Hi Barry,

I went through this about a month and a half ago. Here are the CD
players I had a listen to -

1. Rega Apollo
2. Cambridge Audio 540C V2
3. Marantz CD - 5001 OSE
4. Rotel RCD-1072


The Rega was a floor model with a few hours of running others were all
brand new boxed. Here is my verdict -

I played the following -
1. So What - Miles Davis,
2. Rumble in the jungle - Max Roach
3. Making music - shakti.
4. Dark side of the moon - Pink floyd.

Marantz was crap...sorry to say that even though I am a big fan of
their OSE range. The Rega was smooth but subdued at very high and low
frequencies.

Cambridge and Rotel were my final contendors. Both had the necessary
details I was looking for. But the Rotel outperformed the Cambridge in
bass.

The initial few seconds of 'So what' has Ron Carters bass rumbling
which was more accurate on Rotel than Cambridge. So I picked up a
Rotel.

Asthetically the Rotel looks more solid to the Cambridge or the Arcam
and priced around the same mark.

The sales guy was kind enough to throw in some $180 worth of Eichmann
cables for no extra cost.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

MB