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Anyone have any preference/opinions on a CD transport (not a player)

the caretaker said:
I have a quad cdp2 and I think it's a fine transport..the260d is little more expensive..just a tad! Hardly surprising that its better? My xt se is a better transport too..not sure it's ' much ' better? I would recommend the quad as a transport without hesitation as its a dac and pre amp too..unless someone has reference speakers and similar amp, cables etc..then a 260d or xt se would sound very good..however if they haven't..then quad cdp2 fits in nicely..want to go old school? Mission pcm 7000 is a fab transport and excellent cd player in its own right..as its dac is awesome..
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The Quad is very good, I enjoyed it for many years. It's fixed outputs were much better when used with a nice preamp as compared to it's variable output which wasn't great.

The Moon is significantly better to my ears, and I don't hear differences that easily.

I have a decent system, not sure it would be classified anywhere near 'reference'
 
Thanks for all the reply's. All food for thought and as an off shoot a kind PFMer has offered an audition of his Jays-Audio CDt. I'll report back.
 
I get dacs sounding different and that’s my experience, but transports? It’s reading a stream of 0’s and 1’s and then passing them on. With vinyl I’m more persuaded as their is continuous physical contact between source and transport mechanism. I’ve this dodgy digital cable between transport and DAC. It occasionally needs a tap to get it working. Unlike an analogue equivalent it’s either on or off, working or not, nothing or perfect ie: no grey areas.

Only tried one, Audiolab CDT6000. Neat, unobtrusive and could easily be much smaller. I’d take a lot of persuading to spend more and wouldn’t get out of my armchair except to sign a check. I read a hugely positive review on it which I thought nonsense as it was treating like it was an analogue signal.
 
MUTTY1 said:
I get dacs sounding different and that’s my experience, but transports? It’s reading a stream of 0’s and 1’s and then passing them on. With vinyl I’m more persuaded as their is continuous physical contact between source and transport mechanism. I’ve this dodgy digital cable between transport and DAC. It occasionally needs a tap to get it working. Unlike an analogue equivalent it’s either on or off, working or not, nothing or perfect ie: no grey areas.

Only tried one, Audiolab CDT6000. Neat, unobtrusive and could easily be much smaller. I’d take a lot of persuading to spend more and wouldn’t get out of my armchair except to sign a check. I read a hugely positive review on it which I thought nonsense as it was treating like it was an analogue signal.
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It's worth getting out of your chair to compare a couple of transports..your right it's just 0s and 1s but it's the road they travel on..if the road is rocky? They arrive at the dac knackered! And don't want to be bothered till they have had a shower and a nice meal..but if they arrive at the dac fresh and rearing to go..as the journey was comfortable and their fellow 0s and 1s were congenial company? You hear that in the music..I hope this helps you.
 
indus said:
I'd second that. I have the 260d and it's much better sounding than my previous Quad CDP (used as a transport).
Also it's built like a tank and looks lovely.
Should be able to pick up a sh one at a reasonable price.
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Another vote here for the Moon. Far better than the Naim I had before it, or the Micromega I had before that.
 
Tigerjones said:
I need a half width CD transport that is relatively cheap, not an easy find.
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If you don’t need a player with a remote, a vintage Marantz CD273 is a nice player with a Philips CDM2 disc transport and RCA digital output. They go for around £40 or so on a notorious auction site.

I have a couple of them in my collection. They sound very nice as a transport.
 
The last best CD transport mechanism was the Philips Pro2 and Pro2LF. If you can find a CD Transport that uses this mechanism it's probably your best starting point. Audio Note uses them in their CDT Two/II transport and up. Metronome uses it as do some Opera Consonance Droplet units. Top-of-the-line ARC transports used them.

If you can't afford them or you simply don't want to spend that kind of money then I'd probably look at the belt drive units from CEC - problem there is support should it need to be repaired. Below that pretty much every other CD player or transport uses a mechanism that runs between $7-$15. The Philips Pro2 in contrast runs $650 just for the mechanism. And even the Philips Pro-2 has not been made for at least 6 years I believe. Some companies stockpiled the mechanisms to keep going like Audio Note but many makers simply stopped CD player production or purchased cheap ones in bulk.

I have a Cambridge Audio CXC which is competent - it's tough to spend ten times the price on a Metronome or Audio Note - as good as they are - it's just a matter of how much does it really matter to me. Some things are better but are they actually needed? Ie; if I get enough enjoyment out of something do I need to pay 10 times more for something better?

Still, I do enjoy listening to the top loaders from the above-mentioned brands.

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Opera Consonance Droplet
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I have the Audiolab 6000 CDT and recently bought an Atoll DR200 Signature, on the recommendation of a friend with very high-end equipment. They are not big differences, but the French has a better sound. More scene, more detail, instrumental separation... It's also another price and the Atoll has a better construction in addition to a quieter and finer operation. I will sell the Audiolab.
 
Tigerjones said:
I need a half width CD transport that is relatively cheap, not an easy find.
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Pro-Ject. One of the top-loaders with puck, can never remember the model numbers.

Or there's a Sony, something or other 3000, an ES model I think, normally in champagne gold. Probably better made than the Pro-ject, but I suspect the latter would be superior purely on sound.

There was actually a mini-width CEC transport a decade or more back, but can't imagine there would be too many of those around.
 
Half-width CEC. Basically a TL51 in smaller box, ie. it's a 'real' CEC in that it uses their belt-drive transport. They did briefly market a couple of 'me-too' budget players with a more conventional mechanism, but these were pretty ordinary I'm told and weren't around for long, on the European market at least.

https://www.hifispeaker.wiki/item/cec-tl53z
 
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JTC said:
Yawn.
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Fair enough but there is a lot of experience of digital on here and one of the common themes of peeps that have been and tried all through the price range is the much greater law of diminishing returns compared to analogue. I’m in the subjective camp, but, when the source is one of two states and is read remotely this doesn’t seem to warrant a high percent of available resources compared to other parts of the audio chain.
 
the caretaker said:
It's worth getting out of your chair to compare a couple of transports..your right it's just 0s and 1s but it's the road they travel on..if the road is rocky? They arrive at the dac knackered! And don't want to be bothered till they have had a shower and a nice meal..but if they arrive at the dac fresh and rearing to go..as the journey was comfortable and their fellow 0s and 1s were congenial company? You hear that in the music..I hope this helps you.
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Not a lot but you would be a great author for ‘Digital for Dummies’ -just the right level of cheery condensation;)
 
Another vote for the CEC TL5 , picked one up a few weeks ago and it's stunning rock solid and real . It replaced a Rega Jupiter transport which is no slouch and beats it hands down . Listening to a lot of CD's at the moment .
 
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