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CDP home shootout Rotel vs. Arcam vs. Marantz

Hello,

I am puting together a system and have bought the following CDPlayers:

Marantz CD 67SE
Rotel 971 (awaiting arrival)
Arcam 7SE (awaiting arrival)

Throw in an MSB Link DAC 3 with upsampling board upgrade

Add one Creek 4330R Amplifier

Digital IC is custom Canare (True 75ohm + L-5CFB)
Audio IC's are custom:
http://signalcable.com/analog_interconnects.html

I am also awaiting the arrival of a Rotel RT-990BX Tuner :)
(having bought 3 other real cheapies, the best by a long way so far is Sony ST-JX661 (high bid $17.50!), comfortably beats the Yamaha TX-492!)

OK what CD player in your opinion will win this home shootout? I listen to a broad range of music from ACDC to Ray Charles.

My speakers are currently a temporary solution (due to room and space limitations) Blueroom Minipods http://www.minipod.com/html/images/front_black.jpg (B&W kevlar drivers) hooked up with homemade Cat5 - solid copper AWG: 11.08, -

I beleive in neutral AMP first, then source, and speakers last, garbage in garbage out!

I am hoping to like the Rotel 971 on it's own best and sell all the rest including the MSB :)

Any ideas what is the best combination here?

Thx,
Josh
joshcloud9
joshcloud9 OP
46 posts
 
My first impression of the Rotel RCD 971 is that I love it, just the balanced neutral sound that I'm after.

The Arcam 7SE is really enjoyable but it leaves you wanting the 8SE...I cannot quite explain why, it may be my personal preference which is for ruthlesly revealing balanced sound over warm "friendly" sound. Much depends on the partnering equipment too.

One thing that I found interesting was that the Arcam seemed much more revealing than the Marantz as a Transport?

Oh and just to prove that I mean what I say about "ruthlesly revealing" sound I've got an Audiolab 8000LX arriving in the new year! Got a great deal on it at $200 :)

Should be interesting comparing to the Creek 4330R, which I am completely happy with except that I need a headphone jack

One other comment I would recommend trying a jitter device (like the Audio Alchemy DTI) before getting an upsampling upgrade for the MSB Link Dac 3, which I prefered with upsampling off. Voices sound more natural that way. The DTI made an immediate and big improvement infront of the MSB.

Enough of my rambling here...

Ciao,
Josh
joshcloud9 OP
46 posts
 
Thx for that recommendation Bundee1:

The looks Audio Analogue Puccini interesting and as for the Audio Refinement Complete, well...err it's French and I'm a Brit. So my preference would be the Italian one!

I'll keep an eye out for one...

J~
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
Josh ... I have used the marantz as a transport ... it's my theory that it has high levels of jitter on the digital out (and internally) which is what gives it its warm fuzzy sound. If you like it analytical you need to kill the jitter, as you have found with the DTI. I use a Monarchy DIP to great effect.
Thanks for reporting back.
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