advertisement


CD Player/Transports etc?

My CD Transport (an old NAD CD player with a buffered output) lost it's will to live this morning, i tried the usual swearing and blowing inside the draw mechanism, giving it a smack while it wasn't expecting it, but to no avail it's deceased.

Soo... Is it worth buying another transport and if so what's available? or perhaps a cheap CD player or even just a DVD player? What are people doing these days? I'll be using an external Dac.
 
I’ve been looking at this. I’ve currently attached my Rotel to the internal dac of my Yammy amp but have been looking at Audiolab and Cambridge Audio CXC. I can’t help thinking they won’t add much though so not moved on it.
 
Since I installed Roon, I mostly play files these days so I got rid of the Moon 260DT transport and use a Cambridge CXU 1st generation universal disc player on the very rare occasions when I don't rip the CD as soon as comes through the door.

Although I don't use it for films, I kept the CXU over the Moon for convenience rather than sound quality (the Moon gave better results with both the Chord DAC 64 and the dCS I now use). It plays everything out there except 4K and can apparently be used over the home network to rip SACDs with the right software.

PS the Moon sounded better than the CXC (CD only drive) but at about three times the price it should. If, for some reason the CXU I use gave up the ghost I would take the Cambridge 540 DVD player out of mothballs... of, failing that get a CXC given the price and the few CDs that actually get physically played.
 
Marantz cd6003 is solid indeed and the cs4398 converter is rather good. I am using one and have been playing wav files via the usb.
 
I would strongly recommend a separate transport over a cheapish cd/dvd player used as transport. I've used the Cambridge CXC for a couple of trouble free years and am very happy with the sound. I haven't heard the competing Audiolab but I suspect they are very close given that in online comparisons, half favour one, and half the other. The Audiolab is slot loading.
 
I just stopped using my CD player a couple of years ago, mainly using a Bryston BDP and flash drives, or just flash drives from my computer. I also use Primephonic. Then without really thinking about this, I bought a new simple slot in CD transport. I am surprised to discover how easy it is to just slot in a CD and not resort to my bloody laptop, which I spend far too much time glaring at anyway.

Brian S
 
I have the Audiolab 6000CDT and it is excellent.
Same here - very happy with it. I previously used a mission DAD5 as a transport (in it's day it was considered to be a mediacre CD player, but a very good transport) and after that I used an Onkyo C-7030 as a transport, which was an improvement on the Mission. The Audiolab is streets ahead of the pair of them. I was never fully convinced what a difference a good quality transport could make - well, it's just 1's and 0's innit? But it makes a massive difference. So much so that if I found myself playing CDs more than I do (like many, I mostly stream from HD backup these days), I'd look at spending serious money on the transport.
 
Same here - very happy with it. I previously used a mission DAD5 as a transport (in it's day it was considered to be a mediacre CD player, but a very good transport) and after that I used an Onkyo C-7030 as a transport, which was an improvement on the Mission. The Audiolab is streets ahead of the pair of them. I was never fully convinced what a difference a good quality transport could make - well, it's just 1's and 0's innit? But it makes a massive difference. So much so that if I found myself playing CDs more than I do (like many, I mostly stream from HD backup these days), I'd look at spending serious money on the transport.
That’s interesting to know. I don’t like the slot loading look though and prefer the look of the CXC.
 
That’s interesting to know. I don’t like the slot loading look though and prefer the look of the CXC.
Ideally I'd go for a top loader, but for the price and quality of the Audiolab it was a no brainer. I've not heard the CXC; some say they think it's better than the Audiolab and others say the opposite, so I imagine they must be pretty close.
 
Ideally I'd go for a top loader, but for the price and quality of the Audiolab it was a no brainer. I've not heard the CXC; some say they think it's better than the Audiolab and others say the opposite, so I imagine they must be pretty close.
I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be close unless the slot loading transport is an advantage. The Rega Apollo was thought to be a good transport due to its error correction and cd rom transport mechanism. Wish I still had it to try. To be honest the old Rotel sounds good into my Sabre Dac. Slightly better than its native sound which can be a little rough sometimes, though immediate and involving. It is solidly built with a renowned transport mechanism.
 
I use an old Marantz DR700 into the digital input of a Yamaha 803. Sounds great to me. If it ever fails, I’ll probably buy a 6000CDT. I’d have been tempted by Ptah’s if it was black!
 
CXC here, very pleased with it although it doesn’t get a huge amount of use.
 
Does anyone know if the Audiolab transport is the same as or similar to the transport side of the Quad Artera Play? All I know is they're both from the AIG family and both have a pre-read buffer, so wondered.

The Quad was a brilliant sounding transport - notably better than the old Cambridge CD player I'm using for now (but not worth keeping for the wasted value it had).
 


advertisement


Back
Top