fine finish; built for a long use; rich and detailed sound, excellent player

Nothing.

The 965BX is the best CD-Player that i ever had.

Similar Products Used:

Audio Alchemy, Parasound, Denon, HK, Nad, Krell

Excellent bas, great mid, super high. 5 stars player

Nothing.

Take it !

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 990, Krell KAV280, Krell KPS25SC, Accuphase DP75V, McIntosh MCD7009,....

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Excelent player. best for a buck

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, Nad, Accuphase, .....

None

Great cd player

Similar Products Used:

Marantz CD-17, Nad, Accuphase Dp-75,

No

Price killer. Best regards

Similar Products Used:

Nad, Linn, Krell

Musicality. Pure and simple

Bass is a bit soggy, but only when directly compared to others. Others may sound superficially more impressive but this is what i always come back to.

Well, thought id post again, mine's the first post on this CD player and it seems many agree that this is great cd player. Im on my second one now. I love the sound - dont know what ill do when it breaks.

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Nothing thats as nice to listen to

Soundstage, ambience, analogue like sound. A feeling of being there.

Hard to find one.

i have had this player since it first came out in UK - and it has never ceased to amaze me. I have had it in an all TAG McClaren set up - where it competed with the TAG DAC. In fact the diffrences between the Rotel with its own DAC, and the Rotel with a TAG external DAC were almost impossible to hear. I have recently moved away from TAG and solid state and hooked up tube preamp and power amplification - and believe the sound is bloody marvellous. In fact there are times when I switch back and forth between vinyl and Rotel CD and I find myself saying - god thats as good as vinyl. I have never felt the need to add any clock revisions - but may be tempted in the near future. In summary - a great sounding CD player. Use it on its own. Don't worry that it costs so little - just be smug and say to yourself "well done".

Designers took sound as first priority. Upgradable.

Not as open and deep like todays products. Short in height.

This is a clock mod. (Trichord3) review. All other superlatives have already used by earlier posters, all justified. But after the clock mod. the players former weaknesses are now more apearrent. With the clock the player reaches more accurate and believable speed and instruments positioning, bass is tighter and more defined, cimbals are crispier and much present than before. A clock mod. is known to make harder and harsher sound in some other players, but since this one is a Philips bitstreamer using the saa7220 filter, and foil caps in audio path, the match is just perfect. Note that the sound might sound very analog comparing to todays players thus making it somewhat old fashined sounding. Also check 2nd hand machines fore signal and transformer solidity of soldering, they are very thin and tend to tare.

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Many too many...but this one, moded is an all rounder.

Coherent, music making abilities, tonally rich and natural.

In its original form, lacks resolution, definition and frequency extension compared to today's machines.

Had this player for over 8 years. It is musical and everything the people below have posted. However, its resolution, definition and immediacy is starting to lack behind today's players although it is still very musical and involving. Using an external DAC did not really improve the overall combi as a CD source and hence not very effective. I then explored upgrading key internal analogue parts. I did not want upgrades in the digital domain since I feel this may alter the very essence of this Rotel. Also, I heard many newer machines of today at the range equivalent to the Rotel at its heydays and found that although today's players are generally superior in resolution and frequency extension, they do not necessarily come across as satisfying in the pace, coherence, truth of timbre and invovlment. Hence I played around with the analogue op-amps, output capacitors, input regulators and replaced the power cable with one of thicker gauge. This resulted in a more vibrant mid-end and powerful presentation all round without sounding overbearing. However, bass and resolution were still muddy and this was enhanced by applying copper foils/shileding onto all the visible computer chips and ferrit cores at the certain cables (both power and signal cables). This snapped and cleaned up the entire frequency range - bass started to exhibit the low-end growl and treble display the weight and purity of more expensive machines of today. Further tightness can be achieved by putting 'weights' on the Rotel to help dampen the chasis (use bricks or telephone guide books) and soundstage heigh. The Rotel is sensitive to support/rack of course. At the end I found the Rotel to be still a very relevant music maker today especially after the mods have been done. A classic.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, Sony, CEC, Audio Alchemy, California Audio Labs, Denon, Meridian.

Musical, neutral, ease of use

None

Back then the Rotel and the Marantz CD72 Special Edition received very good reviews in virtually all magazines from Britain to Germany... After listening I thought the Marantz to be great but a bit too excited when playing back classical music, hence I choose Rotel RCD965BX Limited Edition. Ever since it has matched perfectly well in my system: Magneplanar loudspeakers (and Kef), Quad 34/606 amps, Monster M850 interconnects and .75 loudspeaker cable. I found it replays CD-R's but have never tried CD-RW. I am still impressed, enjoying the music it reproduces and have no plans to replace it. Note: I have only compared it against my DVD player, Nakamichi DVD10S.

Similar Products Used:

Nakamichi DVD10S (DVD player)