Price Paid:  $400.00 from Richer Sounds London

Summary:
Paired with NAD T741 Amplifier and Q-Acoustic 1050 3 way floorstanders.

This player does not do low frequencies. After 1.5 years of trying to like it, and only recently enjoying it by turning the bass on my Nad t741 amp up to 8, I've decided I've had enough. It sold on ebay last night, and I'm getting a Nad T542 today.
I muddled through, pretending to like it for a year, convinced that I was just being nooby, and that I had to re-adjust to this more refined player. The penny dropped when I bought a £150 dvd player from Cambridge Audio last week, which was just rubbish on every front, and utterly, utterly outclased by a philips cd player I had bought for £30 but which had broken due to wear and tear from kids.

Strengths:
Nice design and build, very quality feel. Good remote.

Weaknesses:
Highs are far too detailed and aggresive, to the point where there is a clicking / whispering quality to high notes, strings, voices. Mediums are unremarkable, no better than my £30 dvd player from Philips. Lows are non existent, just not there. Nothing I play has any bass to speak of.

wfbal

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $370.00 from Audio d'Occasion

Summary:
I purchase this CD player to replace an aging 18 year old carver TL-3300. My system is made of a pair of Vandersteen 2CE, an Audio Refinement Pre-5 and a Bryston 3B amp. I wanted to replace this carver CD player which was the weak link of my system. I did a research on the web and this CD player appears to be the best performance/price performer.
I bought it and gess what, my CD player is still the week link of my system!
Build quality if fine, so is the design and functionality. The sound definition and imaging are pretty good but the medium-high frequency way to agressive, it make listening to music at high volume a painfull experience.
What hurts is that I recently bought a budget DVD player (LG LGD435) which compared avantagely to this Cambridge Audio 540C!
I try to tweak my system and play with different interconnect cables to try to improve things but so far, I'm not impressed.

Strengths:
Build quality, design, nice remote.

Weaknesses:
Agressive medium-high frequency

Similar Products Used:
Carver TL-3300, LG LGD435

Price Paid:  $200.00 from audioadvisor.com

Summary:
This CD player just quit working, completely, mid-CD, after four months of light use. I have to say that this is a dealbreaker for me. I hope others are not having similar problems. I am quite incredulous about this occurance, given that it is supposed to be a fancy audiophile CD player. I could have gone out and bought a Sony for half the price (if it weren't so difficult to find a single disc player these days).

So, unless you enjoy seeking out warranty service, I recommend staying away from this one.

Strengths:
pretty looking, nice display

Weaknesses:
Does not automatically start playing when a CD is inserted--you have to push play.

Completely stopped working after four months.

HT BUFF

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.50 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $199.00 from AudioAdvisor.com

Summary:
Excellent product @ a great price, dynamics & imaging that I have never heard from my CD collection prior to this.
For a person that is in the market for a great CD/DVD player also look @ the 540D @ $259 a real steal as well.

Strengths:
Everything so far

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
None

accastil

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $375.00 from audio den

Summary:
very dynamic sound. balanced from the lowes to the highest frequencies. all subtle nuances are brought into the open.

Strengths:
very good sounding CDP

Weaknesses:
no dimmer.

Similar Products Used:
pioneer 575A