smooth, natural sound. analog quality. tunable dither. great value even at list price

discontinued, becoming scarce.

The Rotel 991AE is a fine sounding machine capable of realistic and musical playback from a variety of CDs. I was fortunate to get a great deal on a demo and find mine to be particularly faithful to all kinds of acoustic program material. The sound is natural, sweet and airy with good depth, a wide soundstage and precise imaging in between. The 991AE is partnered with a refurbished Holman-APT1 combo and new B&W 603S3s. The speakers replaced a beloved pair of AR3As which had to be retired after 30 years. The 991AE replaces a Marantz CD-63 which proved to be the weak link when the B&Ws were added. Rotel to the rescue! This player reveals the creativity of the musicians. Instrument placement even in a full orchestra is discernable with great separation and clarity. Some recordings even reveal hall ambience like never before. Vocals, piano and solo instruments have a “right there” presence. Very smooth and transparent with no trace of graininess or jitter. Balanced from top to bottom. Expansive sound. I keep the dither set at 2 as a compromise between #4 and no dither (both good). Dither 2 seems airy, balanced and realistic with a live, natural quality throughout the spectrum and no congestion during ensemble passages and peaks. I would appreciate any comments others might have about this setting. Also, I leave both the 991AE and amp on idle constantly. Once a skeptic, I’m now a believer. Ears don’t lie; this practice does appear to improve performance. Any comments? The 991AE has made this old analog guy finally appreciate what digital can do, and at a price that makes sense. I hope to keep this one as long as my ARs.

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Marantz cd-63

Supreme detail Control Punchy Deep, extended bass Not harsh

Could still be livelier and more musical, but with lubrication on the laser rail, it's not bad at all.

This is indeed an interesting player. I picked it up for £400. That's RCD-02 money, so it was a no-brainer. It's partnered with an RA-971mkII amp and B&W DM602 speakers, using a home-made solid silver interconnect with Eichmann bullet plugs, and home-made speaker cable (which absolutely blew my old Cable Talk out of the water). Before I get onto the sound, there's a tale to tell, in common with many RCD-991 owners. My player started to skip. Seems to be an idiosyncratic fault of this player, and as has been observed previously, it appears to be up to the lubricant used in the mechanism. With that in mind, and having done a similar thing before to my marantz CD player, I opened it up, and put some new lubricant onto the laser tracking rail, which was dry as a bone. I used GT85, which is easily available, and is a good choice as it is a dry lubricant. Once I started the player up again after performing this operation, I started to suspect something, which seems to have borne itself out. The player sounded different. Previously I would have agreed with the review below, that the 991 isn't musical. After lubing the rail, music came to life a great deal more. There are still more musical players out there, but it is no where near as detached as it was. Rotel amps have a reputation of working well with B&W speakers (and B&W are now rotel's UK distributor), and obviously a rotel CD player will sit quite well with a rotel amp. The sound is very detailed, superbly scaled. Tonality is excellent, with instruments much truer than my old marantz CD player. Bass is very deep and extended, but well controlled. The sound is very punchy indeed, but not wearing. It's smooth enough not to be wearing, and the treble is much less harsh than the marantz. After my work on it, it's reasonably lively and musical. I've not compared to other players at its price, but I didn't pay that price. Show me a £400 player that can match it? Value has got to be a 5 at this price. So has the sound.

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Pioneer PDS-802 Marantz CD-63

- Extremely detailed - Very good dinamics and timing - Stereo imaging is good - Spacious presentation - Good deep and fast bass

- Not musical

Ok... this is an esy one I guess... Virtues: - Extremely detailed - Very good dinamics and timing - Soundstaging is average - Spacious presentation - Good deep and fast bass - The dither option is a very subtle kind of dsp. It can help you correct a small system related acoustic character. eg: my system is almost a hinet bright, and whth dither setttings I manage to keep it on the borderline. Vices: - Not musical at all Conclusion: I really advice you to buy one if you are into electronic stuff: boards of canada, k&D, nu-jazz . ... You will really get to listen to all the thin layers of music and production details, the stereo effects, (micro)dynamic effects(!), ...with a deep, punchy and fast Bass + a very spacious presentation. Its an amazing cd player for this kind of stuff! (Probably one of the very best at this price range (£700) if not the best to play this kind of music.) However, If you are into jazz, orchestral, coral, voice related material, or blues music, or have a class A or valve amplification .... I would advice you to look elsewhere to avoid disapointment. (May i suggest the Audio Note ZERO transport+ 1.1 DAC at this price point. It does not have all of the dynamics, sense of timing and thin grain detail the Rotel has, but you will find it really musically engaging, making voices sound smooth, sweet and natural, with a erasonable sense of space around them for the money, a wider and deeper soundstage than the rotel and a great control of vertical imaging. I would say that with this cd player you get a taste of what hiend is about at a reasonable cost.) I hope this info was helpful to you.

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Similarly priced: - Arcam FMJ32 - Arcam cd 72 + 92 - Sugden cd21 - Audio Note Zero transport + 1.1 DAC - Audio Analogue

As usual with Rotel, good electronic parts give value performance for price level. "Elegant" sounding.

