BIG,SHARP,DETAILED is basically what it does.
And with alot of RESOLUTION.

If you are the type that likes this, then okay, this is probably the best thing that can do thoose few things.

I don´t like it.

Sounds the opposite of true analog and 3d like sound.

It´s missing alot of personality and texture, and the price is a joke.
The touch screen is cool, but very slow.

Drive is a bit irritating, does not read really bad cd´s like for example Lyngdorf.

I would give it top grades if it only costs 2-3000 dollars new in my country.

It just doesn´t. (they are asking about 5000 dollars, and that is why it is not a cd that wil last will bedazzle you in all eternity)

Brings out all hidden delicate details in a real sense. Very true accurate reproduction of any cd, cdrw, cdr source. HDCD decoder is breath taking good. Balanced throughout, many 24 bit upsamplers. GUI easy to use. Upgradable software operating system. Uploads are very easy with a serial connect. Many functions on its remote. The remote is made of solid aluminum. Solid aluminum unit surround construction. Similarly compared to units costing 3x its price.

Discontinued. Waiting for next software update to correct a old Sarah McLachlan enhanced CD gitch that will not show time remaining per track or per CD. Noticed a very slight metallic on the highest octaves when playing a few high pitched singer opera tracks. It could be the source? It acts confused when no cd is in drawer and keeps trying to find it.

Truly enjoyable listening to this Cd player. My or the units break-in did take 300+ hours to fully settle down. This piece of equipment did replace my existing Rotel 991 after many hours/days of careful listening. CDP100 is a better player by 3x. It is simply decribed as many times more delicate and deeper in layers, the finest details revealed, soundstage accurate, and never overwhelmed by busy or complex tracks. My older Rotel unit really did sound excellent though, I kept it for many years and enjoyed it thoroughly but I was somewhat surprised to finally convince myself that the Classé is not just better, its a new level of listening. I had to start listening to all my CD all over again once it was ready. It reproduces the source to amazing levels, as if I were listening to really real instruments and not just a great imitation.

This player demands that you have a better than just good preamp, amp, wires, speakers to get all the detail out. Anything else and you loose its potential.

Unfortunately, a year after its release they discontinued it but I hear it was still in demand. Many people like myself who enjoyed having a HDCD decoder for a large CD collection will need to keep their existing players or get a decoder. Then again HDCD chips were also discontinued after HDCD was sold by the manufacturer. Another tech war casuality.

In summary, very amazing player with very few gitches. Still future ready with software updates to support the standard CD format.

Customer Service

Excellent response time for the order and follow-up service.

Design, Sound, Built Quality, Price.

Software issues can affect reliability of the product.

The Classe Delta CDP-100 CD player is a beautiful piece of equipment. It's style is very appealing and the touchscreen adds a new dimension to access all the features of the player. It's sound quality is top notch, very smooth and I would qualify it as being almost "tube-like". It can play CDs and HDCDs but not SACDs. I have to say the HDCDs are reproduced in a fantastic way, it is easy to tell the difference when the player switches between normal playback and HDCD playback.. the sound gets highly detailed and it makes it easy to interpret the recording's room signature.
Even though I enjoy this CD player a lot, I have experienced a few glitches : randomly, the device will not recognize CDs and I have to open the drawer and try again until the CD can be read. Also, the player would sometime freeze for half a second on playback and then resume even with unscrathed discs. From the information I have gathered from the manufacturer, these problems are software related and a new operating system version is available on their website. There is a serial port on the back of the player allowing such software upgrades. However, since most computers don't have serial ports anymore it is not exactly easy to do for everyone (considering I don't have a serial port on my computer, I did not perform the upgrade yet). Would have it been so complicated to put a USB connection on it instead?

Customer Service

I have called their office once (about the software problem) and it is easy to speak to someone and have them answer your questions.. no problem there.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, Arcam, Cambridge audio, Simaudio