Good sound, low cost

Needed more trips to the shop than an old Jaguar

I feel I owe it to the AMC people to post an updated review of this unit. (See my rant from a couple years back below). Once I finally got it back (for the second time) from their service department, it worked fine. And has worked fine ever since. It does benefit from a high end dac. And it is very picky about CD-r's. But it sounds good and has been perfectly reliable, it just took some work to get it to that point.

Similar Products Used:

various other cd players

None

It's a piece of crap from a lame company

You may notice I posted an initial review of this CD player back in February. While the thing sounded pretty good compared to an ancient mass market player, it plain sucks compared to my current setup, a Toshiba 2109 DVD player through an Monarchy DIP and a PS Audio Ultralink DAC. Why all the new gear, you ask? Here's how it happened:

THe CD9 started skipping worse than before. I thought at first it must be my CD's, some of which received less than gentle treatment from various college roomates. No no, it did it on new CD's from the store. I finally sent the thing back to AMC. For use in the meantime I bought the 2109 from Best Buy on an open box special for $150, figuring I can use it as just a DVD player when the CD9 comes back. It took almost 6 months for the CD9 to come back, and GUESS WHAT? Not only was it now missing the remote, but it still didn't work. It even had a CD in the tray that some joker at AMC must have been listening to. IT EVEN SKIPPED ON THEIR CD! I sent it back again. That was a month ago and I haven't heard a thing.

Steer clear of this piece of junk. Audio Advisor was wrong, and I now take everything I read in their catalogs with a grain of salt; come on now, they're hawking Taiwanese Nakamichi "lifestyle" systems with 2" speakers now.


If you want good CD sound on the cheap, just keep your eyes open for deals on solid equipment as it crops up. The Toshiba 2109 DVD player sounds just as good thru its analog outpust as the CD9 did, and secondhand DACs that aren't 24/96 compatible are going for a song these days. (the Toshiba does not pass 24/96 thru its digital output.) Even the cheapest Sony changer at Best Buy has an optical output, so for $300 you can put together a real nice separates system. Throw in another $200 for a Monarchy DIP and you're hitting the high end.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2109DVD player

Always musical

For the money - none really.

Whoa! Why all the AMC bashing out there?

I have a CD9 in an alternate, "downstairs" system, but I have evaluated (sometimes out of necessity) in my "big rig" system.

Again, keeping in mind the modest money paid, this is an EXTREMELY musical CD player. It's sins are of "omission", meaning it may not extract the last ounce of detail, but it always serves the music, nonetheless.

Construction is first rate, I've never experienced the slightest glitch in operation in close to two years.

I've also listened to MANY other CD players in and around this price range (Rotel, Marantz, Sony, etc.) and can unhesitantly say - the CD9 is one of the BEST BARGAINS in an afordable CD player out there - PERIOD.

Similar Products Used:

Theta Miles, B.A.T. VK-D5, SONIC FRONTIERS SFD-1,ONKYO DV-C600

I bought this player with AMC3025a. Hooked on Paradigm Titan, it delivered a warm sound and very decent bass.
Apparently, this piece looks like NAD522. I was fairly happy about it in the first few hours and it was a steal. I paid $235(Canadian). Soon, my wife and me discovered it was a piece of crap. It missed the manual in the box, then we found the case was missing two screws at the back and a few scratches here and there.
The next day I brought it back to the dealer and got another brand new one. It has a better looking than the returned. Everything was set up. This time, we unveiled this real junk player. At first time, it plays the CD with some noises, you know those very annoying sound. Then it quited playing most of my classic musics. I had went through enough of these. But AMC3025a is very listenable. Give it a try with NAD312.

Very smooth sound

Very few functions, cheap looking remote, slow search, sometimes refuses to play certain CDs

I bought this product over a year ago and I'm still amazed at the wonderful sound. Sounds very smooth, basically any kind of music sounds good : classical, jazz, rock.
Of course, there are better products on the market, and it has its flaws.
Overal I would give it a 4, but for the price I paid for it, you can't find any better.

