Marantz IS an audiophile name? and Rotel isn't. (There was a time there where the Marantz stuff hitting the US shores was pretty bad) I suppose NAD and Adcom are not audiophile brands either? Well, some of us can not afford Jeff Rowland (and if we could why would we want a Krell or Levinson?) I personally have a Bryston B-60 Integrated (now you probably won't consider that audiophile equipment because it was reviewed 3 times in Stereophile) and a pair of PSB Stratus Silvers. All my cables a DH labs Silver Sonic (Heaven forbid I pay less than $300 for interconnects and two runs of speaker cable, gasp?!) I have to reiterate the great sound of the Rotel. I was able to get it for less than $600, so I consider it a bargain. If I had more money I would have gotten the Ultech UCD-100 (it's REAL expensive, $798;) which sounded as good as the Krell 300 cd in direct comparison using a Krell KAV-500i and Martin Logan SL-3's.

The Rotel 971 is a truly fine product. I have had the pleasure of comparing the ultech 100 with the Rotel over extended listening periods in my own system and one player is NOT better than the other. Chocolate or vanilla comes to mind, as both players exhibit extraordinary musical performance regardless of price. The reason that I do not include the Rega, Arcam, Cal audio, etc. is because they just don't sound as musical as these two players ( to my ears). I mated the 971 to my system which consists of the Mission cyrus 111i with PSX-R power supply, Celestion SL6-S sealed box speakers. The sound is open, detailed without the associated digital hardness, and most importantly, MUSICAL. You will hear exactly what is on the recording, which in many cases, can be a curse. Highs are pristine and clear, midrange is to die for, and the bass has pitch efinition and slam (even with my speakers!). I heard the same sounds from the ultech, with less smoothness. this, of course, is based on my system in my own listening room.If I made a choice based on build quality, the Ultech would win hands down. The Rotel has a very flimsy disc tray which is noticeable to any purchaser when they are comparison shopping.
Do NOT mate any of these players to cheap electronics as you will be wasting your money.
I am giving this player a 5 star rating because this level of musicality was in the $3,000 - $10,000 range not to long ago.
Cheers.

Purchased 2 months ago as replacement for NAD 512, though not sure why. Anyhow, love its looks, main reason for purchase. Did no comparisons. I reckon the sound is good. It seems like I'm hearing small details I never heard before. Who knows, maybe it's just psychological. The only criticsm I have is its width. Just a tad wider than other components in stack.

The Rotel RCD-971.......Great CD player for the money.I have owned one for approx. 6 months now and love the sound of it.It is not quite as smooth,3 dimensional,or as easy to listen to then my referance Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1.Only compared to the much more expensive SFCD-1 do you hear the shortcomings of the Rotel RCD971.The Sonic is very analog sounding.The Rotel sounds well.....very digital.For some listeners this may me a preferred thing.For me,I prefer the sound of the analog sounding SFCD-1.This is not to say that I don't like the RCD971.In fact I love it!I use it in a second ststem and have enjoyed hundreds of hours listening to all types of music with it.I prefer the sound of the Rotel RCD971 over the relentless sounding Krell KAV300cd.The RCD971 is warmer than the Krell and every bit as resolved.I also like the RCD971 over any CD player that Classe makes.This says something for Rotel.If they can make and sell a CD player for$699.00 that can compete with CD players costing much more,why spend more money?This is a perfect example of how you don't have to spend big bucks to get great hi-fi.The Rotel RCD971 does indeed sound like the discontinued RCD990.At 1/2 the price!The only thing that you don't get is better build quality,dither controls,and balanced outputs.Other than that,the RCD971 gives you 95% of the performance of the RCD990.The only gripes that I have about the RCD971 are,the real flimsy tray(why can't manufacturers build better CD trays'like they did in the 80's?)and the slowness of the transport when reading a disk.The build quality is typical Rotel.I am not complaining about this in light of the price though.It is acceptable I suppose for a retail price of$699.00.Anyhow,I give it 5 stars for price and performance.

