Has excellent sound quality for the money. HDCD!!

Interesting tray, no option to turn display off.

I have heard a number of CD players around the same price point as the 971, and frankly none sound nearly as detailed, solid and neutral. With the addition of HDCD decoding is a major plus as well. Music that once sounded muddled is now clean, defined and open. Small details that were once extremely subtle are now obvious. I suppose I am going off about what you would expect from higher priced players. But hey, that's what you get with this player!

For a CD player under the $1k mark, you can't go wrong with the 971. The only con of this player is that there is no option to turn the display off, and the CD tray is not as solid as I would have liked. Don't get me wrong; it isn't ready to fall out with the slightest touch. The tray is not as sturdy as what you might expect from a $700 MSRP CD player, not to make it sound really cheap or anything. If you are looking for an incredible sounding CD player and can shell out the money for it, I highly recommend this player.

Note: While I have two small gripes about this player, I am still giving the player 5 stars since it sonically blows any player out of the water in its price range. You would have to spend at least double to get anything that "sounds" better!!!

Similar Products Used:

Mid/Low-end Sony.

Rotel RCD-971 CD player
It is time to upgrade my source, a Sony CDP XE500 CD player, so last night I went to my local dealer to audition the Rotel RCD-971.

I begged the dealer to connect the CD player to a Rotel integrated amp which would be similar to my Arcam Alpha 8 integrated amp. This would make my job of assessing the RCD-971 somewhat easier.

Pretending not to be able to locate the Rotel integrated amp, the dealer cruelly chose to amplify the RCD-971's signal with a Krell KAV 300i integrated amp. This made judging the performance of the CD player much more difficult when comparing the combo to my current equipment. How much of what I heard was the Rotel RCD-971 and how much was the Krell, perhaps the best (and one of the most expensive) integrated amp on the market? At least the speakers, B&W CDM1s were similar to my B&W P4s.

Bearing the Krell complication in mind, here is what I thought of the sound of the Rotel RCD-971 system:

Probably the first thing that I noticed was the lack of the fatigue factor in the treble. On a fatigue factor scale of 1 to 10 with a 10 being the most fatiguing, I would rate the sound at a 4. (At best I am able to achieve a rating of 6 at home.)
I listened to various orchestral pieces by Schubert.

Next, I recognized the characteristic B&W speaker tonal balance, which souds lean and very explicit. The Rotel RCD-971 has been criticized for a "smoothing" and "softening" effect. I did not hear this. The B&W CDM1's characteristic leanness was not altered. Yet, the lack of grain, grit, or glare, the low fatigue factor made the explicit tonal balance a decided advantage.

It sounded as if the sound emanated directly from the point of contact between bow and string, from the very air exiting a horn or trumpet. It was a very close-up view which I would describe as very, very accurate and intensely musical. I felt much closer to the sound of real instruments than to the sound of an obvious reproduction. The hifi and transitor qualities were very low. Conversely, the sense of musical truth was much greater than what I have achieved at home.

I was impressed with the vanishingly low noise level that clarified musical detail, like the breath a flutist takes before playing. My system is not capable of this kind of resolution and sounds vague and murky in comparison. I do not get an intimate, close-up view, free from obscuring noise like that of the RCD-971/Krell system.

Moreover, the haze of digital glare created by my CD player was absent from the sound of the RCD-971. This had a further un-masking effect and contributed to the sophisticated, highly musical presentation.

I was very impressed with the pace, timing, and rhythm of the RCD-971/Krell system. The system never missed a beat. I listened for blurring, slurring, and other subtle timing errors, but could not detect any. The RCD-971/Krell system displayed excellent timing and strong rhythm. This was very effective in re-creating orchestral dynamics, transients, and percussion, which sounded staggeringly realistic. Again, the sense of musical truth was heightened.

Imaging was far more three-dimensional on the Rotel/Krell system than on mine. I could hear much further into the orchestra. The sense of the space around instruments was much, much clearer. The RCD-971/Krell combo, more than any other system that I have heard to date, re-created an accurate sense of the acoustic of the recording venue. It was breathtaking. I felt that I had a first row seat in Symphony Hall.

