I listened to the 971 at my local dealer and compared it to my old Philips 935 CD changer and did not notice a great increase in quality over my Philips. I listened to the 971 through a Rotel RB981 power amp rated at 130 watts, a Rotel
RC972 pre-amp and B&W CDM-1SE speakers. I also listened to the 971 through better Rotel electronics (RB991 200 watt power amp and RC995 pre-amp) without any appreciable increase in sound quality.
V. Chen stated below that he did not believe that the Rotel 991 CD player was worth the extra money over the 971. However, my experience was that the 991 won big time over the 971. It only sounded good though through the higher powered Rotel system (RB991 and RC995). The 991 did not sound much better than the 971 when played through the RB981 and RC972.
I guess that this is an example of matching similiarly priced components. Barry

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Linn Classik integrated amp/CD & various Arcam CD players

Provides listener with excellent clarity and dynamics for less than $1000 US. HDCD decoder is a bonus.

Really, none for the money. Sonically, can be "screechy" on hi-treble passages. (though large portion of blame should be directed toward half-assed disc recording/mixing)

I have been living with the 971 for over a year now.
Hear are a few things I have found help change (improve?)the sound of my system.

To reduce chasis vibration...

1. Use isolation material under feet or chasis. (I use Dr. Shoal's Sorbothane? gel pads placed under the feet)

2. Place lead-shot (I use 10 lbs)on top of unit.

Interconnects made a BIG difference in my system.
Started out with MIT 330 and sound was good... Dealer had Straightwire Maestro that I took home and "demoed" WOW
what a slap in the face. BASS was now tight and had
ungodly amount of punch (stab?), midrange swaggered, but treble became murderous (nails on chalkboard). Took Maestros back and grabbed a set of Serenades. Serenades were smooth and engaging throughout the frequency range.
Perceived increase in width of soundstage over the MIT's, and depth but not to same degree as width.

What I have found to influence reviews

Equipment has not completed "burn in" period. This includes cables as well!

CD Recording/Mastering quality is substandard! Garbage in, garbage out.

Improper selection of interconnects and speaker cables.

Lack of adequate amplification for given speaker system.
(Vol set at 10, no current,... weak BASS.. come on people!!)

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Low-end japanese offerings

I listened to the Rega Planet and the Rotel RCD-971 on a Rotel system with the Magnaplanar 1.6s. No contest; Rotel was sweeter at the high end. Then I took the Rotel home and a spent the better part of an evening doing A-to-B against my current Rotel RCD-940BX (an 18-bit/8x about 3.5 yrs old). This was a tougher comparison. On audiophile non-HDCD CDs (like Sheffield), both players sounded very similar. Had I used only top-quality CDs to test, I would have returned the 971. Then I broke out some HDCD-encoded CDs (like Harris's Wrecking Ball)and there was no contest: the 971 sounded more realistic, less edgy. Then I listened to a grungy non-HDCD disk like Alanis Morrisette's 1st album Jagged Little Pill. I was blown away. The 971 made the sound so much smoother. I guess it's the PMD-100 chip doing its thing to smooth out nasty CD sound (the chip apparently processes all bit streams, whether HDCD or not).
My conclusion is that the PMD-100 HDCD chip and the 20-bit Burr-Browns must be well designed. It(they) let great stuff continue to sound great, made HDCD sound stunning, and made rough non-HDCD sound like great vinyl. So, I bought the unit. Remote sucks, though. The touch controls are much too close together. Also, I object to having an open/close switch on the remote: It's only a button waiting for disaster behind a closed cabinet. None-the-less, it gets 5 stars. My general system: Plinius amp, Dynaudio speakers, Audioquest interconnects.

I demoed the 971 over the weekend to see if it would be worth upgrading from my Marantz 67SE (which I got as a demo for $375).
My system:
Yamaha 2095 receiver
Carver A753-x THX amp (250x3)
Paradigm Studio 100s
AQ Ruby and Wireworld Equinox III cables

This system tends to sound bright to begin with, so adding the 67SE didn't help any. I borrowed the 971 from the dealer (Definitive Audio)to see what a difference it might make. Well, it didn't really. Of course, this is not to say that it wouldn't to your ears in your system, but for me, the extra $300 over what I paid for the Marantz would not be worth it. My girlfriend, who can hear the difference between a 737 and a bluebird, but not much else, even preferred the sound of the 67SE, both of us feeling that it had more depth. To be fair, the 67 is fairly well broken in, and the Rotel had only been played for about 20 hours straight. Both machines were hooked up with Audioquest Rubys.

