Rotel CD11 Tribute. This is not a Rotel CD Player ... this is a tribute ...

Mr Ishiwata was very much part of our small company's narrative with it's marketplace. We have always loved the pure Marantz product with which he was associated and the direction and focus that he gave to Audio design for sound quality remains intrinsic to good sounding products.

Ken's most basic realisation was that the quality of the passive electronic components in a High Fidelity device is fundamental to the sound quality. He described to us once when he was giving a talk on his latest design to a group in Carlton how when he was a student he had acquired a Marantz amplifier and had then copied it using exactly the same component values. His imitation sounded nothing like the original product even though all the capacitance, resistance, etc values were identical.

Snap forwards to the second decade of the 21st Century and Ken has been the designer and brand ambassador of Marantz for decades. His last product with them was the sensational Marantz KI Ruby CD Player and Amplifier that retailed for $7500 each. Ken was suddenly retired, rather ignominiously the industry felt, by Sound United the recent owners of Marantz and he died last year.

It seems he left a legacy ...

Rotel is one cool and dedicated family owned company with fantastic provenance and a continuous fifty year history of distribution in Australia. They make all their own components in house with meticulous attention to detail. Even their basic model A10 amplifier has hand wound OFC copper toroidal power supply and purpose made capacitors. Before he left us Mr Ishiwata has colluded with Rotel to rebuild two of their highest value A11 series components and thus we have the Rotel CD11 Tribute Compact Disc Player and A11 Tribute Amplifier.

But there is a catch .... there is no surcharge ... making these the best Hi Fi value since ... the NAD 3020 amplifier of 1979 ...?

Rotel has been designing and manufacturing CD players since the RCD-855 was launched in 1989 and has never looked back since.

Thus, the opportunity of engaging with audio legend Ken Ishiwata to create an even higher performance model of the successful CD11 was eagerly accepted by the Rotel design teams. With over 40 years of audio engineering experience Ken’s collaboration with Rotel created something truly special – the CD11 Tribute edition.

The CD11 Tribute includes critical changes to the power supply, DAC circuits and precise selection of components in the audio signal path delivering an increased sense of space, improved accuracy, detail, and genuineness of the audio.

Specifically eight capacitor changes and one resistor change were made in the DAC stage while in the power supply all nine capacitors were changed with improved components.

A great deal of thought was given to the damping of internal vibrations with custom damping material added to the top cover to eliminate vibration and ringing, while further changes were made to the mechanical and electrical grounding of the CD player.

Supporting RCA analog and coaxial digital outputs, front panel display and a remote control, the CD11 Tribute continues the proud tradition of Rotel and is reflective of the legacy of Ken and his tireless efforts delivering audio products preforming well beyond their price point.