soundstage, bass, detail, warm

none for me

I’ve had the cdp for about three weeks now (counting nine of days of a business trip during which it sat doing nothing but running current and keeping warm...) and so based on a couple of weekend afternoons and too few evenings I can add the following:

The cdp the Ah! Tjoeb transplanted was a Yamaha changer, a CDC-555 at least 5 years old, played through a Music Fidelity X-10D tube buffer. The rest of the system had been recently upgraded: an Arcam Alpha 9 integrated/10P power amp pair bi-amping/bi-wiring Sonus Faber Concertinos plus a Paradigm PW2200 in sat/sub configuration. There were budgetary/architectural challenges...The cd players I listened to when auditioning speakers included that Arcam Alpha 9 and a Classé (and the Ah! Tjoeb 99 definitely compares favorably with the Arcam).

The changes I noticed were probably about as dramatic as these speakers and their less-than-advantageous placement would allow, and varied greatly depending on the disk (although there was an across-the-board improvement in the soundstage). Orchestral pieces (Mahler’s Ninth/Boulez, for example) felt significantly less labored, less harsh, with greater attention to detail. New details were also revealed in pieces like Danny Gatton’s “Sun Medley” off the “Cruisin’ Dueces” disk, like the “subtext” picking beneath Gatton’s first break, notes I’d always been able to hear, back there, that with the Ah! Tjoeb stepped forward and didn’t have to be listened for. Cecil McBee, Paul Chambers, Ron Carter and Dave Holland all traded fat for muscle, like there’d been a run on steroids. More wood in Brendel’s piano during the late Beethoven Sonatas, and, well, it just sort of went on and on. Probably the most delightful discovery was that “Voodoo Child, Slight Return,” from the Hendrix Family approved Ladyland disk isn’t poorly mixed, with an unfortunate lack of bass and muted percussion, but is an intentional acoustic blues played on electric guitar. Like a Jordanesque clearout. But by the time I got that far I was past the comparison thing and was, as others have said, just listening to the music, having too much fun to turn off whatever was playing to move onto the next test.

Like others I purchased this machine from Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio and in spite of problems caused by my travel schedule Kevin had the machine in my hands without a hitch. The player is untweaked, with the Noisekiller and Supercrystal options.

Outstanding resolution, improved imaging over other CDP'S's I have owned.

CDP cover and remote, but who cares.

Wow Tjoeb or Holy S#*T Tjoeb would be more appropriate. I purchased this player from Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio.
I bought the player with the AC noise killer, super crystal, and amperex 7308 tube upgrades.
First a quick note about Kevin. His personal attention to my order is a customer service trait I wish all other's possesed. He returned calls when he said he would, and was patient in dealing with my shipping destination changes.
Now the CDP. I have upgraded my A/V system for the second time in as many years. I purchased the components separately, and it worked out to be about a month apart between speaker, amp, pre pro and the AH Tjoeb purchases.
I noticed improvement in each step of the process, but the most noticable was after the addition of the AH Tjoeb. My system seemed to come alive with the addition of the AH Tjoeb. After the player had been broken in for about 60 hours, I gave it a test. I have been listening to C.D's from a company called reference recordings in S.F. California. I would switch the C.D. between the Ah Tjoeb, my toshiba DVD player and my technics C.D. player. What a difference in the clarity and imaging of the music being played through the Tjoeb. The sounstage expanded in three dimensions, and there was a more precise localization of the instruments.
Well. I am not going to run on. But will say that this is a great player for the price.

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smooth open highs fantastic soundstage incredible midrange

none that i've found

i've only had the player out of the box for about 4 hours now but i must say i love it already im amazed at what a difference its made in the way my system sounds the highs sound so soft and sweet it was hard to believe i was listening to a cd player especialy one that starts at only 450.00 i ordered mine from kevin deal at www.upscaleaudio.com who was very professional if you are debating buying one of these players i highly recomend that you do you wont be sorry i know im not and i havent even broke it in yet in closing i would just like to say hats off to kevin for bringing these players to the u.s. everthing everyone is saying is true

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audio alchemy nad nachamichi

Lucid ,three dimensional, solid soundstage.With an analog
naturalness.

none.

