Today I received the Rotel CD11 Tribute. I bought this unit after having listened to this discussion several days ago. I connected the Rotel to my Bryston preamp using AudioQuest Sidney interconnecting cable. For loudspeaker cable I use AudioQuest Rocket 33. The first album I listened to was Frank Zappa's Over-Nite Sensation. This was enough to give me an adequate sense of how well the Rotel CD11 performs. How did it perform? Wonderfully. Satisfyingly. All the nuance of Zappa's brilliant production was served up in a delightful way. No need to say anymore concerning the Rotel. It is a fine cd player.

Mine arrived yesterday And exceeded my Expectation, good enough To spend last night listening To CD after CD and I'm A analog guy love the Blend of warmth and detail

Dude, you're the reason I took the leap and bought this unit that I've been eyeing for a while. Got it used for $400.I have the Tribute A11 and a Rotel RA1572. A-B'ing the internal DAC with the Schiit Bifrost 2, I couldn't tell a difference! Thanks for bringing me back to the world of CD's.

Purchased this Tribute 11 CD player AND the Rotel 12 Integrated Amp about a year ago. I’m happy.

Enjoy your videos! keep it up!!! I was using a Sony higher end ES unit from the late 80’s for years, in fear it might go down on me eventually, I bought the CD11, I love them both! I think considering the theory of diminishing returns, this is a sweet spot unit for me!

Thanks! Looking into replacement CD players lately. Good review!

Mike I use to be in line with you as you know . Laserdisc over vhs easy and then My crazy CD collection over cassette . I didn’t have the right things to understand However my heart an my ears now want “analog “ via Vinyl tube phono stage,pre amp 2 channel discrete circuitry high power amp and the right speakers to match . New Vinyl Is crazy good ,thicker cleaner and some of the old pressing are impressive as well . Yes Tubes all day !! Btw I’m happy with my Sony SACD DVD &DVD Audio media yes Multiple Channel I love but media is limited and still happy being an analog dude in a digital world . Great video we all have a heart and emotional link to how we connect to music . The add ons are hit and miss meaning we all see the value or hear it in different accessories we add on and use ..

Ken 🙌🏻 🇯🇵 was unique among audio designers.

Great video! Thank you for the information and insight provided

I can appreciate and respect the history behind this CD player, and it's designer/engineer, however I have a collection of not only thousands of CD's, but several hundred SACD, DVD-Audio, and Blu Ray music discs. I need a player that can handle all of those formats. I currently have an Oppo 105 which I've been using for the last 7 years, and it's been great. When the day comes when I need to replace it, I will be looking at players that play at minimum, CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio. CD can sound great in many instances, but a lot of my SACD's and DVD-A's sound absolutely incredible. I'd put many of them up against their best sounding vinyl counterparts any day of the week. Excellent video. Keep up the good work.

Great cd player by a brillant brand

I would also recommend the Rotel cd14 mk2. It is a absolutely fantastic sounding cd player that is free of fatiguing digital artifacts. With Analog warmth and detail in abundance this player is a class act in any system especially with preamps and power amps, tubes or transistors!

Very enjoyable review, thank you

The Rotel cd14 mk2 is also beautifully constructed and is visually stunning. In Its silver finish especially, this cd player let's you know it is high end in addition to its sound which is the icing on the cake,(with a juicy cherry on top!!). Buy it and rediscover some cd's!

This is wild…I purchased a CD11 last week. Love it! Great review and information.

yes trust your wing nuts ,thats what got me a fab system ,price is no guide or looks or origin or age ,dont believe hype to,and your health and state of mind plays a part to...

Have you looked at Arcams CDS50 CD/SACD, STREAMER. Originally £899 in the UK , now as low as £499. Uses ESS9038 reference dacs, one to a channel. Sounds very good, slightly bright, but still warm. Bargain now, released today you would be looking at a minimum £1200. It's must be the most flexible CD player out there. Also has balanced out for that price. I can buy the CD11 Tribute in the UK for £239, Would have bought it if they had updated the dac chip as well.

I have the cd11 tribute whit Rotel 06se amplifier. Fantastic.

