A new $7000 CD Player? Insane.

[Mart68]

Ah, I'm reminded of my old Rotel Michi RHCD-10. Gorgeous CD player with a great sound. Not so keen on this new Michi though.

The 1990s Michi was great looking equipment, no doubt.



Compared to the new one which didn't miss a single branch on its fall through the ugly tree:



What happened?

 

[somebodyelse]

The 1990s Michi was great looking equipment, no doubt.



Compared to the new one which didn't miss a single branch on its fall through the ugly tree:



What happened?

A good example of why pictures in the most beautiful/ugly threads are interchangeable

 

[Pearljam5000]

$55K CD player

 

[Ste_S]

They most definitely do not.



And another absolutely inane comment.

ASR is becoming a cesspool of ignorance.

Well, for me, CD players, and for the most part DACS, sound similar enough not to be concerned about. Certainly no night/day differences. Great that I can simply listen to music without having to worry about the equipment.

 

[Tell]

Not only is it insanely expensive, it's also extremely oversized for no reason whatsoever.

 

[manisandher]

The 1990s Michi was great looking equipment, no doubt.

My whole Michi stack from ~20 years ago:

Selling all this remains one of my biggest regrets in audio. Damn the advent of computer audio!

There was something "special" about the sound of that CD player. The CDM9Pro drive, the dual BB PCM63-K chips? Dunno. But at the time, it sounded like no other CD player (to my ears, at least).

Mani.

 

[suttondesign]

What I find beautiful is a main living room that doubles as an incredible 2.2 system where the only things visible are a 77” oled flat as a pancake on the wall, 2 main speakers with almost no visible wire tails, and a tiny rme control unit tucked between books. All else concealed in raceways or behind a wall. Or in the case of the subs, wrapped in book spines as camo.

I personally lost interest in seeing the boxes once it became easy to build computer-based servers in about 1998 or 99. Back then, my mac was in the basement below the system closet along with the amps and speaker wires. I would use the iTunes interface on a screen and keyboard in the closet. Only the speakers - and not even the wires! - were visible in that particular living room in an old house. When those were the Celestion 700’s, it looked slick and minimalist. Also, the young ladies who came calling never knew I was a gearhead; they just heard the music.

Ah, the days. Brings back memories. But I digress.

 

[HammersRocco]

just paste this in-https://darko.audio/2024/09/rotel-introduces-michi-q5-cd-player-cd-transport-dac/

Pasting on a separate browser window is letting darko win. As I use chrome, there is no control of HTTP referer. So

1.- If you are using firefox, it is easy

Type in the address bar: about:config and click on “I'll be careful, I promise!”.
Find in the new window using a search tool: referer.
Double-click on the line “network. http. sendRefererHeader” and change the value from “2” to “0” and click “OK”.

2.- Using chrome, not sure how to hack it, but the easiest way is to install the referer control extension form the webstore. However it is a 3rd party extension so there is the question of security. Is it worth it to risk a 3rd party extension just to not let darko have his way? Your decision. My mind says no! But not letting darko get away with that pettiness... is it pettiness?

 

[Mart68]

Pasting on a separate browser window is letting darko win. As I use chrome, there is no control of HTTP referer. So

1.- If you are using firefox, it is easy

Type in the address bar: about:config and click on “I'll be careful, I promise!”.
Find in the new window using a search tool: referer.
Double-click on the line “network. http. sendRefererHeader” and change the value from “2” to “0” and click “OK”.

2.- Using chrome, not sure how to hack it, but the easiest way is to install the referer control extension form the webstore. However it is a 3rd party extension so there is the question of security. Is it worth it to risk a 3rd party extension just to not let darko have his way? Your decision. My mind says no! But not letting darko get away with that pettiness... is it pettiness?

Hits on his site actually benefit him (even if someone's just looking to marvel at the nonsense), so he's cutting off his nose to spite his face.

Really there's no point as you can already surmise the nature of the content and there'll be no useful information.

 

[HammersRocco]

Hits on his site actually benefit him (even if someone's just looking to marvel at the nonsense), so he's cutting off his nose to spite his face.

Really there's no point as you can already surmise the nature of the content and there'll be no useful information.

True - I did not think of that. I just wanted to get one over him

 

[Blumlein 88]

Pasting on a separate browser window is letting darko win. As I use chrome, there is no control of HTTP referer. So

1.- If you are using firefox, it is easy

Type in the address bar: about:config and click on “I'll be careful, I promise!”.
Find in the new window using a search tool: referer.
Double-click on the line “network. http. sendRefererHeader” and change the value from “2” to “0” and click “OK”.