If you are not so keen on cd and keep returning to analog
this is THE cd player to go for.I was expecting a "nice"
sounding smooth cd player but the same two and a half D
sound stage and somehow unengaging sound.
After a burn in of 40 hours, but with hints out of the box
that this is something special, you get a glorious 3D
solid sound with detail and acoustic that i have not heard
before.Bass is suberb ,vocals are better!

I had super crystal & ac noise suppressor, i have myself
fitted isolation foam to the feet,and replaced the ac
cable with solid core.

You might gather that i am pleased with my Tjoeb99.
Herman should be proud of this product.
My system:-Leak st20(triode mode,vishay,black gate etc)
Audionote pre,B&W dm2(modified)analog-Garrard401/ultracraft
ac30/deccamaroon or denon304.

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SOUND (with capitals) and V-A-L-U-E (with capitals and no reserves)

Moderate transport sturdiness

I'll avoid labeling myself with the pretentious "audiophile" label, but my friends an family members do perceive me as a lover of great sound (the litteral translation for "audio-phile").

WHAT A VALUE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During a recent visit to Holland, much as planned, I decided to visit the HiFi shop in Eindhoven, the "headquarters" of the "home brew" AH! line of products which includes a tone arm, mm/mc phone stages, and of course the by now at least somewhat legendary AH! Tjoeb CD player.

For those less familiar with the Dutch tongue, AH! stands for the worldwide "ahh hah" exclamation and "Tjoeb" is the deliberately miss-spelled version of 'TUBE' (radio tube, etc). Mis-spelled, well sort-of... when a Dutchman reads "TJOEB", he recognizes the phonetic spelling for the English word "tube", known in Dutch as "lamp" or "buis" (the last word pronounced in Dutch much like "bise" would be pronounced in English).

Enough about linguistics. The "HiFi-shop" is located not far from the city theater of Eindhoven, a city in the Southern province of Brabant. Eindhoven also is the home of the Dutch Phillips electronics giant (which includes a myriad of brands such as Panasonic, Marantz, and dozens of globally recognized brands of appliances, video products, etc.)

The hi-fi shop hosts mostly mid-fi and some hi-fi products. During visits to hi-fi stores on the continent, it always strikes me how far Europeans are behind on 5.1 systems. DVD players are less popular than in North America and Dolby digital is barely starting there. Its still mostly 2 channel stuff there.

Herman and his associates were pleased to show the AH! Tjoeb and related products plus "options", which include such items AH! legs for the Tjoeb '99 player, and more expensive tubes than offered in the standard model.

The Tjoeb '99 is a modified Marantz CD-38, a classic budget player costing $250 or less. The '38 includes a remote, its heart is the Phillips CDM12.3 drive. It has all desirable features, including a remote that controls volume.

The unit measures an average CDP size of 439x88x264 mm (width - height -depth) and weighs 4kg or about 9 pounds. The '38 is a great value in itself, and what else would you expect from Phillips than value for the money for a CDP (Phillips and Sony jointly held the rights for the CD concept introduced in 1984).

The exterior of the Tjoeb '99 can not be distinguished from the '38, end shows the Marantz name (no Tjoeb brand stickers). But under the hood, the Tjoeb '99 offers some very attractive goodies that clearly distinguish it from the '38. The standard processor pre-amp is removed and replaced by a premium Burr-Brown. The Burr-Brown only has to take care of the processing job; the remaining filtering and the output stage are found on the unique Tjoeb '99 tube-carrying board. The Burr-Brown is not soldered to the board, but placed in a high-quality socket to allow for easy on-site upgrades.

A tube analogue output stage is why you're paying an extra $300 on top of the standard CD-38. Take off the lid and you'll see a dedicated power supply optimized for lowest possible noise, with dual symmetric topology for 'lowest distortion of the single-ended buffer stage'. The output section of the standard Tjoeb '99 sports two Philips 6922 tubes.

The Tjoeb '99 replaced the '38's transistor muting circuit with a relay. All critical wiring is replaced with high quality Teflon-insulated signal wire. Soldering of the Tjoeb modifications is done with silver solder. The output connectors of the '99 are gold-plated (not so in the case of the older '98 version). I chose the digital coaxial output so that my son can record straight from the '99 (but of course I let the '99 do the DAC processing so that I can enjoy the '99's output stage during normal listening). I also bought the internal AH! AC Noise Killer to clean the AC voltage at the beginning of the circuit. Those who want even better performance can buy:
- A CD mat (in which you place individual CD's), which according to Herman does improve sound quality (I have not noticed the difference in sound quality - but it certainly causes a significant reduction in transport noise!!). Price around $16 - so I took it).
- Upgraded tubes such as the E188CC (equivalent of the 8223) including gold plated sockets at a price of around $175. I discovered I could get these tubes on the Internet for about $70 / pair and plan to upgrade to these babies as I have read that the upgrade does result in even better performance than offered by the standard Phillips 6922 tubes (vintage units too !!).