This is one fine unit, sonically. Over the years, I've owned more than a dozen decent CD Players, and this rates at the top. Contributing to its fine sonics are fine electronic components such as 20-bit Burr-Brown DACs, Burr-Brown's OP op amps, fine quality low ESR electrolytic capacitors as well as fine quality film capacitors and resistors. The tiered power supply (separate analog and digital sections) is very robust, again with very large value low ESR electrolytics. A torroid power transformer is used. The attention to electronic parts quality and good design translates to excellent sonics. The chassis design, metalwork and Chinese assembly are certainly acceptable. And I like the slim height which makes for efficient use of equipment rack space.
Minor gripes? Nothing is perfect. The controls respond somewhat slowly-- touch a control and nothing happens instantly, or at all if you remove a finger too quickly. This is not a big deal, but just different from what I'm used to. The CD drawer could be a little more robust as could the CD drive assembly. These mechanical components do get the job done adequately; time will tell if they hold up well. And I really hope that they do because I think I'll be happy with the unit's sound well into the future.

The sonics are really the reason to have this unit. Fine detail with no hint of harshness as well as wide dynamic range. The lush sound is as close to fine vinyl recordings as I've yet heard from a reasonably-priced CD Player.

Well, first impresion on this cd player was : natural sound, good bass without losing control, feeling of performers in your room and power ( i thought i got an amplifier ).System : Rogers LS1- speakers
Marantz 66SE - amplifier
Cable talk – Advanced 2 – interconects
Talk 3 - speaker cable.
I listen various kind of music: from Tindersticks, Walkabouts, Cowboy junkies etc. to Metallica, Motorhead ( bad production of cd ), Tiamat etc., some clasical like Wagner, Vivaldi, Bach etc, and some Sheffild, Pope music etc.
I ve got this cd player for 850 DM ( under $ 500 ) and i did not listen more expensive players.
CD players who i listened to : Harman Kardon HD 740 – very 3D, bright and not for rock music because it do not have a strenght
Marantz 67SE - good bass, fantastic transients, good for all kind of music but can sound harsh, rather flat then 3Dsound
Denon DCD835 - very good in all segments ( NAD C340, CASTLE ISIS ), not for rock in this combination ( probably because Castle s ). On my system it sound very boomy.
Rotel RCD951 - air around performers is great, some muddle in bass can occur, natural
Rotel RCD971 - LOVE AT FIRST LISTENING, strenght, natural sound, it work great with all kind of music. HDCD – well i do not know what is benefit of player and what is HDCD so i could not tell, but dynamic is great. Very open and detail ( not fatigue ) sound.
All review is based on my ears on my room beyond Denon who is listened in the shop on nad/castle and my own system.

Well, I borrowed one from the store in november last year, soon after that fave review in HI-FI CHOICE. I was warned that rotel needs literally ages to
break-in but still at the first listen I was highly disappointed. In my system which consists of Naim Nait 3 amp, B&W DM 602 modified (internal wiring Kimber 8tc and changes to Xover),Kimber SilverStreak interconnect,Kimber 8tc speaker cable, the Rotel sounded soft, in yer face,no height,and absolutely no air, at
least my Marantz 63 kis was dusting floor with it in sense of timbre,imaging soundstage,air. It appears to me that Rotel is better off with lean sounding equipment than rather with bolder amplification like NAIM. The only thing Rotel
excelled at was bolder sound, in every other audiophile aspect the Marantz sounded a lot better in my system. Since I am very puzzled with all this Rotel
hysteria I`ll probably give it another shot, maybe the fist units really were´nt much otherwise I´ll stick with auditioning MF,Marantz and alikes which
are obviously better match for my equipment.

Great cd-player, smooth sound and lots of details. Compared this unit with some other players (Nad, Marantz cd-67, Harman Kardon,Pioneer PD-s06 etc.) but I had no doubt when choosing my next source. This Rotel product plays music!
Speakers: modified Jamo Consert 8
Amplifiers: Electrocompaniet EC 4.5 + AW 60 FTT
Cables: Supra Ply

I recently spent some time evaluating the Rotel 971 against the Arcam, Audio Innovation and Marantz 67MkIIse. There is no doubt that the Rotel is a fine player however at the end of the day I bought the Marantz simply because I felt it sounded better, perhaps not as clinicly accurate but for me a better sound, this combined with the fact that the Marantz was $300 NZD cheaper made the decision an easy one.
System

Marantz 67MkIIse
Rotel 971 amp
B&W 601 speakers.

PRESENTLY I AM LISTENING TO A ROTEL 971 [FRIENDS LOANER] IN A FEW WEEKS A FULL REVIEW OF THIS PLAYER AND THE AH!TJOEB'99 [TUBES] WILL APPEAR ON THEESE PAGES. ANYONE WISHING INFORMATION ON THE AH!, FEEL FREE TO E-MAIL.