What to replace a Rotel RCD 971 with

I can recommend a Naim CD5x. If I didn't love what it does, especially with HDCDs, I'd have gone 100% streaming by now.

The much touted Oppo BDP-95 ($999) decodes HDCD.

For $450, you would be surprised how good the Emotiva ERC-2 is. It does a nice job with HDCDs.

Rich

FWIW, I own a Rotel RCD-1082, which is well regarded and plays HDCD. For the last year I've had a Squeezebox Touch, and even HDCDs copied to lossless FLAC with dbpoweramp and played through stock Squeezebox sound as well as with the Rotel. Of course the Squeezebox adds other functionality which I really like, plus it's 40% the price of the Rotel. In short, I'm selling my Rotel. With $1000 you could buy a Touch + a good external DAC + a good digital cable and surely outperform my setup.

You might want to think about these alterantive solutions before pulling the trigger. You might not prefer it, but I suggest you consider it.

BTW, it's not lack of definition that makes my Rotel and stock Touch sound the same: Lamm pre, McIntosh MC275 amp, B&W 804S speakers, Purist cabling. In fact, a couple simple software tweaks on the Touch make it sound better than the Rotel.

My two cents. I hope it helps.