On WBC I agree. My two turntable, two cdj DJ rig is wired with all quad core cable. Both XLR and RCA. Canare wire with Neutrik silver and Amphenol connectors. It ain't really the copper wire though that makes the difference. It's the fact that it is quad core balanced XLR and quad core floating ground RCA that makes the difference.

Im going to order one in the next few days Cds are going to be a round For awhile

I have the CD 11 tribute. I don't have an expensive DAC (Schiit Modi 3) but I too likes the internal DAC on this CD player than the Modi. This is a solid player.

Hi Mike, hope you are fine. This unit or Cambridge CXC v2 since I have an external DAC ? what would be better to listen to my CD collection ? thank you ! Love your videos, learning a lot !

Designed by Ken Ishiwata but finished by Karl-Heinz Fink from Essen/Germany after Ken's death!

I've noticed that the DAC used is specified as a "Texas Instruments" DAC of unknown model number. With all this fuss about AKM vs. ESS in other players, it's surprising that Rotel (and Mr. Ishiwata) would go with this relatively unknown chip, but I guess I could defer. As far as the TI chip goes, Rotel might have gone with it due to the AKM factory fire, resulting in a shortage of that chip. It's telling that they didn't just "go to the well" and pull out another ESS - or maybe the TI chip is just that good. The Denafrips Ares is known to have a warm character, explaining the detail you noticed in the Rotel. Some may not prefer that detail. Most reviewers of the Ares loved it precisely because it sounded "analog" and had better soundstaging. I know from experience that "detail" often equals a lack of soundstage depth. This is important to me, at least, as I tend to prefer a warmer sound. The hunt goes on!

I love my ONKYO C-7030!!!

Great an interesting video , I have a cd11 tribute sound really great , also A11 amp saving up for the T11. I had Rotel rt100l 30years ago that was a great tuner amp. Regards mark

there are a few reviews of a rotel cd player on crutchfield that say while their unit sounds great the drawer is rather flimsy in construction.

I prefer the original Rotel Sound from the Stan Curtis era. These earlier Rotels are very Naim or Cyrus like in sound signature IMHO.

Taking a shot that you'll actually see this post after two years. I am interested in the CD11 Tribute, but I need to know if it has gapless playback. I looked through the manual and there is no mention of it. Also, I am reading a lot of complaints that the player stops working when it gets halfway through a CD, especially toward the end of CDs. Do you know if these problems are real?

Can you by any chance compare the Rotel CD11 Tribute to Marantz CD6007 ? These 2 are the top candidates for the price as I've researched.

Thank you for this review. I am looking for a very good CD player. I am just wondering if this player has gapless playback? and if not which one would you recommend for the same quality as this one? Thank you

This or Rotel RCD-1572 or Marantz CD6007/Yamaha CD-S303?

Still have a rotel amp

thank you for the information i already have a tribute 11 amp i will buy tribute 11 cd player i have very old cd player

The one thing that a reviewer can't answer immediately for their readers or viewers is what kind of reliability can the buyer expect from a unit. I'm using a Rotel RCD-1072 as a transport that's getting close to twenty years old now and still works well after a cleaning and a new belt. However, Rotel no longer stocks any repair parts for this model. When something finally goes out, that may be the end of the player's usefulness. So, how well built is the CD-11 and is it reasonable to expect a long life spinning discs?

How would you compare the Rotel CD11 VS Cambridge AXC35.... I'd like a comparison.

Great video and tribute to a tribute :) I am considering as a first step to the cd experience to buy this cd player and pair it with the schiit magni 3 headphone amplifier and a good pair of headphones. I would love to hear your opinion on this thought of mine. Cheers anyway!

A great competitor is the Emotiva ERC-4.

With the latest firmware it reads all of my disks I've tried and before it didn't, however my old 1980's Marantz read them all and had no ability to change the firmware so which is better?

Does the player load and begin playing in less than an hour? Some players are agonizingly slow.

