Price/Performance Ratio! It adores voice and string with great bass. Cool remote.

Transport part.

Thanks for the forum I became aware of AH!99. Then I happenly surfed to Soundstage's site and there is a lengthy and entertaining interview with Kevin Deal about NOS tube. That's how I know Kevin and his website www.upscaleaudio.com. Naturally I followed the link and, AH!, he carries AH!99!

Thinking he might went to CES 2000 and I would be there, I decided to audition it out in Las Vegas and buy one at great show price there. Unfortunately, the friend went w/ me was not a music lover at all. I only spent a morning at Alexis Park. Did not spot Kevin's booth.

Finally placed a mail order through his website. It has AC Noise Killer and Supercystal option. Serial No. VE039922045233. The package came in on time. Hook it up with the rest of the system:

Sennheiser 600
Creek OBH-11 headphone amp and OBH-2
Solid Silver Interconnects (Soundstage's SST)

Yes, it is a headphone only system!

The out of box AH!99 w/o break-in is a sucker. Very harsh worst than JVC FS-1000 in my office. But after a couple of days, the ugly duckling became a swan.

I've been to concert frequently and especially love violin. The AH! reproduce the best violin performance for all the CD players I auditioned so far save the mighty Marantz CD-7. One advantage of have a headphone only system is that the rest of the system is no more 2 pounds so I can carry them around easily to hifi stores and thus, guarantee the same set up. Of course, AH! still has very slight grain and strings are intepreted bit of bigger than life whereas CD7 is grainless and stark neutral. But folks, we are talking about 2 players at a factor of price difference here! And incidentally, Ah!99's mother CD38 is at the bottom of Marantz' linup whereas CD7 is its flagship product.

Another goodie about the player is its kick ass tight and fast bass. So fast and controlled that it nearly rivals CD7.

Too judge soundstage and soundscape, I put it one of my binaural records and find AH!99 does fairly competent jobs here.

Highs are good most of the time but little bit confusion when music becomes busy.

To improve the sound further, I hook it up with Magenta's ADE-24 I love so much. It improves the high range quite a bit, also soundstage. (you may get it from Kevin 179 shipped, the lowest price in US as I know)

It has a cool remote w/ volume control on LINE output! Since my headphone control does not have remote, this feature really complements the system.

Now the bad. The beautiful child of sound born out of its ugly mother of CD38, the cheapest Marantz cd player. The player is flimsy build. At one third of the weight, it is a far cry from Acurus ACD11 I used before. It gives off click noise during track switch and really does not read scratched CD well. All of sudden, I found a sixth of my CD collections cannot be read properly. When I first came to the U.S. from overseas 3 years ago, there are more than 300 CDs in my luggage. To save the space and weight, CDs are brought in w/o case. That's why so many CDs now have scratches.

Also, when I have time, I will change its crappy power cord. Bizzare European screws prevent my to peek right away although Kevin nicely point out it is torx #10 plus the fact I do have a decent collection of tools. Hope he can ship such a screwdriver as a gift w/ every order so I do not have to find time to run for hardware store later on.

Conclusion? This is a player w/ good/decent performance at any price point. But it is unambigiously the champion product of price/performance. Buy it from Kevin and you won't regret. Plus the fact that he is in States, return and warranty are just a snap. I cannot find any excuses you should not try it out unless you have some mighty rigs already.

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Auditioned a lot.

Its musicality.

The mains cable

I won't go on too much as there is plenty of lenghty reports already on this CDP.I read an article in a well respected uk hi-fi mag about this CDP,nov 99 and after christmas orded it direct from Holland.It came with just the ac mains filter,and only took five working days to arive.Well what i expected to emerge from the CDP did'nt quite happen, as i had a small problem with an attenuated interconect.Those who use Quad33 pre amps will know what i mean,a quick e-mail to Herman sorted this.After fourty hours of burn-in and fault rectified i got more than bargined for.This bit of kit is beyond anything iv'e heard before,im so happy with the bargain of the millenium.That's how i would best discribe it,it just smacks the face of the other manufactures.

terrific sound for the money

This review is from an audiophile novice. I have decided to build my first audio system and started my endeavor with the purchase of the AH! Tjoeb 99. I ordered a unit with the Super Crystal, AC Noise Killer, and Coax Digital Output. The serial number is VE039928046361.

The good reviews, located within this forum, justify the outstanding qualities for this CDP. I can only reiterate and strongly agree with the following descriptions: excellent detail, fluidity, and imaging. The percussion instruments, especially piano, sound “life-like”. In addition, I own a pair of Paradigm Monitor 9; the one fault I have with these loud speakers is boomy bass. However the Tjoeb seems to control the bass very well. The detail of seperate instruments are amazing. The instruments and vocals seem to seperate for critical listening but in the end come together with wonderful fluidity. Please read the other reviews for more details.

