Need an opinion on Blue Note Vs Jolida vs Creek vs Marantz

Hi all,

I need an opinion on CDP's . I am contemplating the following which are in similar price bands of 55-65K

Blue Note villa Koala ( solid state )
Jolida JD100 ( Tube )
Creek Classic ( Solid state )
Marantz SA7001KI

Other equipment I use are the Dynaudio Focus 140 and Krell 400xi.
Of the above the ony one i have been able to demo is the Jolida ( whihc was pretty nice ). I need a comritive opinion on the above if possible.

Regards.

I'd add another one into the bunch... Arcam CD192. The only bluenote experience I have is with the Stibbert II and that is a very very good player. I'm not sure of this particular player.

The Blue note Mini Koala is cracking player at arnd 60k.
Def Much better than the marantz, but i believe marantz is cheaper so should not compare.

The jolida have heard only briefly. I believe the Blue note is much more smoother i.e analouge sounding.

Haven't heard the creek so can't comment.

For my money i will opt for the blue note.

All the best.

I too would recommend Blue Note

I have no experience of Blue Note and Creek Classic but I auditioned both Jolida JD100 and Marantz SA7001KI.

Jolida is too sweet and needs careful pairing with associated electronics , It is good only for certain music genre such as Jazz and Indian Classical. While Marantz is true all rounder. Jolida is built like a tank but electronics is nothing great , you are buying a very ordinary DIY kit assembly packed in a nice metal box. All great reviews that you might have read of Jolida are for heavily modded Jolida player costing 2X of the stock player.

You may want to consider some more options like:

1> ARCAM CD 73T , which I audtioned along with Jolida found better all rounder.

2> Cyrus CD6 is also a very good player (slightly costlier than Jolida and Marantz) but I found that player better than 4 other CD players I group tested last year viz Jolida, Arcam, Advance Acoustic , Cyrus and NAD.

3> CA 840C: This is quite a promising player around 60-65K, it has one plus point that it can be used as a CD player as well as a stand alone DAC!! That way you will remain future proof. With Music servers catching on and availability of (official) high resolution music down loads , having a DAC in hand makes sense!!


Hope this helps

SUhas

I agree with ShuhasG on the jolida front.
If you like the cyrus 6x then you most likely will find the mini koala better.
If you can I strongly recoo the koala tube which will be arnd 1.3-1.5 approx. It is truly astounding.
With all due respect to ShuhasG IMO pl do not get a cd player just because you can use it as an DAC.
You must like the sound of the player ,as if you do get a server in future you can always get dac.
Cheers
All the best.

Any idea where I can get the Marantz SA7001KI ? None of the marantz dealers seem to have it.

Saurabh,
As far as i know the KI player has not been available at least in mumbai for the last few months. When a fellow member of this forum was in sgpore last month he was told that the player was out of stock there too.
Also if u are willing to shell out 65/70K for the 7001 KI i would say u try the SA 15 SI. Its replaced by the S2 and u should get a deal on it. In my opinion its a better buy.
Regards

hi saurabh

According to the distributors , the SA 7001 KI is no longer in production .

mohan

Couldn't agree with you more!