Advice for CD player upgrade

if it is the bass you are missing, you could do better by upgrading your speaker or adding a sub. but you do not need the US for that.

if it is the source you are not happy with get a DAC in the US.

try out audiogon which is great for the used market. for the budget, an MSB, Meredian, Monarchy or even a Sonic frontiers would be great options and the sound equivalent would be better than a 1500 CDP ;)/ a stepup transformer has a smaller impact on DACs..in fact if you chose any of the above their PSUs are very well designed and hence you would not notice any degradation in most setups. (I think Meredians have a 120/240 swith behind them)

YOur amp is pretty good and for your mentioned budget you cannot do better than that. ut why dont you get a Sonic Impact T amp from there ? its just around 30 USD and is worht the surprise in clarity it provides..

You can also look at used speakers and you might get a good deal on something

About the room treatment, it is pointless to mention anything unless you are able to mention as to What you are missing...

Thanks for the advice Arj. I am not missing the bass at all. In fact my room acoustics add to the bass which is muddy. hence my decision to go in for the smaller Quad bookshelves. What I am missing is the clarity since I would like to hear every little sound there is on a CD. I bought the speaker just 2 months back and because of the room acoustics a floor stander was out of the question. I have heard from some people that the 521BEE is bass heavy and that I should upgrade the CDP with respect to the amp and the speakers. What I am looking at is to improve the clarity of my setup whichever way possible. I thought changing the CDp would be it. I will not change the CDp if there are better and cheaper ways to improve sound. I think it is the muddy bass which does not give me the desired sound.
What do you think?

lack clarity could be caused by any component, but the Quad and the Rotel are both above reproach hence the CDP is a possible culprit. (I hope you have been thru all articles on the web on speaker placements etc;;)

I own a 521BEE myself and its definitely not the best thing which has happenned in cdps unlike the Int Amp. I would recommend going the DAC way. if you can plonk in the 900 USD for a Benchmark OR a lavry you would have the best ^possible midfy source which could be part of you setup even if you upgrade your speakers and your amp.

Although from your room size , even floorstanders would be quite possible. could you post a diagram of your setup ?

cdp to dac is good option but a little costly but are we sure if adding the dac improves your bass muddiness if the bass muddiness is caused by the room?
Also i found out quads are VERY sensitive as regards room placement, you could try a thinner sounding speaker ?
I had a PSB earlier and i like its voicing (articulate and upto the point) ..anycase NEVER buy a new system without listening to all your components at TOGETHER!!

cdp to dac is good option but a little costly but are we sure if adding the dac improves your bass muddiness if the bass muddiness is caused by the room?
Also i found out quads are VERY sensitive as regards room placement, you could try a thinner sounding speaker ?
I had a PSB earlier and i like its voicing (articulate and upto the point) ..anycase NEVER buy a new system without listening to all your components TOGETHER!!

Get a friend's CDP and substitute in your system.

Worst case, even replace it with a vanila DVD player and see if there is a Change in the sound.. ( probably should be ) It will give you some handle on whether your set up is resolving the music from the source, and therefore whether a new source will amke any difference.


Once you are Convinced that the CDP needs an upgrade...

for the money you have in mind, look around for an unused ( new but now a discontinued model ) Denon 2900.

I am told they are sporadically available in Mumbai for approx Rs 29 K.

This is a Great Universal player ( IMHO ) even at its original asking price of Rs 50K. At 29K its a Steal.

Very nice, detailed, and still well balanced sound.

The icing .... its a Universal player ( CDs, SACD, DVD, DVD-A, mp-3 ) No HDCD though or DiVx movies.

Incidentally, I discovered that the retail price of a cheap DVD chinese player, at Lamington Road, Mumbai starts at Rs 1300 though Rs 1,500 will yield a wider choice. And these play DiVX movies too ( sorry no SACDs or DVD-As

I doubt if Muddyness in bass is by the room. A room can cause Suckouts at certain frequencies and Boominess in certain others and these are usually a peak at around 50-70 depending on the room dimentsions.

Muddy bass is usually due to the speaker when the driver is unable to reproduce lower frequencies well enough. and from my experience Quad has quite a poor bass reproduction although its highs and mids are good.

in the current system, the weak link clearly is the cdp (The roltel 1070 is an outperformer in its price range with enough power reserves) and if you have an option and budget for an upgrade and you do not want to improve the bass further, the DAC option is IMHO the best way as any of the above DACs is definitely better than the NAD which is not the best designed output stages. and for that price you will not get a CDP which outperforms the NAD..

if the problem was with the bass the cost effective upgrade would have been a decent subwoofer..

yes arj is right, muddiness is only caused in some frequency points not the entire bass line. Anyway if boominess is caused yu can adjust the speaker placment reasonably and you will be able to make out differences between positions. If your cdp is detailed, it will show up even if there is muddiness...
Denon is a good bet since it is universal and it has relatively thinner sound which i have a feeling you will like.
I have a quad 12L and the bass is ok but not heavy sort of bass ... its very articulate ...what i am saying is that quad intrinsically (atleast the 12L) produces precise bass but its not bass heavy ....