Rotel CD players' Tracking Arm problems after medium term of use

[al-k]

About 3 years ago I researched reliability and malfunction problems in medium price CD players , and found a report of a Rotel player where the owner had complained of deterioration of sound quality over a not particually long term of use (I've forgotten how long , but it wasn't many years) .
The Service Technician found the player was mistracking - presumably causing the player's error correction circuitry to be more active than it otherwise would - and found the cause of this to be a loss of lubrication at the primary movement point of the laser support tracking arm .
After lubrication the player's sound was back to the higher quality its owner remembered of it when new .
I have forgotten the exact model number , though it was from Rotel's 900 series' later models , and I think it was either 991 or 971 .

I was considering buying a new CD player then and listened to several brands and attempted to listen to a Rotel 961 , but it would not play ! The , young , salesman was not sure if it was from the last new stock of 900 series or a Trade-in ! - the 10 series and 02 series had been introduced then .
I listened to a RCD-02 in another shop and preferred it to other brands' players there at similar price , but I was wary of long term reliability - as described above - so I decided to wait till the model had been on the market for a while , but as Rotel have long had a good reputation for Amplifiers I bought a new then RA-01 , and it has been reliable - and too good ! - I can hear my old other brand CD player's sound is well below the quality of my brother's and friends' newer model players .
So now there is the new RCD-06 player .

My question is - can owners of any 900 series ; RCD-1070 ; or RCD-02 players comment on long term reliability - any particular problems that affect either the sound quality or mechanical operating ? , or have owners not had any problems with ?
Perhaps Rotel learnt of the arm lubrication slow leak problem and improved what-ever there in later models ?

I will have a number of expenses to meet over the next few years , hence want a player that will maintain its sound quality for at least the life of its laser , and still be OK when a new laser is fitted if I can't afford to upgrade then .

[Boombox]

al-k.....the Rotel cd players are solid...
they will/should last you 4 years to come....oops sorry, for years to come....

that said, its the first time I hear of this problem.....however, man made stuff do tend to become obsure after some time....so don't concern yourself about your player.....enjoy your music rather.....

As a matter of fact, you will find it pretty hard to find another player, similarly priced, x2, that will want you to "upgrade"...trust me, I had to x3 the RCD02's value to get a "better" cd player.....

[cfrizz]

I've never heard of Rotel having problems with their cd players either. I passed a 15 yr old RCD-855 onto my brother & it is still going strong! I upgraded to the RCD-1072 & it plays just great as well. I expect it will be the last cd player that I will ever need!

[al-k]

that said, its the first time I hear of this problem.....however, man made stuff do tend to become obsure after some time....so don't concern yourself about your player.....enjoy your music rather.....

As a matter of fact, you will find it pretty hard to find another player, similarly priced, x2, that will want you to "upgrade"...trust me, I had to x3 the RCD02's value to get a "better" cd player.....

Thanks for the positive comments Boombox , I appreciate those , but I am wondering about your word "obsure" , which I suppose is an inadvertant mis-spelling , but for what word did you intend ?

Priced x2 before good enough to upgrade to ? , well a few people , such as in shops , say the latest version of the Cambridge Audio 640C :- 640C-V2 , I think it is , is better than the RCD-02 , and perhaps it is , but perhaps not better than the RCD-06 ...
Anyway , I am wary of Cambridge simply because the brand with its current owners and product range are still quite new to the market . Perhaps they will still be same Company for years for repairs , etc ... , or perhaps another buy-out/change of owner and product line ... no-one can predict that .

Priced x3 to get a "better" , well I can't afford to spend even x2 , so if RCD-06 is at least as good sound as RCD-02 I'll probably be happy enough .

If I understand you correctly , it would seem that the best audio quality players priced up to the x2 of RCD-02 price merely sound different to each other , thus its for the listeners to hear which suits the music types they prefer and which complements the characteristic sounds of their amps and speakers .
Well , I can believe that , but one has to be lucky enough to get a fair demonstration of each to know - that is with whatever amps & speakers in the shop , and in a listening room suitable enough for one to be able to hear the fine nuances in .

Forum members , how often does that happen for products in this price area !

[al-k]

I've never heard of Rotel having problems with their cd players either. I passed a 15 yr old RCD-855 onto my brother & it is still going strong! I upgraded to the RCD-1072 & it plays just great as well. I expect it will be the last cd player that I will ever need!

Thanks Cathy for the positive report . 15 years and RCD-855 still working ! ; No laser replaced ?

I have read about RCD-855 in my Rotel research , and it was reported about favorably for its sound when new . I wonder about improvements to sound quality from the better audio quality brands . What mostly did you notice about the RCD-1072 that bettered the 855 ? , and is there anything that the 855 did a little better than 1072 ?

[bigburner]

15 years and RCD-855 still working ! ; No laser replaced ?

I have read about RCD-855 in my Rotel research , and it was reported about favorably for its sound when new . I wonder about improvements to sound quality from the better audio quality brands .

I have owned an RCD-855 since 1990, and it's still going strong. This weekend I have been trialling a Benchmark DAC-1 against my RCD-855 and my Oppo 971. Numerous guests - including teenagers with excellent undamaged hearing - were roped in to participate in the audition. I can give you an absolute assurance that the RCD-855 performs admirably. I couldn't believe it. It's only got a 1-bit DAC for goodness sake! Many of my guests thought that the RCD-855 was superior. I was quite disappointed because I had such high expectations of the DAC-1 and I wanted it to be head and shoulders above the RCD-855. It wasn't.

