Sound, Build, appearance.

Interferes with the TV picture when in standby mode.

Back in 1999 I bought a CD burner for my PC. The plan being to complete my back catalogue of CD’s from my tapes and vinyl collection. A slight problem materialised with my wonderful but ancient Philips CD650 CD player. The single beam tracking could not deal with CDR’s. So the search was on for a new CD player which offered the same or better sound quality as the CD650 with a completely silent drive. I bought a Harman Kardon HD710 for £70 first. I knew they had Philips Bitstream D/A converters. The sound quality was good but the drive was seriously noisy when the Laser parked after a CD finished playing. Next I bought a Philips CD753 for £90. A well featured player with Bitstream D/A converters. The drive was reasonably quiet but sound wise there was something missing. I spent hours comparing the CD650 with it. in the end it seemed to be missing certain resonant sounds with stringed instruments. It also didn’t like to have anything stacked on top of it as this would cause tracking errors after a while. Oh dear! I do like Philips based CD products as they invented the format, but they don’t cater for the quality end of the market anymore. So after a long search I finally settled for the NAD CD541I as it can play CDR’s and CDR/W’s whereas the CD541 could not. Well it’s got a minimal set of features but by God it plays CD very well. The Sound quality is in a different league to anything else I heard and it’s better than the CD650 (my previous benchmark). It has a built in HDCD decoder. I’ve only got three HDCD’s but yes it does make a difference and the added presence gives another dimension to the sound staging. It has both digital and optical outputs . I prefer to use the digital to link it to my CD burner. I tried the optical but I had a couple of burn failures as a result. The remote isn’t too bad, although I now use a 6 way all-for-one universal remote for convenience. When a CD finishes playing the drive is very silent but on occasions I can hear it. But for a stepper motor lead screw arrangement it’s the best I’ve heard. I guess I got spoilt by the Galvanometer drive of the Philips CD650. I don’t think anyone uses that style anymore as it is a piece of precision engineering compared to the stepper drives. I know this is a small point, but I do like total silence after Dark side of the moon stops playing. I like the minimalist styling

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CD Players/Recorders: Harman Kardon HD710, Philips CD650, Philips CD753, Philips CDR600

Great sound limited by the quality of the recording. Tracks CDs, CDRs, and CDRWs flawlessly. HDCD capability. Inexpensive for its fine performance.

None at its price, unless one objects to NAD's looks. Not as sophisticated programming as my old Phillips CD 921.

My dream is to be able to afford an Audio Research CD2 or CD3, but I'm enjoying my new NAD C541i very much. It is one of the true bargains in the audio world. The NAD C541i sounds smooth and rich, yet quite detailed and nuanced. It does not emphasize any part of the audio frequency spectrum and has nice separation and realistic imaging. Instrumental and vocal timbres sound natural and even large ensembles don't get cluttered. The limiting factor seems to be the CD itself. The NAD C541i tracks flawlessly all the CDs (some over 15 years old and often played) and CDRs I have put into it. It reveals limitations in the recordings/masterings, but is not so clinical that it makes any unlistenable (any that I was previously able to tolerate). It makes most recordings sound better than ever. I don't have many HDCD recordings. Those that I do have sound significantly more palpable than before but no better than many fine standard CDs. I had budgeted for my other favorite in the under-$1000 pricerange, the $700 Rotel RCD-971 (replaced now by the Rotel RCD-1070), but the NAD C541i sounds as good overall. I'm buying a lot of CDs (mostly jazz) with the money I saved. Another CD player that I auditioned was the new Music Hall CD-25, but that sounded too smooth for my tastes. I was less impressed by Cambridge Audio players, and I couldn't live with the sound and ergonomics of the highly respected Rega Planet. I thought that the Arcam Diva 72 was okay but a bit lean. I also auditioned various more mass-marketed CD players. I suggest that you audition CD players on your system (or on systems that you can assess) with a variety of CDs that you are very familiar with. The sonic differences between CD players are often subtle, but those differences can grow on you or wear you down.