2.- Using chrome, not sure how to hack it, but the easiest way is to install the referer control extension form the webstore. However it is a 3rd party extension so there is the question of security. Is it worth it to risk a 3rd party extension just to not let darko have his way? Your decision. My mind says no! But not letting darko get away with that pettiness... is it pettiness?

IMO, best not to compromise the https for http. Even better don't pay attention to Darko. He sure isn't worth the risk even is the risk is slight.

 

[Yuhasz01]

They most definitely do not.



And another absolutely inane comment.

ASR is becoming a cesspool of ignorance.

Cd transport portion, digital out, should be bit perfect(easily testable, using RME digicheck tool). Cd player dac portion, analogue output, may differ.

 

[Mikig]

I find this new Rotel CD very beautiful and modern. It has a mechanism that seems to be CNC made from solid aluminum and carbon if I read correctly. Top loading.
It is a CD/DAC ROON and this makes it interesting for me.
I would probably have also included a streamer, making it the all-in-one digital heart of the system!
But "audiophiles" prefer the multiplication of devices ...
However, I personally would gladly take it!!

 

[Yuhasz01]

CD players don't sound different when you take the digital out. But the analog stage is something different. My father had a Denon from the 1980's and bought a new Marantz in 2010, and that analog part of the Marantz was a lot better than the Denon, but both digital out to the same convertor (i tested with an older Apogee AD8000 trough sp/dif at that time) it sounded the same. The Marantz convertor (that is way more modern than the Apogee) was the best, but probally only average compared to what is availeble now.

These days you best buy a good transport with digital (sp/dif) out, that does not have to cost even thousands. The Marantz is a good one and costed a few hundreds, and cheaper is also possible. Couple that with a good dac and you got it as good as it gets. No need for a 7K cd player at all.

I rip cd's with my old Lenovo laptop and store them in a box in my attic after that. I play digital music from my NAS server where all those are stored. And that is how many now work. But if you want the classic cd player, a Marantz CD6007 (500€) coupled to a good dac (can be less than 100€, see review list) is as good as it gets. And I say Marantz because i know the brand, but i'm sure there are even cheaper devices that also do it right in that kind of config that i don't know about also.

Agree. I use Onkyo CD player C-7030 as a transport only(new cost approx $250). Digital optical cable feeds into RME DAC($1200 new). I have an extensive cd collection I play. Very good sound and very good music listening.

 

[Yuhasz01]

Not only is it insanely expensive, it's also extremely oversized for no reason whatsoever.

Audio furniture to impress people.

 

[Fahzz]

This the item that raised my eyebrows price wise recently:

In Berlin for review: the Grimm MU2 | Darko.Audio

A streaming-centric preamplifier that includes a Roon Core(server), Roon endpoint, DAC, line-level analogue pre-amplifier and 6.4mm headphone output.

darko.audio

 

[Tell]

Audio furniture to impress people.

Yeah rich people can be quite shallow.

 

[AnalogSteph]

There was something "special" about the sound of that CD player. The CDM9Pro drive, the dual BB PCM63-K chips? Dunno. But at the time, it sounded like no other CD player (to my ears, at least).

Was it one of those with SM5843AP or with PMD100? Keep in mind the PMD100 is an HDCD decoder so will attenuate all regular CDs by 6 dB, so definitely no problems with intersample-overs in that one. A well-adjusted PCM63P-K is peak multibit era D/A, too... these can pretty much hit 20-bit linearity, so definitely plenty even when you effectively need 17.

 

[Roland68]

Naturally it is Darko talking about it:

Rotel introduces Michi Q5 CD player, CD transport & DAC | Darko.Audio

A top-loading CD player for your 'Michi by Rotel' amplification suite.

darko.audio

Rotel Michi Q5 coming out in November. Why would anyone see $7000 in value in a CD player that can also be used as a DAC?

For the same reason people buy record players for $125,000 or even $150,000.
Because they can.

Nowadays, $7,000 is a bargain for the feeling of owning something special.
And the last shirt has no pockets anyway...

 

[EJ3]

Audio furniture to impress people.

No. Because I like it. Very few people are allowed to come in my home.
I even discourage my mother from doing so (although sometime she does anyway [she has a key, so I wouldn't actually stop her] {or I would not have given her a key}).