can anyone help me........

What "sound" does the Rotel have and what sound are you striving for?  Years ago I had a Rotel RCD-991.  Boy was that thing mellow.  Easy on the ears but no dynamics.  "Sonic wallpaper"

Your player from what I've seen online uses 2 TDA 1305T's and CDM-9 transport. Rotel RCD- 970BX uses same transport but w/1 TDA 1305T. I'd do some looking to see what other players uses this combination. Maybe you could savage a CDM-9 from other unit?

If there is a rotel dealer close by have you tried a demo of their newer players like the  1572? 

hifiman,  its just a beautiful, full, dynamic  smooth sound.

djones51, talked with rotel engineer, said they last good model were the 10 series. said if I could get my hands on one of them, but they have been around a while as well, would be having the same problem soon.  


kotta637, not much on transport matching and such, the only transport I got off on was the wadia back in the day.  never really went into the tech side of digital
.
I do know that of the cd players I liked back when, calf audio labs, meridian, rotel, phillips, ,melos gold that I could remember, the rotel sounded the best, and all used that same phillips chip.

Hifiman5, I've never cared for Rotel CD players. I bought a gently used RCD-1072 to pair with my Rotel integrated, which replaced an old Sony player I was using. The Sony/Rotel combo actually sounded quite decent. When I put the RCD-1072 into the system, it sounded like absolute crap (no dynamics, poor detail, way too forward with weak bass). Rather than dump the player, I upgraded my Audioquest interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords to Acoustic Zen which luckily smoothed out the sound greatly and added some much-needed warmth and bass which allowed me to live with the Rotel unit. The 1072 is now an average performer and tolerable while I look to upgrade next year.

What interconnects did you use with your 991? I don't like using cables as an EQ, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do in order to make a unit listenable.

@kennesawjet -- what's your budget?

around $500 - $600