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Source Rotel RCD 971 Player Upgrade or DAC

I am reaching out to find out the merits of spending more money on a new CD player or investing in the Bel Canto Dac 1. I have been in the process of upgrading my system for the last year and one of my earliest purchases was my source. When I purchased my source I did not anticipate the other upgrades I would make. I now believe that my source may be the weak link in the system.

I am interested in improving the sound of my system now and will deal with SACD and DVD-Audio at a later date. The things that I am trying to find out are:

1. What an upgrade from the Rotel RCD 971 to the Rotel RCD 991 or Rega Planet 2000 be significant? I have read a few places that the 971 can be somewhat dry and unmusical. At times I do get that feeling.
2. What are the relative merits of getting a higher end CD player versus getting a DAC?
3. If I got a higher end player, is it common to still have to purchase a DAC to get sound improvements.
4. Other impressions of the Rotel RCD 971.

My system contains:

Rotel RCD 971 CD Player
Rega Planar 3 coming shortly
Rotel 970 Phone preamplifier
Adcom 750 Preamplifier
Odyssey Audio Stratos Monoblocks
Magnepan 1.6qr speakers
Acoustic Zen Matrix interconnects
Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables by wired
Harmonic Technology Pro AC 11 power cords on Odyssey Monoblocks
Kimber PowerKod on the Adcom preamp
syarde
kthomas
911 posts
 
It probably partially depends on how you buy and sell equipment - if you bought the 971 used and can sell if for not too much of a hit and buy a 991 used for not a lot more. I wouldn't think the performance improvement would be all that big, but if you do it wisely and don't mind the steps involved, moving up a bit at a time can make sense.

Personally, I'd sit tight with the 971, a fine player in its own right, and let the next generation of digital hit the used market and/or come significantly down in price. If you could get up to about $1500-2000 used, the difference would probably be much more pronounced - maybe an Arcam FMJ23 or Wadia 830. -Kirk

blackie
221 posts
 
The Rotel 971 is a great player for the money and I don't really consider the 991 to be sonically superior, just heavier on the features. I sold my 971 because of a hardness and glare to the sound. I found the next step in better sounding players, like the Linn Genki or Arcam FMJ23, to just sound more natural and less like a digital reproduction.
chelillingworth
309 posts
 
I owned a 971 for a couple of years and enjoyed it, a solid player. I then used it as a transport with a Bel Canto Dac 1 then upgraded to 1.1. The outboard dac is able to extract much more detial and portray a much more robust soundatage with more natural highs. The Dac 1 can be had for around $700 the .1 upgrade being well worth the $150. I have since moved on to a sony scd 333es modified by modwright after being so impressed by sacd at the stereophile show. On redbook cd's the stockk 333es is on par or a little softer than the 971 the mods bring it to a point where it easily beats the performance of the dac 1.1. I like the 971 if you are no interested in sacd than I think you will enjoy the 971 with a dac 1.1 or perpetual 3a with modwright mods... I would pass on the 991 or other players only moderately better has they will leave wanting to upgrade again shortly.
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