Rotel - CD11 Tribute CD Player

Milito

Anyone have one? If so what is your opinion of it as I'm thinking of getting one.

The Maranz CD5005 refurb I got for Christmas isn't working correctly so I'm sending it back.

F1nut

Saw a couple of reports that the tray will close when it's not supposed to. This is the result of one experience.

Milito

Yes Jesse I saw one report of that, I didn't realize there were more. Thanks

Anyone have a Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport?

Clipdat

I believe @Mike Reeter does.

Emlyn

The CD11 drawer closing issue seems to be a feature of the player where it closes itself automatically after a minute. That's not a cool feature if someone doesn't know it does that. It's also not documented in the owner's manual.

VR3

I believe that is a common feature of CD players though?

Been a while since I've owned one but I recall that being the norm

Emlyn

Could be. I've been using universal players for so long that don't have that feature that I don't remember how the dedicated CD drives work. I do know that if a manufacturer is using a drive mechanism that's derived from a computer just bumping the tray slightly can send those into close mode.

pitdogg2

Emlyn Posts: 3,275
6:53AM
The CD11 drawer closing issue seems to be a feature of the player where it closes itself automatically after a minute.

VR3 wrote: »

I believe that is a common feature of CD players though?

Not any I've owned. I have owned a couple that if you TURNED it off with the drawer open the drawer would close which I do think is perfectly acceptable. Just automatically closing because you're searching/can't make up your mind for a disc to insert ... NO I do not want that one...EVER.

Milito

Any other players I should look at in the $500-$600 range?

F1nut

VR3 wrote: »

I believe that is a common feature of CD players though?

Oh hell NO!!!

F1nut

Milito wrote: »

Any other players I should look at in the $500-$600 range?

https://www.safeandsoundhq.com/products/teac-pd-301-x-cd-player-fm-tuner

I bought one and liked it so much I bought another. Is it "reference" gear? No, but it's surprisingly good.

Milito

I found this in a long thread (16 pages) on the Steve Hoffman forum about the Tribute CD11. Very few negative reviews, most are very pleased with it.

The overeager CD tray on the Rotel has done its sudden-closing thing to me a couple of times when my hand apparently unintentionally (and just ever-so-slightly!) jostled the tray as I was placing the disc down. One of these times, the CD got caught in the mechanism, but luckily I was able to slip it out before any damage happened to either the disc or the player.

I think this player interprets any degree of pressure on the tray as “disc is here and it’s time to close!”

So I now try to gently place the disc into the tray and am careful to avoid any overt contact between my hand and the tray. No jostling, no sudden closure. I love the sound of this player in my system, so I’m willing to adapt to these weird quirks. It sounds to me it's like a CD tray on a computer.

The Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport is out as I've read numerous reports of it damaging discs when putting a disc into the slot it uses instead of a tray.

Emlyn

The Yamaha S303 seems to get great reviews at $379. Has a USB port for high res files too. Best thing is Crutchfield actually has it in stock to sell!

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-bt4OTy6RGx7/p_022CDS303/Yamaha-CD-S303.html

F1nut

Milito wrote: »

The Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport is out as I've read numerous reports of it damaging discs when putting a disc into the slot it uses instead of a tray.

I was concerned about possible disc damage with the Teac slot loader, but I've had absolutely no issues. My perfect CD's are still perfect.

I suspect....check that, I know some users are impatient careless folks that think they can shove the CD in willy nilly. Those folks are the same ones tossing a CD in a tray instead of gently placing it.

Edit: I forgot to mention the Teac has a rubber insert in the slot, so the disc has no contact with metal. Not sure about the Audiolab.

Milito

Thanks for the feedback.

Milito

So I talked with Mike and then ordered the Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport.

Mike Reeter

Milito wrote: »

So I talked with Mike and then ordered the Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport.

Just don't be raggin' on me if that thing doesn't work out

Milito

What's you address?

Toolfan66

Milito wrote: »

So I talked with Mike and then ordered the Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport.

Looks like a very nice unit for the price..

tophatjohnny

And here I though CDs were just for ripping?? People actually still listen to them??😂😂

muncybob

Evenings start off with records and then progress to cds if adult bevs are involved.

F1nut

tophatjohnny wrote: »

And here I though CDs were just for ripping?? People actually still listen to them??😂😂

Why the heck would I want to take the time and effort to rip my CD collection when I can simply play them in one of my excellent CD/SACD players. The ripping notion never made a lick of sense to me and never will.

maxward

Completely agree, for now. Maybe if or when there’s limited space to store the CDs, ripping the collection will make better sense.

Clipdat

tophatjohnny wrote: »

And here I though CDs were just for ripping?? People actually still listen to them??😂😂

People like to listen in different ways and that doesn't necessarily mean any one way is better than another.

CDs, vinyl, lossless files, streaming services, or R2R - it's all good!

