I was hungry for music two years ago. With some found money, I set out to fill my ears with a quality of sound that I had lost, or never had. My Yamaha CD player and Yamaha Prologic receiver just did not deliver that musical involvement I was looking for. I needed a music system, separate from a home theater system.

The first store gave me a glimpse of what good equipment could achieve. I took some Royd Minstrel SE speakers and an Arcam 7 CD player home for the weekend. After a couple of days, I realized this was not satisfying me.

At the second store I went to, the owner immediately recommended the Rotel RCD 971 as the best value I could find. It was priced at $800Cdn, and he claimed it was competitive with players costing three times that. I listened to it, hooked up to JMLab Daline 3.1 speakers through my old Arcam Delta 60 integrated amplifier and some MIT Terminator 2 cable. I bought the Rotel and the JMLab's and the MIT wires the next day.

At the time of purchase, the 971 was getting a lot of attention. I believe Sam Tellig at Stereophile magazine said - why wait for the new generation of players (SACD and DVDA)when you can have the benefits of mature technology at a reasonable price with the 971. It won a few 'best-of' awards, while others gave it middling reviews.

Technically, I liked the fact that it was a Rotel product, which is known as a solid value in the low end of high end audio. It has dual Burr Brown DACs, and a toroidal transformer with dual windings. Both of these mean quality to me. The dual DACs were supposed to result in a noise cancelling effect. Most of all, it had the HDCD chip in it, at a time when you had to pay almost three times as much for the Arcam 8SE CD player with HDCD. It is advertised that the HDCD chip makes an improvement in the sound of normal CDs as well, through special filtering.

There are more recordings in HDCD than many people realize. You know you have one when the red light makes a show on the faceplate, and then you notice the little logo on the back of the CD. Sometimes the logo is not there, and some CD's have some cuts in HDCD and some have not. The sound is fuller and more detailed with HDCD, although some people find it a bit thick. Some CD's are better recorded than others with this special processing. Anyway, I would rather have it than not, as HDCD has made a significant impact on the recording world, albeit a small one.

My concern was that this unit was made in China. I felt that Rotel quality control would take care of this. My unit is OK, but I have noticed other reviewers are troubled by poor quality in construction and electronic glitches. I recommend that you inspect your unit before purchase, and make sure of return policies. Another comment that pops up time and again is about the flimsy tray. It is light in build, and loose in its housing. It also does close on its own when you are sloppy in placing the CD into it, resulting in a half closed tray sticking out a CD tongue at you. Once the CD is in, the transport seems to be solid.

To position the CD player in the market place, I believe its closest competition is the Arcam 8SE CD player, which also has HDCD. I took one home a year ago, and compared it the Rotel, which was two thirds of the price at the time (Arcam had come down significantly). The Rotel player was the hands down winner. Overall, the Arcam sounded thin, and was not as involving in the music.

The Rotel has a warm and full sound to it. It establishes a very solid soundstage, with good separation of voices/instruments. It has an extended frequency range, with a healthy bass response. It is very dynamic in its presentation of music, involving you with the music in an excited way.

The Rotel is now making music through Audioquest Ruby interconnect to a Sim Audio Celeste 5080I integrated amp, which passes the music through Kimber 8TC to Newform Research R630 ribbon speakers. I love the music every day.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 600