The difference in sound quality with most "standard" fully transistorized CDP's becomes clear to a trained ear. In my opinion, the tubes take away the harshness from which many mid-fi CDP's suffer in higher frequencies. This unit delivers very nice smooth highs.

In my opinion, the Tjoeb '99 is well worth its money and one of the rare "great audio values" around today. Don't expect a premium transport or heavy duty mechanisms that are found in premium "audiophile" units of $1,500 or much more, but do expect the highest musical sound quality that you can get from a CDP at any price. This does not represent a step up that is as huge as say from listening to FM radio to a DTS CD, but it is worth it to me spending a few $100 extra that the Tjoeb'99 costs in comparison to even the Marantz 38.

Valuing the Tjoeb '99 is kind of a mute point as it commands the price of an average mid-fi CDP and delivers the sound (but not the transport sturdiness) of a hi-fi unit. This is a no brainer for people with a Champaign taste in hi-fi quality with a beer budget.... Almost a MUST for those who want the best for the least amount of dollars...

By the way, I have a real problem with the rating system used at this web site. To me, value ratings are the same as overall ratings.... I can not provide with a separate overall rating without considering price tags. The '99 Tjoeb easily deserves its 5 stars....

PS: My playback system for the Tjoeb includes Magnepan true ribbons (front L/R - bi-amped with 2 x 350 W per channel into 4 Ohms via a dynamic crossover), one Magnepan mmg as center, two Magnepan mmg's as surrounds, a Paradigm PW-2200 powered sub and using a Denon AVR-3300 as pre-pro.

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Overall musical qualities; Price; Modification flexibility.

Light flexing case; Bass definition.

The Ah! Tjoeb is one of the very few products that can truly be placed in the category of "high-end" audio and be purchased new for less than $500.
I have had CD players and transports costing over $5,000. in my past systems that would be hard pressed to beat the overall sound qualities of the Ah! Tjoeb.
Yes, it is not the rock of Gibralter in case build ... it's a light-weight in that department. And, it doesn't give you HDCD. But, what it does give you is absolute listening pleasure that leaves you very little to wish for!
Just in case you would like to "tinker", Ah! Tjoeb's creator gives you his blessing to tweak away. And, Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio (the exclusive USA distributor) can give you tweaking ideas if you desire to try your hand. I am anxious to try several different output tubes to fine tune the Ah! Tjoeb with my system ... and several different brands of tubes with varying sound characteristics can be had for $80. per pair and less.
This CD player goes better with my Audio Research Model 100.2 solid state amp and Magneplanar MG-12 speakers than any other player that I have tried in this system. I was using the Adcom 750 preamp before adding the Ah! Tjoeb, but now I have removed it. With the built-in passive attenuator, the overall sound is much cleaner and more life-like without the preamp in the chain. This might not hold true if I had one of Audio Research's excellent tube preamps ... such as the SP16. But, the Adcom 750, which is no slouch, became the weak link in my system.
The Ah! Tjoeb has a wide and deep soundstage ... slightly recessed behind the speakers. Definition, except in the lowest end, and imaging is excellent! There are absolutely no glaring negative traits that interrupts the musical enjoyment ... just sit back and relax .... and listen to the music.
And one last, but not least, plus for this fine player of music ... the guy you buy it from ... Kevin Deal. It's a pleasure to do business with Kevin and Upscale Audio! He puts the "icing on the cake"!

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musicality, value, customer service

rim-lickers who submit reviews of a product they haven't audtioned; losers who libel a person they have never met...

I'll keep this review short: the Tjoeb is an outstanding value and its music will make you smile!