I bought the CD11 T. together with the Amp (A11 Tribute). The amp's transformer is humming and this is audible when it is just quiet in the room. At a price of approx. 500 Euro this should not be. But I am not picky, I don't hear it when I listen to music and there are much more important problems in this world. The set - amp and CD player - is running for a year now and 2 weeks ago the CD player stopped receiving it's remote's signal. I testet the remote - it is okay. But the CD player does not receive it. That is really annoying because - thanks to that "simplicity" you cannot control anything, can't even put the player on stand-by anymore. And the repair cost is unreasonable. I wanted to repeir it myself but Rotel only gave me a list of authorised services. By the way: There is no evidence that a logic circuit impairs sound quality. What I am trying to say is: When you turn the CD player off the tray won't retract. Tryi it, you'll see. I don't care about Ishiwata. Generally speaking at this price range it is possible to get something much more reliable, like Yamaha or Sony for example. Or I had a bad break with these units. The sound quality is good but not "Tribute". It is just ok.

I’m looking for a solid transport under 1000 what would be best case to buy right hie in your opinion

Link to World's Best Cables please? Thanks!

In my opinion all recent cd players must include digital inputs to take advantage of the dac, specially for this price. In my case i use the dac 80% of the time for any digital content i consume (spotify, tidal, netflix...) and only 20% of the time for cds

Thanks for the review. I am really interested in this CD player but I dont know If I will see a big difference compared to my Yamaha CDS 303. I think I will but I also saw the emotiva cd player erc-4 that looks really good too in the same price range.

How does it compare with the Cambridge AXC 35? Thx.

I'm New to ur Channel can you please Recommend a Really good DAC for Me I to have the Rotel A11 Tribute plus the Rotel Amp the Amp is a bit Disappointing because U Really Don't hear any sound till it's at 45 on the Volume. As you know we all Desire greater sound cheers

Don't order it unless you want to be an ancient old man before you get it.

Looks like the link for t shirts is down.

Primare dd with dac or rotel?

And in direct comparison connected to my Technics SU-7700 via RCA the Rotel does not sound as good as my 30 year old Technics SL-PS 700. And it also does not sound better than the PS 700 little brother SL-PG 520A. I really would like to know if the Marantz CD 6007 sounds better than the Rotel. I need a modern time replacement for my old school Technics CD players.

I didn't know the stuff you put in cheese made cd players

Hello! How does rotel compare to denon dsd900ne?

This CD player sounds great but the build quality is awful. The last track on mine plays on repeat, sometimes it won't play the last track at all and really struggles on long CDs. It will just click off in the middle of a track. So annoying. Test your player by leaving it on repeat all night, if it's stopped by the morning then you've got a faulty one. Such a shame as it sounds really good, but the software is some of the worst I've ever seen. Get the Marantz one instead, you will regret buying this.

How much better is the primare DD15 to the Rotel cd11 tribute ¿ 🤔

whay didnt you let us hear the music through your stereo system?

My CD-11 sounds superb even ‘high end’ when playing through a Naim SuperUniti, Rega RS5’s.. 😎👍

I assume that when you use the coax output, that you bypass the built in DAC, so you basically praise the DAC in your amplifier. Crorrect?

Rotel have always made excellent budget CD players. I have an RCD 965BX and an RCD 971, I think they retailed at around £250 and £400 respectively, I also have a Linn Unidisk 1.1 (£8600), Linn Ikemi (£2200), Naim CD5 XS (£2000), Meridian 507 (about £1500 iirc) and Denon DVD A1XV (£3000 iirc)… you can clearly hear the difference between all of these machines and you can hear the improvements as you go up the price range (although the Ikemi outperforms the Denon, and gives 95% of the performance of the Unidisk), however they’re all superb performances, and the Rotel machines are still highly enjoyable machines! Yes, I do have too many CD players, but I really like them all.🙂

Too bad this model doesn't have a USB input to allow playing music files, that would make this a home run at $599.

What’s the point of a 1000 dollar CD player? They all do the same thing.

Sorry, I bought an Onkyo C-7030 recently at a used record store trying to get into the used gear game for $35 and a pair of Dynaudio audience 5's for $75! Thank God the guy was an asshole and later I discovered he sold me a worthless King Gizz bootleg or I might've felt guilty. Cavaet Emptor kids. You are better off spending a $1000 on more music than getting that Rotel. Don't believe for a second that your AV receiver will reveal improved sound with that thing.

Ok