CD player suggestions

I am getting a new CDP and I have an Outlaw 1050 and Paradigm Monitor speakers, here are my options so far:
Arcam Diva CD 72
AH! Njoe Tjobe 4000
NAD CD 21
NAD CD 524
Suggestions Pro/Cons Please.
Corey
music heals

I have a older Rotel. Originally when I was going to by a stand alone digital/analog converter. when I started to demo the D/A's the Rotel was used as the source. After listening to the Rotel by itself I was blown away and still am today. Not to make the decison more difficult but I'd give the Rotel cd players a listen.

I have a new Toshiba 9200 as well as a Toshiba 2700. Picked them both up on ubid for a very good price. 9200 is a great player DVD as well as CD as HDCD. 2700 I got refurbished for $79.00 also has the HDCD option. Got the 2700 really just to play cd's...wonderful sound from both.

At this moment I am using a Pioneer DVD 440 as a CD player. I don't like it at all as a DVD player, but it works pretty well as a CD player with Burr Brown DACs.
In about a month I plan on upgrading to either a Norh CD1 or an AH! Njoe Tjobe 4000, the Ah! is currently beating the Norh out but I haven't decided yet.
I auditioned an Arcam Diva and found that it did not improve on the 179.00 Pioneer DVD player enough to move in that direction.

On some Toshiba DVD players I found that the sound Significantly tightened up when I put the Outlaw in "Phantom" mode. I later found claims that the Toshibas subtract out some information from the direct center when played in stereo mode, information that would go to center channel. My only confirmation of this has been the tightening of sound when switching between stereo and phantom modes. The Pioneer doesn't show the "effect" to the same degree as the Toshiba Sd-4700. On the other hand the Pioneer's video signal is far inferior to the Pioneer's so both units stand in my rack.
Hopefully the Pioneer will make way for one of the tube based CD players in about a month.

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"Art is not a mirror, but a hammer."

The nice thing about the toshiba 9200 is that you can shut down the video circuitry(SP). It weighs a about 28lbs and gets good reviews as stand alone audio player. I usually listen either in stereo mode or natural on my 1050.

I am replacing a Rotel RCD 945AX, I will look in to the Toshibas.

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Corey
music heals

My Rotel predates the 945 and has peformed well since 1987, (I think). How come your changing if you don't mind me asking?

What is it about the Pioneer you don't care for as a DVD player. I've seen a lot of positve reviews on the DV-440 and have been planning to purchase one.

[This message has been edited by pictureguy (edited February 06, 2002).]

I bought the Pioneer for 2 reasons, the 196kHz/24Bit Burr Brown Dac (which I don't always use, the only way to hear it pure on the Outlaw is through the 5.1 inputs. All other connections bring about a DA or ADA conversion and the Outlaw's DACs come into play) and the many glowing reviews on adioreview.com. "Unfortunately", I had also recently bought a Malata multi-region progressive DVD player and when I compared the two I found a fault in the Pioneer's output (on both I used S-video out, not Progressive). In large areas of solid bright colors there appeared splotches and in each splotch there were darker horizontal lines running through the area. This was not the case with the Malata and once noticed became rather anoying. I confirmed the effect by asking a friend to look for the effect and after a short amount of time he also noticed it.
This May be an example of Chroma bug, however the Toshiba 4700 I replaced the 440 with did not show the effect even though it is supposed to have a "light" chroma bug itself.
I tried two different Pioneer 440's with the same result and finally decided that I did like it as a workhourse CD player and so kept the second unit for that purpose.

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"Art is not a mirror, but a hammer."

Hullguy,
My Rotel sounds good, works bad. The drawer has developed a kind of drag and need some kind of adjustment. It slams shut, doesn't sound healthy. It is a real nice CDP but what am I going to do? Time for a new CDP.

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Corey
music heals

Thanks. I was just wondering.

Here's a suggestion from the left field bleachers.....consider a Nakamichi changer. Apparently the company screwed up somewhere along the way and lost their position at the top of this market, but their changers provide excellent sound quality together with the convenience of a changer, and they look good too. Their "music bank" changer design is unique...a single CD drawer that loads CD's into an internal cartridge mechanism. I've got one about 10 years old now which still produces beautiful sound and has never had a mechanical problem. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that they've become hard to find.

Dave

I've heard the AH! - Great sounding but essentially a Marantz with a gimmicky valve output stage. You'd be better off looking at the more esoteric players such as the Rega Planet 2000 or the Arcam range. I have a Planet, and a 1050, and together they sound wonderful with my Sony SS176 EB Brooklands edition floorstanders. A perfect marriage of US power and British replay knowhow (the Sony's are designed and manufactured here!)