Other observations: The cheap drawer thing is absolutely true. On the second disc I put in the door stopped halfway in and wouldn't budge. After pressing play, turning the machine on/off, etc., I had to push it, until I thought it would break, and it finally went it. It did the same thing two or three other times. The drawer also retracts with a mere bump, and of the five dics I put in, one of them got caught in a shutting drawer.

The searching is quite slow, but the transport itself seems to be well insulated since it is difficult to impossible to make it skip.

Anyway, the moral of my tale is that if your syste is already bright, while the Rotel might be a bit smoother than the Marantz, the player alone will not make that big a difference. You also have to weigh the ergonomic problems of the 971 vs. the many features of the 67SE. Of course, there are many players out there, and I am only talking about two of them.

P.S. I did not try the HDCD feature so I cannot comment on this.

I had a chance to demo the Rotel RCD-971 last week. A very fine piece of audio machinery. I sampled it with B&W 805s and 603s. Amplification was courtesy of a Rotel 971. The sound is best I have heard, and I am an authority on the subject. Without question, my Dylan cuts sounded much better on the RCD-971 than the mp3s I have encoded which play on my Altec Lansing ASC-48s. The 12 year old JVC, top loading carousal I currently own is good, but isn't quite up to Rotel standards. My JVC has 'Pulse Edge Modulation Differential Linearity Errorless D/A conversion', so perhaps the comparison is not fair. Although I couldn't A-B the two, I tried to contrast the RCD-971 with my Onkyo 8-track in my mind while I swayed to the caliginous melodies of Margo Timmons. The Onkyo is fine. I'm expecting an updated model soon, and then the RCD-971 may have a match.
The sound of the RCD-971 is sweet, detailed, open, airy, smooth, etc, etc. I'm sure when its reviewed, the editor will claim it competes with players five times its price. I pity those class A manufacturing fools; they're always making products that are competitive with products five times cheaper - well, that's what I read anyways.

The RCD-971 is a great cd player, even if it is designed by those faggy brits. And don't forget that the Rotel is built in China. What did Reggie White say about the Chinese? - "the Chinese are gifted in creativity and invention, If you go to Japan or any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch." Consider this last point seriously; your RCD-971 may be a collection of reconditioned Sega CD parts!

I bought the RCD-971. But I have reservations. It doesn't do Playstation emulation, and that disappoints me.

When you look at the numbers like signal to noise ratio etc. its a steal.

Power button would not depress to turn off. Had it fixed at Audio Images. Its doing it again. It pisses me off big time. I plan on sending it back to get fixed at Rotel or have them replace it with a new one.

Over all it has exclent quaility for the price. Can tell a big difference with HDCD but I have a hard time finding HDCD encoeded discs. It looks good. I hope my power button was only an isolated case. I plan on sending it back to get fixed for good or get it replaced. I gave it 2 stars overall rating due to the malfunctioning power button.

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First high end CD player I've owned.

Natural sounding male and female vocals; overall richness and smoothness to the sound.

Narrow soundstage; looseness to very low octaves.

This is a decent sounding CD player. Given its reputation, however, I am a little bit disappointed by the way it has performed in my system, which is as follows:

Sherwood Newcastle AVP9080 preamp/processor;
Rotel 985 amplifier (100 wpc * 5);
Sony S7700 DVD Player;
Klipsch KLF 20 speakers;
Rega Planar 3 TT with Grado Silver cartridge;
Monster 850i M Series interconnects; and
"House brand" internally biwired speaker cables from Goodwins Audio in Boston.

The Rotel replaced an entry level single disc Dennon player that I paid $220 for new in 1990. I immediately noticed that the Rotel had a richer, fuller and somewhat warmer sound, all of which complements my system well.

