I Bought Rotel two months ago for about 800$. I Was looking for an updateto my ten year old Pioneer witch had all the features but not the sound! Or so
i noticed after i listened to Rotel. One can perhaps justly argue that sonical
differences between CD-players are rather small and build quality should be
primary criteria in choosing a new one. In that respect I have no complaints
either. Rotel has smooth, detailed and very controlled sound. There is no trace
of hardness. I have only one HDCD-CD(Neil Young-Broken Arrow)so I really can´t
comment on that feature yet. Hope to be buing more of those in the future!
In my opinion Rotel RCD971 is a safe buy for anyone taking audio seriously
and looking for an upgrade from sub 500$ class.

I have had the Rotel RCD 971 for about 3 weeks and I am impressed with it; great detail, good dynamics, good pace, and great tonality, overall much better than my previous Rotel 855. I have tried a couple of HDCD CDs and it is an improvement over non HDCD, but well-recorded non HDCD CDs sound great as well. One problem: I don't know how well it is built; the first one I came home with sounded incredibly bad; however, the dealer quickly replaced it and the second one sounded supreb right out of the box. So a good dealer is a good deal.

After spending five weeks with this player and four others, I cannot at this time write four more. Anyone Interested see my AH!Tjoeb'98 review.

I highly recommend this CD Player. The sound is amazing - it has a very nicesoundstage - clear/clean and sweet. I don't think there are too many CD players
for the money that can beat it. I listened to one after reading the reviews
here and was completely impressed with the sound quality. BTW: Yes, the HDCD
is worth every penny, even though I don't own that many CDs with HDCD encoding.

I paid $629 (no tax in NH), and don't regret it. I would recommend you
go check this CD player out for yourself and decide.

good stuff. I bought brand new one for £370 and... it broke after 3 hours of playing - drawer failed. Got an instant replacement and this time it wouldn't disappoint me. Good soundstage, detail and it's well built, although ergonomics could be valued at 3 out of 5. Player performs far beyond capabilities of its "971 brothers" (preamp and power amp) and I only noticed that when hooked a MF X-CANS and Sennheiser HD-600 to it with nice cables. Takes nicely anything from Mozart to Metallica, but if you fancy night listening, in complete quietness you may be bothered by small noise of cd mechanism, even if you have your headphones on. Good value for money. for more details please e-mail me.

Great sound, lack of any harshness.

This is really a great sounding CD player. HDCD recordings are amazing. I also considered Marantz's latest offering, but it sounded muddled compaired to even the lesser RCD 951. The Rega sounded good as well, but I found the RCD 971 more exciting.

Similar Products Used:

Also considered Rega and Marantz players

detailed sound,price

remote...

deep and stron bass...warm sound...very smooth end detailed mids and highs...well built quality.. i bougth mine 650$..for this price excellent player...for performance its almost equal to the most high end's...perfect.... five stars...

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various players

Amazingly good player! Very involving exciting sound, like listening to the real thing. It is all there: excellent pace and rythm and dynamics, plenty of air around performers, transparency, holographic soundstage, realistic tonal colors.Blows away competition in its priceclass and far above that. Do yourself a favour and listen to this machine on a good system, you will be amazed too!

Clean sound, excellent bass reponse, great build, value for money

slightly bright on the highs, but the unit hasn't been run in thoroughly.

I've just bought this unit for a week and still amazed at the sound of the Rotel. I have listened to it compared to the Arcam Diva 72 and the cheaper Marantz 6000 OSE. At first, listened to the Arcam, I thought it was very musical with smooth highs, the vocal clear and the sound was a bit laid back but it was soft and mushy on the bottom end. Besides it is overpriced here in Australia. The Rotel on the other hand was very clean and detailed, the bass was tight and quick with punchy attack, the highs was smooth but a little bit on the bright side. Then the Marantz 6000 OSE, it was also easy to listen to, I thought it stayed between the Arcam and the Rotel, but it wasn't as detailed and clean as the Rotel and the bass was certainly not in the same league with the Rotel. The build of the Rotel is excellent, it was the heaviest among three unit, then the Marantz and the Arcam stayed in the last. I finally bought this unit based on its performance and exceptional value (The Marantz retails for the same price as the Rotel in Australia).

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha CDC765, Pioneer DVD player as the transport using internal DAC of a Rotel processor.

Rythm, Pace, timing. Correct placement of transients to music. Very dynamic, fast & involving. Good macro & micro dynamics.

Slight emphasis on the highs, can sound harsh and peaky on the wrong setup. Muddy sound. Diminished tonal colour. Soundstage lacks focus. Details are so-so. Not exactly the last statement in high end audio.

For the price this is a bargain. Audiophile qualities are compromised for musicality in a small budget. I enjoy classical symphonies and it is thrilling to hear the climax build up slowly note by note. I seldom hear such effects on a budget player as it demands quite alot on the player to pull such a trick off. I can listen to 2 hr long symphonies without any sense of boredom.

Regarding musicality, I would however prefer a greater sense tonal colour. But then again, you can only ask so much for this price, for which it is a fantastic bargain.