Nigel.

[cfrizz]

NOTHING has been replaced! :T And I will be perfectly honest, I got the 1072 because I just knew that the 1072 had to be better! Well with the exception of maybe a little bit better clarity on some cd's, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN SOUND!

Someone posted the specs of the 2 players & they are practically identical!

The 1072 is lighter than the 855, & it has a plastic drawer whereas the 855 is solid steel! I would have preferred a steel one.

So the lesson that I have learned is if you buy top notch products of this type, there is very little reason to replace it. CD players haven't really changed dramatically from when they first came out, unlike receivers.

Thanks Cathy for the positive report . 15 years and RCD-855 still working ! ; No laser replaced ?

I have read about RCD-855 in my Rotel research , and it was reported about favorably for its sound when new . I wonder about improvements to sound quality from the better audio quality brands . What mostly did you notice about the RCD-1072 that bettered the 855 ? , and is there anything that the 855 did a little better than 1072 ?

[Boombox]

Thanks for the positive comments Boombox , I appreciate those , but I am wondering about your word "obsure" , which I suppose is an inadvertant mis-spelling , but for what word did you intend ?

obscure: I intended to say that for what ever reason, even good quality products fail and often not the components that designers or manufacturers expected to most likely fail.

Priced x2 before good enough to upgrade to ? , well a few people , such as in shops , say the latest version of the Cambridge Audio 640C :- 640C-V2 , I think it is , is better than the RCD-02 , and perhaps it is , but perhaps not better than the RCD-06 ...
Anyway , I am wary of Cambridge simply because the brand with its current owners and product range are still quite new to the market . Perhaps they will still be same Company for years for repairs , etc ... , or perhaps another buy-out/change of owner and product line ... no-one can predict that .

The RCD06 uses a DAC that oversamples and it does not have HDCD decoding as does the RCD02. Rotel is of the opinion that the DAC in the RCD06 is far superior, w.r.t. its resolution abilities and other qualities, than that found in the RCD02. As to the Cambridge Audio 640C, I was also very interested at some point with this player, however, for me it would have been more of a lateral move. Also, the CA uses the Wolfsen DAC as opposed to the Burr-Brown employed in the Rotel. I have a much older H/K player with a Wolfsen DAC (not the same as the CA), and the sonic qualities of the two chips are different. Whereas the Rotel sounded "cleaner", the H/K had a more "valve-like" sound.

Priced x3 to get a "better" , well I can't afford to spend even x2 , so if RCD-06 is at least as good sound as RCD-02 I'll probably be happy enough .

If I understand you correctly , it would seem that the best audio quality players priced up to the x2 of RCD-02 price merely sound different to each other , thus its for the listeners to hear which suits the music types they prefer and which complements the characteristic sounds of their amps and speakers .
Well , I can believe that , but one has to be lucky enough to get a fair demonstration of each to know - that is with whatever amps & speakers in the shop , and in a listening room suitable enough for one to be able to hear the fine nuances in .

Forum members , how often does that happen for products in this price area !

I wrote "better" because of exactly your analysis stated above. Relative to what other components you have in your hi-fi, the qualitites of the player might be hidden or it might be exposed. In my case, I swopped out speakers and I then became aware of how good the RCD02 is. Having said that, when I replaced the Rotel CDP with the Shanling, the differences were significant. The new player brought better imaging and a wider and deeper soundstage. For the price, I expected the resolution to be far superior than the Rotel and the Shanling did not disappoint.

I still consider the RCD02 a fantastic player, and its build is definitely better than similarly priced players. What it reads from a cd is quite amazing. I have not heard the RCD06 though.

[Eliav]

I've never heard of Rotel having problems with their cd players either. I passed a 15 yr old RCD-855 onto my brother & it is still going strong! I upgraded to the RCD-1072 & it plays just great as well. I expect it will be the last cd player that I will ever need!

i have had the Rotel 1068 for less than 10 months when the DVD reader broke and stopped recognizing DVD's. It was sent and repaired by Rotel...
Eliav

[voxy]

Hello, I bought a used RCD 1070 and had been using it for about 2 yrs. However it started to have some problem with the tracking when I put new disc in and press play button. It will automatically goes to track 10 for no reason. However when I use my remote, it plays track 1. Anyone know what could be the problem?

[al-k]

Now these 2 are like the types of problems I've found elsewhere in older threads in Club Rotel and elsewhere .
Such seem to occurr more often with Rotel's AV intended products than with 2-channel Hi-Fi amps and CD only players , but there are some occurrences reported , such as voxy's .
Voxy , do a Web Search , or ask Rotel via email , and find out the Distributor in your country and contact that Distributor with a description of the problem . This may result in you finding out more than if you take it to a local Technician or to the Shop for their Service Technician , plus Rotel more likely get to find out about such problems from their Distributors thus can address such in next manufactured batch , etc ...

I'm pleased to know that Rotel repaired your 1068 OK Elaiv , and thanks for that comment .

Any others Forum members reading and have comments ?