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Audio Research CD1 and CD2; Rotel 970, 951, 961, and 971; Music Hall CD-25; Rega Planet 2000; Arcam Diva 72; Roksan Kandy; various Cambridge Audio, Pioneer, Phillips, Technics, etc.

Great sound, low cost.

Filmsy build quality, but sufficient for years of use.

This Nad C541 HDCD CD player sounds great, from the beginning. Never has failed to track properly. Instrumental timbre accuracy is excellent, as is: inner detail and separation of instruments, imaging, transient attacks. Sound stage, depth and fullness, as well as low end, is quite nice. Very revealing but also very neutral - adds nothing of its own to the program material. Some discs that can only shine on top CD players did quite well on this one: "Hergest Ridge" by Mike Oldfield, and Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony" conducted by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony (recorded in 1956). The HDCD capability will enhance the sound of non-HDCD discs. Can't beat it for the money. I have a large collection of CDs, and am still undecided about SACD or DVD-A, and will use this one in the meantime (makes the wait pleasant). The C541 plays CDR discs. For the abilty to play RW CDs get the C541i.

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Nad 512, Technics, Denon, Sony, Magnavox.

Good detail. Clear sound. Strong clear mids. Good for classical/vocal music.

Unimpactful bass/ Does not read certain tracks. No variable output.

I bought this unit a few weeks back. It replaced a very old (10 years old) Sony CDP-970, which actually I considered a great sounding unit. I haven;t much time with this unit yet, but so far I am quite happy when I am listening to CDs where vocals and classical instrumentation are the key. However, bass-ridden tracks (like rap, electronic, and certain rock tracks) lack impact. My old unit reaches those depths well. I''m not sure about others, but I like hearing room-shaking bass, and this unit just isn''t able to do that. My g/friend said it best when she said that she keeps wanting to raise the volume on the c541i. Also, just a day after purchase, it didn''t read certain tracks. Tracks my old unit reads just fine. I''ve been on the search for a CD-player for some time now, and I think I''m still searching.

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Sony CDP-970; Sony CDP-CA70es;

HDCD works magic. Digital outlet in optical as well as coaxial on this new version.

Remote controll is as poor as they say, and the NAD-link is silly and contraditing to the NAD simplicity concept. But who cares, really?

I got hold of two HDCD recordings and played them on my brand new NAD C541i - and it exeeded my wildest expectations. Copland''s "Fanfare for the Common Man" made my heart jump by the magic feeling of being there, right in front of the symphony orchestra. Loud and clear bass sound from the tuba and the drums like the walls came tumbeling down. I had no idea my loudspeakers were able to produce such sounds. "Take Five" with Brubeck/Desmond was the next HDCD put to test. This piece of music I know well from my old and ordninary 150 dollar Denon CD-player. I heard many sounds I never noticed before from bass and drums - and I got a feeling of being present in the studie with the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1959 - due to the great ambience. (recording engineer could have handled stereo better, though) For my ordinary 16 bit CDs it''s still a good CD player, bringing the bass to the distinctive richness I was aiming for when I bought the new CD-player - at least with most of my old CDs. The HDCD with 20-bit coding makes a lot of difference. What a shame, that 16 bit is standard with the CD''s.

Great sound for the money. For $290US I can''t think of anything to beat it.

There''s not much I can say that hasn''t already been mentioned in other reviews... Soundstage is great for the most part, but distortion- and guitar-heavy recordings (heavy metal) tend to sound "mushy" or compressed. The C541 player is quite honest when it comes to reproducing detail however, so maybe this is more a reflection of the production quality of those types of releases. I bought this unit factory reconditioned and haven''t had any of the skipping problems others have mentioned. Perhaps it''s safer to buy a reconditioned model, as (presumably) all defects and problems will have been discovered and worked out the second time around.

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older Technics, Marantz changer, mass-produced crap.