Emlyn

When I've listened to music for the last few years it's usually from a dozen or more albums stored in WAV format on a hard disc media player without having to get up. I do listen to SACDs one by one though. And, I still have all of my CDs stored in boxes should I want to listen to one directly. I'll always have CD players around. Sometimes albums sound better playing on a CD player vs the media player and sometimes they don't. I gave up on streaming albums over Wifi except as background music. That is convenient but produces inferior sound on a high end system.

Clipdat

Emlyn wrote: »

I gave up on streaming albums over Wifi except as background music. That is convenient but produces inferior sound on a high end system.

What streaming service was this with? Curious about your experience(s).

Emlyn

No streaming services at home other than Amazon HD which I promptly dumped because of the issues it had when they first started. I mean streaming over WiFi from a NAS server. For background music while working out or just to have something on in the background it's great.

I may try Amazon HD again at some point.

Clipdat

What streamer/endpoint do you have?

I see Auralic supports Amazon HD now.

jbreezy5

Milito wrote: »

So I talked with Mike and then ordered the Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport.

I’m a little late to this discussion. I also have the Audiolab 6000CDT.

I have been reluctant to comment much on this player, because of the report(s) [not sure if I’ve seen more than one] regarding it scratching discs.

I called Audio Advisor and spoke with sales rep, Brian, several months ago to inform my purchasing decision, whom said they only knew of one person online that reported the scratching disc problem, but that they sold these 10-1 vs. the Cambridge Audio CXC transport (typical disc-loading tray, but persons have complained it doesn’t do gapless playback or direct track selection) and the Audiolab 6000CDTs do not get returned by purchasers.

He said you can go on 1 person’s bad experience, or the countless rave reviews of their purchasers (which, currently there ARE about 75 reviews from buyers of the Audiolab on Audio Advisor, with an overall 5-star rating).

I found it impossible to overcome Brian’s logic, and I had been wringing my hands over getting a new high-quality spinner for many months; I also liked the appearance of the Audiolab over the Cambridge Audio transport.

As a player, I love the Audiolab! It is mechanically quiet during playback (not during loading, you can hear the loading mechanism, but it is during playback where I want dead silence, and this player is the quietest I’ve heard, in that regard).

It has a proper power supply, so it is also electrically quiet. I always feel sounds are coming from a black background, there is excellent separation of instruments, smoothness and clarity. Sonically, this player gets as much out of the way of the music as I have heard from any player. A+++ for sound transmission, IMO.

The remote is rather large, but is responsive and easy to use once one gets used to the layout (a couple buttons seem positioned a little differently than I would intuitively expect).

That said, because of my audiophilia nervosa about the slot-loading mechanism, I found myself examining each disc before-and-aft insertion. It has been a mixed bag, mostly no issue at all, but I have experienced a FEW scratched discs 😪.

The particular pattern seems to be a line of parallel lines that runs varying lengths across the disc. Look at the scratch sequence that runs diagonally directly above overhead light reflection for the specific pattern; other scratches around the center-hole of the disc were already there (Goodwill purchase had those already).




Smaller scratch sequence on Death Cab disc, but this was previously mint condition!:




A potential additional problem is it is near impossible to conclude whether this occurs during insertion or ejection. Could it happen in either direction? 🤷🏼

Obviously, I do not consider myself the willy-nilly careless type mentioned in @F1nut earlier post.

As a player I love this machine, but my audiophilia nervosa remains, because I’m otherwise respectful of my media; I like it minty as new.

Earlier persons were talking about ripping discs, and, in fact I have considered that as a possible solution to assuage my fears about possible scratching. Get the awesome playback, but only risking scratching a CD+/-R/RW. Not as scary; but that’s a lot more work.

Anyway, this has been my experience, and I would encourage you to examine your discs carefully when using this player. Be careful when inserting the disc to ensure it doesn’t touch the metal slot-opening (even though there does seem to be a rubberized material within the slot to help with this).

My chagrin with most modern CD players has been mechanical noise during playback, as well as, inferior designed tray mechanisms that fail after 3-5 years, which is ridiculous to me. They just don’t design these as well as in CDs hey-day.

I am intrigued by Audiolab’s new Omnia, which is based around this slot-loading mechanism, but uses a tray instead of a slot-loader; best of both worlds? This machine is somewhere in the $2-2.5k price point, however, because it is an all-in-one machine (i.e. basically a 6000a integrated, cd player, blue-tooth streamer, dac, phono preamp, 4.3” screen with meters, etc.). I think this would be my favorite, and most complete Audiolab product, but haven’t found it for sale anywhere yet.

I have no affiliation with Audiolab, btw.

Hope this helps.

Milito

So far I haven't noticed any new scratches on my discs. I've probably played 10 disc or so in mine so no heavy use yet.

I also agree the it's a very quite player compared to the Marantz, Sony and Technics players I've had in the past. It also sounds great.

Emlyn

Crutchfield's got the Audiolab Omnia in stock:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_248OMNIABK/Audiolab-Omnia-Black.html