The Rotel RCD-971 is a solid and heavy player (it houses a large torroidal transformer). I found it easy to operate with a plain, but user friendly remote and a display that was easy to read from a distance. The disc drawer seemed a little flimsy though. Also, the player was slow to read a disc's table of contents.

Far from being a safe sounding player, I found the RCD-971 to be an exciting, involving, and dynamic source. At least it sounded that way teamed with the Krell. The combo had tremendous slam and depth.

It was very slick of the dealer to insist on using the KAV 300i to amplify the Rotel. It makes my task, of judging just how good the Rotel RCD-971 is, exceedingly difficult. The RCD-971 certainly did not hold the Krell's excellence back in any way. While the combo's sound was not perfect, it was extremely accurate, transparent, dynamic, refined, and just sublime. It made my Sony CDP XE500/Arcam Alpha 8 combo sound like crap. I have a long, long way to go to achieve that kind of fidelity. Purchasing the Rotel RCD-971 might just be the first step.

Sound/Performance *****

Ease of Track Access ****

Build Quality ****

Value *****

WOW !!! What a disappointment......Good midrange, very clean but rolled off high end but no bass !!!
All recordings sound thin but not bright and HDCD did little to improve upon this. This was even with a 1.5 db advantage on the Rotel !!!
If your system is bass heavy and laid back, this the CD player for you.
I'll stick with the output from my Sony ES player or the Musical Fidelity X-act !!!

Whatever Todd. Again, someone who doesn't tell us what system he listened to, or his own system (if auditioned at home). Nice DAC's in the Sony ES, and MF X-act, NOT. These pieces of C^%P (excluding the CDP-XA7ES) don't even have HDCD. The DAC's in the 971 (and 991) are the same 20 bit Burr-Browns used in the Krell KPS 20i ($9,000 class A Stereophile). The 971 is easily as good as the old 990 which recieved a high B rating in stereophile from the venerable Sam Tellig. The 991 should rate class A. Just go listen for yourself :)
Equipment:

Bryston B-60R
PSB Stratus Silver's
DH Labs Silver Sonic throughout
and the 971 (the 991 was not available yet, plus don't need balanced)

rotel,rcd971.cdplayer.after much thought between a rega planet and a rotel rcd971,i took the plunge for the rotel.and i am glad i did .a friend of mine has the planet ,and likes it.i liked it to ,but found it a little polite for my taste.mated with my kef reference model ones the detail and naturalness of the sound is addicting.highly recommened.

Extreme high value-for-money.

Bad remotecontrol. Small bottoms, poorly placed. No fast search.

This small CD-player does not look much, but it seems that Rotel, as always has used the energy, producing a mashine that not only can compete with all the players in the same pricelevel, but can compete with most cdplayer, regardless the price. An easy way to improve the performance is to putt a "jitter-reducer" like the LClock XO from the danish company LCAudio. (See www.lcaudio.com). This small and cheap device can improve almost any cdplayer, and the price is resonble: 125 USD. Also upgrading the upamp's is cheap and pays off. Try the AD825 from AnalogDevice. With those two tweek's installed, the player gives you a just astunishing sound. Not a big boomy sound, but with a tight very deep bass, and silky upper register. The perspektive is big, and the player never looses its grib, nomather how much thery going on. Allthough i only have 2 records with the HDCD-encoding there can be no doubt, that the HDCD is an improment compared to "normal" cd's. First of all the sound is smoother, secondly the dynamic is breathtaking. Try the new Dire Straits CD - The Very best of. This cd compared to LP is the closest i've ever heard any cd, reaching the level of a high-end recordplayer. And the recordplayer cost 6 times as much as this Rotel Cd-player. Compared to some of the best cdplayers from Sony. 3-4 times as expensive, the Rotel RCD-971 is superior in every way. The sound is smoother, and first of all more "human". Much more flesh and blood. One can only say: Nice going, Rotel !

Similar Products Used:

Philips CD880, Philips CDR880, Technish SL770, Cambridge CD-6, Sony 50ES,70ES,7ES

Its sound quality, The components used (DAC, Filters and Discrete components)

There are not optical digital output, and not balanced analog outputs. The power supply cable and some noise in the transport.