Similar Products Used:

None really

Great sound for cheap.

A little flimsy.

I use this CD player at work (McCormack Micro Integrated Drive, Sennheiser HD 580, NAD 4020B tuner, Rotel RLC-900 line conditioner, and Tara Labs Prism 11 interconnects) and think that it sounds great. The system sounded a little thin with Tara Labs RSC interconnects, but the Prism 11's worked wonders to fill out the sound with only a slight decrease in detail. The player has a smooth, refined sound that is virtually indistinguishable from my old NAD 502. I've had no problems with the unit's reliablilty or its compatability with commercially recorded CDs.

Similar Products Used:

NAD 502

I hadn't heard of this company before trying this product. What a shame! This little CD player is absolutely fantastic! It is the follow-up model to their CD8 which got rave reviews by Julian Hirsch in the May 96 Stereo Review. I was looking for a VERY musical, VERY quiet and VERY listenable player for a reasonalble price. I thought I would have to go with a used player to get the sound I wanted. This player ended that search with a flourish.
It is VERY quiet and has caused me to rediscover my entire cd collection. Its like starting with a new format. The difference is that noticable.

If your in the market for a GREAT cd player at an unbelievable price, (I found mine new for $199.00), you've got to get this one.

I have never heard of AMC until I visited Audio Advisor website. I decided togive it a shot. AMC CD9 is very neutral sounding. Coupled with
warm NAD 312 and a pair of bright B&W 601's results are impressive: clean treble (not grainy at all - I compared it to Sony CDP XE-500 which has treble extention bit too forward and harsh), controlled bass (no boominess that some 601's users observe - my guess is their problem is component matching). Soundstage is wide, and spatial resolution is pretty impressive. Excellent dynamics. Acoustic instruments sound very natural. Drums and cymbals rule. Even the most harsh recordings sound sweet.

I found that a good set of interconnects is a MUST with this player. I use AudioQuest Jade, but moving to more upscale cables might be a good idea. Don't use the cable that comes with the player! (unless you use lamp cord to hook up your speakers :-)

The player is VERY quiet, I couldn't hear any signs of hiss at all with volume turned all the way up. Build is solid, though the tray isn't as sturdy as you might like. The unit weighs about 10 pounds, it's a sign of a good power supply. The transport is pretty slow, and it's the only drawback I can find. Also, if you're a gadget/feature freak - this player is very stripped down, no random access, no volume control. Has a digital coax out to be used as a quality transport.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the player. It's low price and awesome performance beg 5 stars. If you need neutral sounding well built CD player - you should try AMC CD9.

Although I believe my new AMC CD9 deserves 5 Stars, I'll resist the temptation to exaggerate. However,...it is as if I were listening to a new medium, whencompared with my old JVC Player. Amidst the noise free environment inherent to
even the most basic CD Hardware, the CD9 emits an air of presence and space that
vastly exceeded my expectation. The instruments and voices sound crisp and
believable, as opposed to sterile. It is apparent to me that the sound quality of any system is dependent upon the interactions between and amongst components.
In my system, the CD9 sounds about as good as it gets. I have heard PD65s,
67SEs, and various Sony Es Models. None sounded better in my systems than the CD9. Audio Advisor gave me a great component at a great price($179). System-Proton 2120 Dual Mono Amp, Denon PRA1500 Pre, AQ Type6, Esoteric and Monster Inters.

I, like too many people, purchased this player on the strength of the Audio Advisor site. It promised an Alternative to the aging CD-63 that has been the standard for high quality/low cost players for years.
I must say that the sound is above average, but not brilliant (running on a Luxman R-117 receiver and Celestion DL-12 speakers). You could do a lot worse for the money.

The larger problem is build construction and reliability. To this end, the player is a piece of junk. I would say that the player might play about 60% of my disks without fail. The other 40%, if they play at all, take about 30 seconds before the laser pick-up can even find track 1. The 'bumpability' of the player is awful too, with even a coarse breeze sending the discs skipping into a techno trance.

I do think that AudioAdvisor over represented the actual value/quality of this product.