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Rotel 1072 & Arcam 73 comparison

I compared these two CDPs at a dealership for myself.

Electronics: Audio Research Pre SP 16, McCormack DNA125
Speaker : Quad 21L
(So amplification is quite nice.
Speaker is impressive one for its price)

In general these are good CD player. However, interestingly enough, they are quite different in number of ways.

In short, Rotel can be described as 'A concert Grand Piano played by a rising star pianist.' Arcam is like 'Upright piano played by a maestro pianist.' The strong points of Rotel are rich in information and more air around the sound generators. Arcam's good at balance. Switing from Arcam to Rotel make me say, 'impressive, a deeper sound stage, full body sound'. Switiching from Rotel to Arcam makes everything smaller, but as you hear more you see/hear things are still there and you are adjusting yourself to
the music from Arcam in a nice way.

Well, I like Rotel better. Rotel 1072 is also well balanced for presending many kinds of music. It is just a bit difficult to prefectly balance everything since it chooses to present full of information and musicallity as well. Rotel is closer to analog sound than Arcam. Rotel is more puchier when it chooses to do that. In my opinion, Arcam uses a very good DAC, but not all the parts in its electronics do good jobs. I think that is where the shortcomings are.

Will I buy Rotel ? Not now, I'll search more. As of today,
NAD5xx, Musical Fidelity X-Rayv3, Arcam 73, Cambridge Azur 540/640, are no longer on my list. I am not going to buy Sony this time, because I own one. My short list includes: Music Hall CD25, Rotel 1072, Rega, Ah!, and, well, Sony etc.
Any recommendation ?

Thanks for reading.
augustine

Showing 2 responses by vaystrem

vaystrem
80 posts
 
Maybe this will help.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1083534349

My in home comparison of: Creek CD50mk1, Cary 308, Rega Planet 2000, Roksan Kandy mkIII, Arcam 73t, Cambridge 640c. I couldn't get a hold of the Rotel sadly.

My Equip at the time was: Quad 21L, FT Audio LW1S2 Passive Pre-Amp, NAD C350 etc. I've upgraded to Monarchy SM-70 since then.

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.
vaystrem
80 posts
 
Vertewax if you get a chance to read my review of the Arcam 73t let me know. I, personally, am all about PRAT. And where I found the Arcam 73T to fall flat on its face was in this regards in the 'upper frequencies' We had a track we used from Tortoise's T.N.T. Something 'hillside' in which there is a predominant use of chimes. On the Creek & Cary players it was obvious in which pattern/direction and what kind of rhythm was being emphasized, it was obvious. On the Arcam this completely disappeared and even some basic details within this fell apart as well.

I'd be curious if you encounter the same thing. That new Kings of Convenience disc is rather good though isn't it :) Either way I suspect you'll find that the Arcam doesn't hold up 'PRAT' wise throughout the full frequency range.

For PRAT Creek, Bluenote (Stibbert/Koala), or Rega would be preferable based upon my listening. NAIM of course by reputation.
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