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Arcam Delta 250 CD Transport

webster said:
No worries.
The Arcam CD 36 is rarely seen on ebay but in any case that would be an expensive cd player to use just as a transport - or have I misunderstood your post?
As an aside I'm currently 'trying out' a Graham Slee Lautus USB cable and the improvement in comparison to a bog standard USB cable is quite amazing.
I'm currently doing an A/B comparison through the Rega Dac and am struggling to hear an appreciable difference between the cd and a flac file of the same music.
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Sort of
My recommendation would be use the CD36 as a full player (if you can find one) or the Apollo/R, realising this is not what your looking for, perhaps just get a CXC next black friday
 
webster said:
Out of interest is there an appreciable degradation in sound quality if you use only the data cable?
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I have one of these and on the rare occasions I use it, use both cables. It’s in principle the right way to do it. But I can’t hear any difference. Very few DACs have the right clock output anyway, bar the mdac
These arcam deltas were at least engineered to be proper cd transports (there are isolated circuits and transformer isolation on the s/pif our and everything). I am very sceptical as to whether most cd transports are any more than a cd player with the dac taken out.
The punter is merely invited to imagine that there is more than that to it.
 
adamdea said:
I have one of these and on the rare occasions I use it, use both cables. It’s in principle the right way to do it. But I can’t hear any difference. Very few DACs have the right clock output anyway, bar the mdac
These arcam deltas were at least engineered to be proper cd transports (there are isolated circuits and transformer isolation on the s/pif our and everything). I am very sceptical as to whether most cd transports are any more than a cd player with the dac taken out.
The punter is merely invited to imagine that there is more than that to it.
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Would I be right in thinking that the 170 is an older model than the 250?
 
Just to add, i've got a 170 transport feeding a BB500 with the sync lock thingy. The transport is a little fussy I guess the laser is a little tired, but they are pretty standard items so I could get it serviced if I so desired. The fact is though, I don't play many CDs any more, and it works fine for the times I do.

I find it an enjoyable listen. I'm not hugely fussy about CD players though, so i'm probably not the best person to comment.
 
Cesare said:
Just to add, i've got a 170 transport feeding a BB500 with the sync lock thingy. The transport is a little fussy I guess the laser is a little tired, but they are pretty standard items so I could get it serviced if I so desired. The fact is though, I don't play many CDs any more, and it works fine for the times I do.

I find it an enjoyable listen. I'm not hugely fussy about CD players though, so i'm probably not the best person to comment.
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I stopped listening to CD's for quite a while but my interest was rekindled after purchasing a Rega Dac-R.
Suddenly my somewhat ordinary cd player was only being used as a transport and the sound improvement through the Dac was to my ears quite amazing.
 
webster said:
Would I be right in thinking that the 170 is an older model than the 250?
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Tbh I’m not 100% sure. The model with a clock input is iirc the 170 v3. I’m not sure whether they may have had 2 lines at the same time or whether it preceded the 250. I think these were the only lines with transports with clock inputs. By now this is a bit of a “vintage” question!
 
I had the Delta 250 and Black50 combination back in 1994-1995. A very good combination - that cd combo were really enganging. but the 250 transport made a lot trouble after a year or so. It was hard to make it spin any cd. After the importer tried to fix the transport several times without any luck I could not live with it and traded it in for a Meridian 508.20. The Meridian were such a boring player so i sold it very soon and the next was a an Exposure CD-player. Better than the Meridian, but not as good as the 250/BB50.
 
webster said:
Out of interest is there an appreciable degradation in sound quality if you use only the data cable?
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Look at the jitter discussion today. This is basically what the MDAC and CD-T170 clock lock brings you. Everything is more natural and more precise.
I like it. Befor the MDAC / CD-T 170 I had a Arcam alpha 8se. The step was clearly audible.
 
fred sonnen said:
Look at the jitter discussion today. This is basically what the MDAC and CD-T170 clock lock brings you. Everything is more natural and more precise.
I like it. Befor the MDAC / CD-T 170 I had a Arcam alpha 8se. The step was clearly audible.
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Thanks to you and everyone else on here who has made a contribition.
I think on reflection the Arcam is not for me as it would appear that without the ability to use the sync lock facility I would not be maximising its potential.Add to that the age factor and suddenly it all seems a bit risky.
On the basis that whatever I buy I will be connecting to my Rega Dac-R maybe I should be looking at a Rega cd player with good solid transport.
 
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