Also, I agree with a few reviewers that during complicated/congested musical moments, the Tjoeb will sound slightly muddled. For example, during strong orchestrational movements, I noticed a lack of dynamics from the horn instruments. This minor flaw is only noticeable during hypercritical listening. However, the Tjoeb is “tweakable” adding another positive for this CDP. The tubes can be replaced with different sounding tubes and the Tjoeb website has a few tweaking ideas.

Another positive for this unit is the wonderful customer support I encountered with the Tjoeb people.

Finally, the AH! Tjoeb 99 is a wonderful CDP at a great price. I vowed never to purchase audio equipment without auditioning first, but I’m glad that I broke this rule once.

Great sound / value for money

Lightweight build - time will tell if this matters.

Not much to add to what has already been said (check the reviews). But anyway.......
I love this player - natural,spacious. High register strings sound realistic (to me, an acid test).
Lots of bottom end.
It is partnered with high quality gear:
Pass Aleph P, Pass Aleph 5, Meadowlark Shearwaters
and my contention is that high performance can be easily obtained from a reasonably low cost digital source.
Put the main expenditure towards (class A) amps and decent speakers. Right now this inexpensive little CDP provides an excellent front end (has Crystal DAC + noise killer).
It's a little tough buying with no chance to audition.
The service from Herman and his crew is excellent, although I heard that demand has increased, slowing things up.
Once it's burned in I don't think it will disappoint.

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Owned a Marantz cd63SE a few years ago.

It's so musical.

If music is all that matters....NONE!

I open my eyes
and I realize
I've got Tjoeb in my life
and my loneliness dies.
It brightens my days
in so many ways.
I've got tube....
I've got Tjoeb 99.

I'm sorry folks. I can't keep my enthusiasm down, so I started this review with the lyrics of a song I specially wrote for the Tjoeb 99. What a musical cd-player! My goodness, what's next! The Tjoeb 2000?!
In my living-room there is now MUSIC IN THE AIR!
I'm not going to echo what many Tjoeb owners already have said about the Tjoeb 99, so read all the other reviews below this one.
My special thanks are going to HERMAN AND HIS CREW and to MARANTZ(for making a cd-player with so much free space in it, so that HERMAN AND HIS CREW could take it to a MUSICAL level).

detailed, musical, dynamic sound, Herman

build quality, waiting list

After finally looking for a replacement for my entry level Marantz Cd player, I found the reviews here on Audio Review for the Ah Tjoeb and could not resist checking it out. I purchased the player online and after three long weeks, I received my Tjoeb. This is my first tube component and the difference in sound to my similar-looking Marantz CD-46 is close to amazing. Gone is the brightness of the Marantz player, and the sound I hear is more realistic and defintely more musical. I actually like the subtle clicking sound in between tracks. I have to add that Herman was very helpful during my wait. I will try and replace the tubes as some have suggested but not until my current ones need replacing. For now, I am very satisfied with my system:
Ah Tjoeb 99 (w/ digital out) serial# VE039928046282
NAD AV316
Paradigm Mini-Monitors, Atoms, and PDR-8
AQ interconnects and speaker cables

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Marantz CD-46

This is a follow up to my previous post. After reading the post by Mr Darren below I was tempted to do the modifications on my Tjoeb99 player.
1. I replaced the power chord with a high quality Audio Quest chord and grounded the chassis.
2. I reduced the o/p voltage from 3.5 to the industry standard of 2.0 volt. You have to be very carefull doing this.

In a nutshell, it has made a significant improvement in the sound quality and it is highly recommended to do the above 2 mods. Better & cleaner highs, more relaxed sound and can play at very high volumes without distortion. Only drawback is that you have to turn the volume control more on your preamp.
Associated equipment:
Sonic Frontier Line 1 tube preamp
Bryston 4Bnrb power amp
B&W Nautilus 805 speakers
REL subwoofer.

This is a must do tweak on you AH! cd player.

I should be greatful if the M2 Gospel 2000 could be sent to me. I am Gabriel Ayo Ajao, and my home is C/ juan Sebastian
Elcano 10-2B, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain. And my
E.mail address is gabiayo@telefonica.net.

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Mk Gospel 2000

"tack"between tracks(??)

This babe rocks!Don't your money into Wadia's.
Buy a Tjoeb and a car instead! :)

cue!

Case build

Hi all,compared with my old Classe,the Tjoeb seems
more detailed and warm.
Less detailed in the bass spectrum,this is a little weak.

My system

Classe cdp 1
Jolida 801 A
Pro AC Response 1.5
Kimber Silver Steak int.
Kimber Bifocal
Vibrapod

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Classe cdp 1