ARCAM vs ROTEL

I can't compare the Rotel vs. the Arcam, as I've never heard the Arcam. But I own the Rotel and I wanted to upgrade my front end. I picked up a Bel Canto Dac2. I performed side by side comparisons between the two units. The Dac2 is twice as expensive as the Rotel was new. Using the Rotel as the transport for the DAC2 and also as a stand alone CDP, the Rotel holds it's own quite nicely against the Dac2, an Audiogon favortite. Only very subtle differences were noted. The Dac2 was nicer but so slightly so that I sold it and saved the 750 bucks I paid for it used. The Rotel is fairly accurate and only falls down when playing highly compressed modern music (rock, pop, etc).

Very difficult decission without listening to either of CD players. Disadvantage from living out of no-where but I guess I will have to make a day trip and drive out to listen to a few choices. Between the feedbacks and what my mind is telling me thus far is on the Rotel. But until then it is difficult to make the choice but keep on asking for more feedback. Thank you for all your patients..
Al

I had the ROTEL 1072 side by side with the ARCAM cd192 in my system for a while. ROTEL 1072 is a sweet machine. ARCAM cd 73 and 192 trays fail repeatedly they get stuck closed etc. ROTEL 1072 has a sweeter sound in my opinion. On well recorded HDCD's wow. ARCAM has some sort of amplification trickery in them as well as 24x192 upsampling that cause chips to run hot. ARCAM build quality was shoddy and the off the shelf prices high. I take my hat off to ARCAM for building a great sweet sounding integrated amp the A65. But those cd players meh..

Go with the Rotel. It is reliable and excellent sounding. Can't be beat for the money..

I've had my Rotel RCD-1072 for about five years now, and it is truly a wonderful deck. It allows music to sound like music, and I never need to worry about anything other than enjoying my favorite tunes.