Still does'nt involve or exites.

Exells in ambiance, noisless background, claritty, soundstaging w/d, pace, smooth enough. Fails to involve, sounds electronic, or even antiseptic. Dither option is something you can do without.

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many.

Depth and width of the soundscape Separation The 'air' in the sound

none yet

I've just upgraded my Rotel RCD 971 to this RCD 991 and the difference is already remarkable. I have enjoyed the 971 greatly and there is nothing wrong with that piece of art. But this player just adds something beautifully essential to the sound. It is very wide, very deep, very natural and very airy. It draws absolutely more bass from a disk than the 971. It has great separation; every instrument is audible and has a very distinct position in the soundscape. As if the whole band or orchestra is in front of you. This is of course also dependent on the recording of the CD itself. If you can get hold of this machine, buy it, you'll never regret.

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Sony CDP 490 Rotel RCD 971

Sound, build, looks, fast draw,

Remote is a little thin and wide, but laid out well, A sqeaking noise on power-on, but goes away quickly.

This is a review about the new Rotel RCD-1070. This is Rotel's new top of the line model. I would have put it in the correct heading but there isn't one yet. I compared the 1070 to a NAD 541i and a Adcom GCD-700. The Rotel sounded more mellow and musical then the Adcom. The NAD sounded very good also, but the Rotel had better separation, and imaging. I felt the voices with the Rotel were more alive. The Rotel is well built, very solid, looks great in both colors. The remote is a little thin and wide, though it's laid out well with the most used bottons right at your thumb (if your a righty) The cd draw opens and closes with athority, no waiting around! The one problem I found with the unit, maybe it's just mine, but on turn-on it makes a short sqeaking noise and then stops. After that the unit is dead quiet. This is a unit worth looking at.

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NAD 5060, NAD 541i, Adcom GCD-700

heavy, very good build quality, hdcd sounds great, DITHER, all the connections you'll need...

not cheap-but it worth it...

well. what can i say, it weight 7.7 kg. surely the best cd i have ever heard. the hdcd sounds great (try dire straits)and the dither is a nice option-like a small dsp options. even old cd's sounds beter. just be sure you have good cables. looks like a million dollar cd (with exaggeration :) . if you can afford one-buy one... MY EQUIPMENT: rotel rcd-991 rotel rb-1090 power amp. yamaha RXV-3000G pioneer dv-626d sherwood eq-5010c sony mdp-v7 sonus faber concerto AR status sc2 wharfedale valdus 100 wharfedale valdus center paradigm pdr series sub. sanyo plc-sw20 projector

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denon dcd-425

If you tweek her properly, she sounds great.

cheap power cord, feet and remote.

This could be a great player if you tweek her properly. The first thing you should do is: Throw out the power cord and feet which came with the player, replace them with some better quility stuff. Then try different interconnects until you find one which sounds best to your ears. If you have never done these things and give her a low rating, it is not only unfair, also is stupid. Some reviewer claimed her produces muddy and over punchy bass, I think the problem could be the feet. You should try as many feet as you can, use your imagination: cones, spikes, rubber feet, metal feet, tennis balls, squash balls, super bounce balls, bicycle inner tube(12" sounds best)....., some will make her sounding better and warmer, some will make her sounding worse and colder, at last, you will find one type of feet produces best sounding, and defined bass, and not muddy at all. I will recommend to those whom have not done any tweeking yet, try it, you might found out she sounds better than you thought.

GOOD VALUE. THE DITHER SETTINGS HELP.

I''M CONSIDERING GOING WITH AN OUTBOARD DAC WITH THE 991AE. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS?

warm, mid and high are transparent, fast skipping and very dynamic. Compare to my old CD it''s almost a difference between mono and stereo

remote, no fast forward on the machine and I prefer bigger touch buttons (when dronk)

Hi all, First of all "Thanks to all folkes who wrote reviews". I bought a new Rotel stereo (RC and RB 990BX and RCD991)and have visited this site many times and read hundred''s of reviews. So now it''s my turn. I listened to many stuff but it''s always to say "this is my CD or pre- amp" etc. Where to start: I was looking at Rotel amps to power my BW 801, since there are good priced for the strength and quality. I was used to my Luxman stereo (D-373)that I used for 6 years and did enjoy my music! Looking at new technologies, there is so much going with digital source equipment. I don''t believe in SACD and I am not willing to pay since Music is almost for free these days thanks to the Internet. Looked at DVD shortly, but thanks to the critics at this site about audio quality and upcoming technologies I decided. Wait for 1 year and buy a recordable machine. OK the CD, very much appreciated by you all and quoted as the best in the categorie. It''s is true. What a difference in sound. Fast, detail (I ve never heard something like this) and warm and transparent. Wow..... Problem is my CD''s from the 70''s. I love these albums but the 991 truly distinguish old and new recordings. But that is a big trouble when you upgrade your stereo I guess

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Luxman D 373