I feel compelled to say a few words in favor of Kevin at Upscale Audio:

First of all, he's a laid back guy and did not resort to any cheap tactics to sell me anything. He reminded me to take a T-shirt of choice after the purchase and never mentioned this web site. I have since been back to Upscale Audio to purchase tubes and speaker cables and wasn't offered the so called "T-shirt for a review" proposition. In fact, he gave me a slight discount for being a new Upscale Audio customer! Kevin has patiently given me advice over the phone whenever I have called and basically is a cool dude in a loose mood.

Anyway, that's it. Hey Kevin - I'll be by to pick up my shirt...! (Just kidding!)

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Great definition, accuracy. Really brings out "delicacies" in music.

Little noisy at very close range (few inches)

First off, Kevin, if you read this, DON"T send me a t-shirt. I can't be bought for a t-shirt. I'm not here for promos, I'm here because I love this little unit and I want to share with other music lovers (ok, maybe we're just hi-fi gear lovers, whatever. I bought the NoiseKiller and the upgraded clock but did not upgrade tubes. I'll do that later and get to listen to all my cd's again with new enthusiasm! I'm putting together an all-tube nearfield system but plugged the AH! into the home theater to compare with my Sony S7000 dvd player ($1000.00 new), a highly rated cd player in it's own right. Even green the AH! was/is outstanding! The 7000 had more body in the midrange and lower bass but I have to take into account no break-in for the AH! The AH! had superior placement and just a more "present" sound. My HT speakers are Celestion A2's with Monster cable all around. I can't wait to mate this little unit with a tube amp (Jolida 502B maybe? and some Norh 4.0 marble speakers! I love my family and friends dearly but I have to confess it's things like this that keep me going!
P.S. Kevin at Upscale Audio was great. Even answered one of my emails while in France (that's dedication!) He allowed me to send several payments on layaway as I don't like credit cards and don't have very deep pockets. A second job pays for my gear. Everyone has opinions but I suggest you listen to those who know.

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Accurate and musical

Skips easily on dirty CDs.

I was looking to warm up the sound of my system, which was somewhat dry. I was quite pleased with both the stock tubes and some Amperex Bugle Boys. I found the music to be detailed and engaging. In comparing it to the Link III, I would say that both are solid products, but that the Link was a little tizzy on top.

Kevin was fast, courteous and professional.

Magnepan MMG
Odyssey Stratos
HK receiver as preamp

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Sweet musical tone, clarity, ability to open all the musical layers

As mentioned in other reviews, the Marantz box itself. When you pull it from the carton, it almost feels empty. But there's magic inside.

I guess like many potential buyers, I was a little skeptical of the various claims made for the AH! Tjoeb. Even the overwhemingly positive reviews here didn't completely reassure me. But I checked out Kevin Deal's site at www.upscaleaudio.com, saw that I could return the player for a modest restocking charge, and took the plunge. Man, am I glad I did. First of all, Kevin was great to deal with. No pressure, just good, straight answers to my questions. Secondly, the AH! arrived just when he said it would, in perfect shape. It was great to deal with someone who treats you as a person, not just an invoice number.

As for the AH! Tjoeb itself, it sounded better out of the box than the old Sony changer it replaced. And in periodic checks during the initial burn-in, it sounded better and better. I started out with Hank Mobley's Soul Station, a hard bop gem. But it never sounded quite like this to me. Hank's sax tones were rounded and full, smooth as could be. Art Blakey's drum kit was absolutely smashing. Each note from the piano was exact and crisp and the bass was all there, booming from my battered old speakers as it never had before.
I switched over to Sir Neville Mariner's Mozart Overtures, a CD so old it includes care instructions that use LPs as a reference. It was wonderful. I've listened to this one hundreds of times and thought I knew every nuance. Guess I was wrong. The AH! ripped away the veils and exposed layers of sound I'd never heard before. Same thing with a Beethoven's 7th Symphony, another old favorite filled with previously unheard detail.
Bottom line, my existing run-of-the-mill components never sounded so good. Unfortunately, all of this unadulterated music has also exposed some of the old stuff's weaknesses. One woofer was already on its last legs. Now the AH's clear, forceful bass has it in tatters. But all is not lost. I was in the process of replacing things piece by piece anyway, starting with the CD player. And Kevin and I had a nice chat the other day about the next purchase, maybe a pair of Meadowlark Kestrels.

All in all, I can't say enough good things about Kevin, Upscale Audio or the AH! Tjoeb. So if you're on the fence, jump in, take a chance. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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