Following up my original review from 2 years ago, I must say I am still quite pleased with the C540, although I have been tempted now and then to replace it. Reasons? The skipping problem other owners have noted in their reviews--it''''s not chronic, but it does happen more often than with any other player I''''ve used--and the lack of certain features such as programmability. I have to wonder if the skipping isn''''t due partly to the flimsy build quality, which is another issue. The player may sound as though it costs more than $500, but it FEELS as though it should cost about $129. And I''''ve occasionally wondered whether I could get better sonic performance from a comparably-priced player like the Cambridge D500, although so far I haven''''t felt strongly enough to make the switch. A few lessons I''''ve learned which I''''d like to pass along: 1) Cables matter. I suspect the qualms some users have had about the soundstage width/depth, or frequency response, could have been resolved with different interconnects. For detail and soundstaging, Kimber PBJs and Alpha-Core Micro Purls or Triode Quartzes do well with the C540 (and probably with the C541, the current model). And I''''m thinking that in some cases, users have blamed the NAD''''s soundstaging when all the player was doing was revealing the narrow soundstage in the recording itself. 2) Vibration control matters. Especially since the thing is prone to skipping, use a product like the AudioQuest Big Feet to isolate it. 3) Current matters, especially if you''''ve got polluted household current and feel the need to use a line filter. I am now using a Tripp-Lite Isobar surge suppressor and getting much greater dynamics out of the player than I was with the Monster line filter I had before. As for the modifications some posters have suggested, I haven''''t tried any but they make sense if you have techie tendencies.

HDCD filter, matches other NAD equip.

Sensitive laser/transport?

I own the NAD C370 int. amp. and the C440 tuner so when I wanted to match my system and replace my Sony CD player, the NAD C-541 was a natural choice. Well, it does take a lot of nerve to buy one after reading some of the reviews for this product on this site, I will admit. Although, most of the poor (problem plagued) reviews are for the 540, I have the 541 and have not had any of the same problems except for one, one time. But I will get to that after some praise. Sonically, if you have mid-fi equip. you will not be disapointed, this player sounds fantastic by all accounts. The HDCD circuitry is a winner. It even helps out non-HDCD discs quite a bit to my surprise. Anything that can get more out of my extensive CD collection is good by me. Therefore, if you have other NAD equip., then buy this CD player and you only have to use one remote - very nice. If you have other equip. then consider this unit, but please buy a unit with an HDCD decoder, it is worth the extra money. Check out their site to learn more, www.hdcd.com. OK, now for the one problem, I put in an older disc and it was not recognized, display said "no disc". Here is what I did, take a ball point pen and use the stem of the pen to spin it around inside the CD hole to "smooth" it out. Do the same for the outside of the disc. I did this and the CD worked. OK, I am not crazy and also not creative enough to think of this scheme by myself. Here is the interesting part, I recently bought an Alpine CD changer for my car and it said that sometimes brand new CD''s may not be recognized by the unit and to go ahead with the steps I described to remedy the situation. There it is, straight from Alpine. Now I honestly don''t know how this procedure could help, please e-mail if you know, but anyway it seems to work! Again the sound on this unit is really nice and open with a clean and well defined bass, strong but not thumpy. The mids were fine and the highs were detailed but not sharp. I am very happy with the unit. Make sure you get a later batch of the 541''s and you should be fine, mine is August 2001.

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Sony XA20ES

warm sound....detailed mid's

high's and deep bass are muffled and not very detailed

well, at first when I started shopping for a new amp and new cd, my heart was set on the NAD....after listening to denon, onkyo, yamaha and sony, I still liked the warmth of the nad better, but then, I had a chance to listen to Cambridge audio a500, and was I surprised....I head details in the lows and highs that the Nad never showed. The bass was much more detailed and the highs where also more detailed...the Nad is great in the mids....but it doesn't show you the whole picture....so to my taste (anyone knows that sound is a very personnal thing) I like the Cambridge way better...

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Cambridge audio, denon, onkyo, yamaha, sony

Very smooth

This is really a great player which I have no complaints about. It was a considerable move up from my previous $200.00 Sony. I have a B+K AVR202 receiver, and Magnepan 1.6 speakers which sounded very good thru the old Sony, but the difference between the Sony and the NAD was like night and day. If 500.00 dollars is your limit for a CD player, then this without question should be your choice. I have chosen to trade up to the Arcam 7SE because it offers the same step up in performance which I got, going to the NAD from the Sony. For 700.00 dollars the Arcam can't be touched.