The sound quality is very high, and the dynamic response is guaranteed by the toroidal transformer. The dual PCM-63P DACs and the Pacific Microsonics Interpolation filter (and HDCD decoder) are products of a very high quality. Also, the discrete components (such as the two Electrostatic Capacitors for the power regulation in the analog and digital sections, and the other capacitors, resistors and transistors).
The remote control works well and the facilities are enough for a product of this price level.

Similar Products Used:

Rega Planet, Marantz 63-ki

I bought one last night. I was comparing it A/B to the Calaudio DX-2. It wasn't a super easy decision, but I will point out the differences I heard, and why I chose the Rotel.
Demo Amp: Classe CAP-80 integrated
CD players: Rotel RCD-971 and California Audio Labs DX-2
Speakers: Aerial Acoustics Model 5's on stands
Transparent interconnects and speaker wire

In a nutshell, the CAL CD player sounded very warm, but just couldn't resolve details like the Rotel. This was the biggest difference I heard. The Rotel was very crisp without being bright, and very musical without losing detail and transparency. The image was a lot more focused and clear with the Rotel, on the Cal (comparatively) it was more mushed together.

This player includes HDCD (via Pacific Microsonics PMD100 chip), but this isn't a big advantage to me, as I own no HDCDs right now. It also has a digital out (coax) and a remote.

I didn't compare this player to more expensive reference models (although I listened to a Wadia 830 later that night, but on a different system, so I will not pretend to compare the two) So, it is difficult for me to say how it would fare up against them.

I bought this CD player for $629 (in NH, no tax) brand new.

I say 4 stars, with 5 being ABSOLUTELY PERFECT (IMHO).

This beautiful CD player. I did not get a chance to demo this unit. I bought it solely on the reviews posted here. However, I did A-B it with a new Harmon Kardons FL8300 that we purchased for a relative. Among multi-disc players it faired pretty good according to the reviews. The Rotel made it sound like it had a tin can for a filter. The Rotel was much more realistic.
About 20 years ago I purchased the best system I could find for $3,000. Quite a
commitment then and at age 17. I still have it in perfect condition. Quality doesn't go out of style fast. I was very much used to the sound performance of the "original master recording" LP's. I purchased my first CD player around 1986 and was totally let down with the absence of everything and lost interest. Thanks to this Website and the RDC 971 which is the closest thing to LP's without the cracks and pops, my interests have been rekindled.

I called all the local CD stores looking for HDCD's. Blockbusters, Sam Goody's, Circuit City; no one had a clue to what I was talking about. I then called a local high end audio retailer and talked to their CD department and I was told they could be special ordered for around $30 dollars. Again, no clue. I finally contacted "hdcd.com" and to my surprise I already owned one. The HDCD site has a huge list of recording on the shelves.

Aside from the chintzy remote and drawer, I give it 5 stars for the price.

Mitsubishi DA-A7DC Tuner-Amplifier
Mitsubishi DA-C7 Amplifier
M&K S-1 Satellite Speakers
M&K V-125 Sub

This is a beautiful CD player. I did not get a chance to demo this unit. I bought it solely on the reviews posted here. However, I did A-B it with a new Harman Kardons FL8300 that we purchased for a relative. Among multi-disc players it fared pretty good according to the reviews. The Rotel made it sound like it had a tin can for a filter. The Rotel was much more realistic.
About 20 years ago I purchased the best system I could find for $3,000. Quite a
commitment then and at age 17. I still have it in perfect condition. Quality doesn't go out of style fast. I was very much used to the sound performance of the "original master recording" LP's. I purchased my first CD player around 1986 and was totally let down with the absence of everything and lost interest. Thanks to this Website and the RDC 971 which is the closest thing to LP's without the cracks and pops, my interests have been rekindled.

I called all the local CD stores looking for HDCD's. Blockbusters, Sam Goody's, Circuit City; no one had a clue to what I was talking about. I then called a local high end audio retailer and talked to their CD department and I was told they could be special ordered for around $30 dollars. Again, no clue. I finally contacted "hdcd.com" and to my surprise I already owned one. The HDCD site has a huge list of recording on the shelves.

Aside from the chintzy remote and drawer, I give it 5 stars for the price.

Mitsubishi DA-A7DC Tuner-Amplifier
Mitsubishi DA-C7 Amplifier
M&K S-1 Satellite Speakers
M&K V-125 Sub