Easy to listen to at most volume levels. Responds to better cabling and most component upgrades. Built great. Homely beautiful. Simple, useful remote.

High jitter vs. today's best. Light plastic drawer responds to constrained layer damping as cheapo, but effective upgrade - try it!

I was a bit late to CD...having had a turntable until 1993. This Rotel was given such high marks at the time, it enticed me. My wife, god bless her, knew I'd stall around forever and find a way to avoid the CD fever at the time. This had to rank as one of the best Christmas gifts ever! Totally non-fatiguing and sturdily built. It played on for 8 years (unreal, but original Panasonic AA General Purpose batteries are still going!). Had upgrade-itis the past year and a half and only this and tuner still in the component rack. I have mated the 965BX to an MSB Gold Link III and it's been spinning nicely, but sometimes I think the standalone unit was better. I think, as an earlier poster indicated, it's best as a standalone unit making great music; albeit not with the finesse and resolution of todays best. Buy one used for $150.00 these days - you can hardly do any better. It really has aged better than most of the players of 8 years ago. It is now moving aside in my rack and a new Sony transport (with gobs less jitter) takes over and it is better now. This little guy is not going far however-I am putting together a system for Dad and now he'll enjoy this baby a few more great years.

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Live concerts and great turntables. Heard many CDplayers over the years, too, in all price ranges and brands.

musicality and atmosphere

none so far I´ve experienced

Everything is said. Thanks Rotel! for fabricating this sheerful player.

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Marantz and Sony

I agree with the views of Murthy and Walpole. I bought my Rotel in 1992 and since then, I've had it modified by adding the Trichord Clock 2, changing some electrolytic capacitors, changing the output op-amp to an Analog Devices op-amp, changing the power cord into a detachable IEC type, and even changing the RCA jacks on the rear to Tiffany brand. It's fabulous, so much so that it outperformed a Rotel 965 Limited Edition at the dealer's place. Although I hope to upgrade to a Meridian 508.24, I've never felt the urge to change the Rotel at all, it is so completely satisfying every time I listen to it.

Sheer musicality - it's a richly sounding, yet fundamentally accurate player. Analogue-fiends, this one you can listen to for hours without fatique!

None, except maybe a slightly noisey disc-loading tray (clutching at straws here!)

I've been using this player since 1993, and not once has it failed to suprise me with it's musical way with CD's. This is far from your average silver disc spinner! I've listened to some VERY esoteric CD players, including one priced at £25,000! It sounded very insightful, but DID NOT have the rich musicality of the Rotel - one can listen to this player for hours and hours. The player is also very studily built for the price, and can also be upgraded for better sound quality. I would advice AGAINST adding an external DAC however - this player seems to gel as a stand-alone item. Whether or not it was designed to give this exceptionally high level of performance, or whether it was a classic example of a product being more than the some of it's parts, I don't know. Certainly Rotel players after this have failed to create quite such a sensation. Forget SACD or DVD-A: This player lets you enjoy the music in normal CD's, and to forget you're listening to Hi-Fi!

The BEST news? You can pick them up second-hand for about £60 in England! (try www.loot.com)

Harmonic, depth & soundstage, timing, non fetiguing, extracts dynamics and most of details, emotional.

High jitter, bass could be tighter and faster, extreme highs are present but not fully maintained.

After trying all those new ones with 24/96 filters up to 2500$, still could'nt find a worthy replacement in that price category.
Sure there are better ones like Carry and simmilar, the Caspian came close, but why spent if not needed?
Yes, it's a bit slow and lack in resonance whith extreme highs but the overall performance is rarely found theese days, mind you its 10 years old models.
Good cabeling is a must since the player is so honest it is easylly influenced by ones.
If you get one grabb it, and buy a spare jugged drawr pully.

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Marantz 6000ose,Nad 541,Roksan Caspian,Linn Kalik,Arcam 72,Nad s500 and others

Beautiful detailed sound, Relaxing rather than nail biting.

Non that I can think of.

I tested this amp against £250 CD players some years ago. A bit unfair but there was a shop letting them go for this price anstead of the normal price of £425,( it was comming to the end of its line).

After listening to the same Eric Clapton song about 8 times on various players you do get a little bored. The Rotel was last up and me and my mate just grinned at each other with wide open eyes.

It was amazing. The sound was soooooo smooth, so rich and relaxing, washing over us.

There are probably non about now but if you see a good one, get it. My mate still keeps asking me if I'll sell to him, but I never will.

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I tested this CD player against about 8 other players from Arcam, H&K, Marantz, Kenwood, ETC.

Great sound, rich detailed and involving. No fatigue.

mine was a little beatup (it was used) and came with no remote. Rotel sold me a replacement remote for $20! High marks for customer service :)

I purchased one of these beauties at a used audio store (Audio Mart on Bank) for $230cdn mainly because of the Rotel name (i dident even audition it). It has since blown away all of the players i have listened to (keep in mind i have only listened to sub $1000 equipment). Definately the best CD player i have ever listened too. Its smooth, involving and rich. Unfortunately I know that it could sound alot better if i could get better speakers (PSB) / amp (Yamaha MX-55). I never have suffered from listening fatigue and it is one rugged player.

If you can find one ... buy it :)
Cudos to Rotel for making a great player.

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Nad and Marantz entry level players

I bought my Rotel RCD-965 BX almost 7 years ago. Many others have tried to take it's place (and failed - badly). Most new cd players at even very low prices can outperform this Rotel in areas such as depth and speed of bass etc. However no cd player that I have listened to under £1000 (~$1600) has come anywhere near it's level of level of involvement with the music. This is probably at leastly partly due to the use of the Philips SAA 7220 digital filter (a much shorter digital filter than some others, certainly most Japanese models). Jitter is quite high, the player can benefit from the fitting of a new clock module. Also worthy of consideration is upgrading various decoupling caps and the output stage. With this done it easily moves from 4 to 5 stars (IMHO)

Stereo sep. Gutsy sound. build

For the price none

This is a very good player if you can get it second hand. I have heard a Naim cd player which had a sweeter treble, but nothing else compered to the Rotel and at a third of the price. The Rotel has a powerful sound which reaches far beyond the speakers. Listen and let your ears decide.

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Naim Amstrad

I couldn't agree more with what Mr. Tim Walpole has to say about this unit.
Mine is also around 8 years old, but some three years ago I got a Trichord Clock II (around US$200) fitted. Now I find this unit perfectly at home with my budget system (NAD/Celestion) or my high-end (Krell/Audio Reseach) system. Owner friends of mega-buck two box CD systems (over US$ 1200) cry at having spent so much on their unit. More than that, most agree that the RCD-965BX's sound is as close to a vinyl record one could possibly get from a digital source. I couldn't agree more.

Five stars for sure with the Trichord modification.