for recording). The 700 costs less for a four and 1/2 star rating. May be all you and I need for now in this ever changing digital world.

Packed my unit up a week ago and took it to back to my dealer, would'nt play. After seeing some of the reviews on this and other Adcom products I felt it was only a matter of time before it screwed up. My dealer called me today and told me and told me he had to send it to Adcom because the whole laser mechanism was shot. Thank god I had a month left on my warranty. This will be my last Adcom purchase. Yes, it does sound good and Yes it has alot of features, actually I decided to by it because of its variable out so I could control the volume to my beloved CJ PV2. But hey even that only worked some of the time. My previous Sony went trouble free through 8 years and two kids and it sounded pretty good. Get it together Adcom! Associated equipment: Krell KAV 300i, Energy C-8 Mains, Paradigm Ref Center & ADP 150 Rears, Conrad Johnson PV2, Esoteric cables Nak tape deck, Yamaha Surround.

This is my first over 125 dollar cd player and I probably not in a good position to judge, but from my experience with this player it sounds great. I`m hearingnew sounds from cds. Ive own the GCD-700 for about 9 months and must agree with comments concerning the remote..you must be almost dead center for it to work. I took the cover off for a peek at the inners and was pretty impress at its mechanical operation, althou I admit the turn table plater does appear to be a little lite but its mechanical operation IMHO is pretty slick. I haven had a single problem other then a couple of logic lock ups which I had to power the unit off and on.(not much different than a PC) Overall for my first higher then consumer grade CD player I rate this unit very good.

Best sounding changer in the price range. Too bad the build quality's low. I settled with the Parasound instead. It's much more durable IMO and better as a transport... which is what everyone wants eventually right? 5 stars for the sound, 1 star for the quality.

After falling in love with the Harman/Kardon FL8300's sound, and returning it after hearing about it's horrid reliability, I found it extremely difficult to find something that sounded as nice (beautiful top-end, open, and nice tight bass.) I auditioned top-of-the-line Yamaha, Sony ES, Marantz, and Onkyo Integra (all in the $350-$500 range) and the Onkyo was the only thing that sounded nearly as nice. Then I heard this Adcom. It put all the other stuff to shame!! - they almost sounded like cassette tapes in comparison, and the Adcom sounded like a big sub-woofer got added in! I instantly heard the improvement. I heard things I'd never heard before, and can hear singers' breath! It is amazing! If this is what $700 gets me, I'm almost scared to hear $1000+ players!However, I'm VERY nervous about its reliability (heard bad stuff here), so I opted to extend the warranty to 3 years for $50.
My system - is actually a digital recording studio with digital mastering capabilities, containing Studio Reference amps and ("accurate") speakers. The Adcom goes into a NAD Monitor Series Pre-Amp.
The build quality is a bit concerning (the carousel seems a little cheesy, and the drawer was open when I unpacked it) - maybe a better option would have been to get a (reliable) transport, and Adcom's D/A converter. With that aside, you have to hear this thing to believe it, and realize what you've been missing - I adore it! If it were more reliable than what I've heard here, I'd give it 5 speakers.