Vocals sound particularly smooth on this CD player. The highs are clear but not overly bright or hot, which works well on my horn driven Klipsch Legend towers.

On the other hand, I noticed pretty early on that the soundstage on my system sounded a bit narrow laterally and a bit shallow in depth as well when using this player. The bass is very strong, but I have noticed a bit of a looseness, if not outright boominess, in very low octaves. I assumed that the fault lay in my speakers, but I didn't notice the same problems with LPs.

Last week I hooked up a new DVD player, the Sony S7700. Just for kicks, I decided to play some CDs on the DVD player, using the digital out from the DVD player and the internal DAC in my Sherwood Newcastle preamp/processor. I was very surprised to find that the soundstage opened up considerably in width and depth and the lower octaves, while not quite as "rich" sounding or as loud, were tighter and more defined. On the other hand the sound is a bit brighter, and the vocals are not quite as smooth as on the Rotel. Still, I think overall I prefer the wider soundstage and the bass. Bass guitars and accustic bass now have a real snap to them, which is important since I listen to a lot of jazz.

I consider the Sony and the Sherwood Newcastle to be quite nice products, too, so I don't mean to suggest that the Rotel is outclassed by low end stuff. Still, given its very highly regarded reputation I expected a little more.

Also, I want to qualify my review by the acknowledgement that any component will sound different when used with different components, so obviously you may get different results than I did.

If I could assign a letter grade, I'd give the Rotel a flat B for performance and value. I will translate that B into four stars for purposes of this review.

Similar Products Used:

Dennon CD Player; Sony S7700 DVD Player; Sherwood Newcastle AVP9080 (see explanation below).

Warm,rich,smooth,full sound-totally non-fatiguing with very good detailed sound and steady,balanced bass.

no power on/off function on the remote, cd tray could be a littlte beefier

I've got to say that I am very pleased with this cd player.I compared it with other players at varying price levels and I believe I got the best deal for the money. It really did add depth and fullness of sound to my system. It is very easy on the ears, it doesn't color the sound and you can sit and listen for hours on end without getting tired. The 951 was very close but the 971 just had a little more oomph. This is definately a high end cd player. (Stereophile doesn't give a recommendation and a class "C" rating for nothing!)A fantastic buy.
My system;
Musical Fidelity A300 Integrated Amp(You've got to hear this one to believe it)
Paradigm Reference Studio 40 v.2 loudspeakers
Rotel 971 cd player
MIT Terminator 2 interconnect
Tara Labs Prism Biwire Cables
Paradigm PDR12 Subwoofer
A very, simple but very good system(very neutral sound).
I'm very surprised at the high level of musicality I've stumbled upon at a very reasonable prices.

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sony

Depth, bass, clarity, HDCD, price! I like the remote.

Sensitve tray. It seems to want to "suck in" CDs when dropping them in.

This is a great player for the price. In my system (Jolida 1701 integrated, Audioquest Coral interconnect, Dynaudio Aries kit, Kimber 8TC) it sounds great. This smokes the RCD-951 in my opinion. You get a greater width and depth of soundstage with the 971. I wouldn't want to pay more for a player ($600) but this was worth every penny. I highly recommend this. Check out Friday Night in San Francisco with McLaughlin, DiMeola and DeLucia. Also The Other Ones and Dire Straights Greatest Hits in HDCD. These sound greate with this thing.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz CD63 SE, Old Pioneer 6-disc changer.

sound, and i actually like the drawer.

It's looks cheap. I would have gladly paid more for metal, or just more attractive buttons.

I used to have a pioneer changer with my nad pre, Classe amp, and Hales Revelation Twos. I felt the components were unbalanced, even though i heard that cd players make little or no difference. So i picked up a 971. Quite a bit better than aged pioneer. The sound was cleaner, shaper, more detailed and better oraganized. Stage size was not increased as i was hoping for, but everything else improved. HDCD sounds good, but not as good as well mastered/produced regular cds. I really didn't do any comparisons with rega or anything else, so can't say anything there. But, if you have a garbage-fi player, i would suggest that you at least check out something a little more "hi-fi", and Rotel is a good place to start. I'll probably swap it for a rega, but just because the rega's asthetics are much more interesteing.

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Old one was a pioneer changer