HI Guys At home I have NAD 542 CD player and I'm thinking of selling it because I might get a bit more for almost the same price NAD was. I can get Vincent S1.1 and Rotel RCD 1072 for the same price as NAD 542. What is your opinion ? Look matters but the sound is first that matters to me(for the price also build quality must be ok). NAD doesn't have deatachable power cord(a bit anoying, it sounds better than my previous NAD 521BEE,but in my HI-FI system I never had any other CD player to compare how good the NAD is. Have a nice Day Matt
nout
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Don't expect a big improvement when upgrading to the Rotel 1072 or Vincent S1.1 At best you'll get a different sound, especially with the Vincent I suppose (it's a hybrid cd player) but whether it's better it is for you to decide. Rotel will be a bit cleaner and less warm than your NAD, the Vincent a bit warmer (I guess, I never heard the player)
Real improvements cost a bit more than the $250 upgrade to your NAD.
I wanted to upgrade my ($250) Marantz cd 5000, a year ago and listened to various cd players up to $750. NAD C542, Marantz cd 7300, Marantz cd 6000 KI, Rotel RCD-02 and Rotel RCD 1072. Differences were minimal, at least not the clear differences you'll find with integrated amps. I found out that my Marantz cd 5000 wasn't that bad at all, it could easily compete with the rest, the tiny improvements I heard (especially with Marantz cd 7300 and NAD C542) didn't made me enjoy music MORE, so I kept my cd 5000. There was one cd player that really made a difference, but was also a lot more expensive: the Marantz CD-17mkIII ($1600).