Audio Research Reference CD-7

I'm resurrecting this thread because I am curious to know how many people who owned this player two years ago still own it today?? I read some of Branimir's post, looks like he'd moved on to Esoteric.

I recently took home the CD7 for a quick audition, I thought what it does best is to put the listener in a 'relax' mood. The trade-off is, it's not as 'aggresive' and 'tight' and 'high resolution' than a typical Esoteric house sound. But I can live with such 'trade-off'. The only problem with CD7 is that it generates big hum that can be heard through my speakers. I tried lifting the ground, changing interconnect, rearranging the placement of the gears but couldn't cure the hum. My preamp accept only single ended RCA so I can't try the balanced connection which was a pity.

The next CD player I want to audition is a Marantz SA-7S1, from what I read, it's more musical than Esoteric, but perhaps still not as 'relaxing' as the ARC CD7.

Viper_z - Branimir always have had CD-7 in his second (all ARC) system. He has Esoteric in his main rig.

I have bought CD-7 myself, after auditioning a dosen of different players in the 8-20k range. IMO this player is a gem. Requires an awful lot of break in time to sound its best though (ca. 400h).

Fjn04, have you ever listened to the ARC CD7??

About your preferences about the looks of the ARC CD7, just goes to show how different we all are. I really like it. I like it by itself, and I'd like it next to my new LS-26 (I would - but haven't decided about soending the money). As to the comment about "design for the sake of design" - the answer is, of course it is! They all are. Why wouldn't you try to make your product look nice and well as functional?