CD in 2024

[martin clark]

Belt-drive for a CD transport was/ is ... idiotic.

Which isn't to say some of those made don't look nice. But it's utterly-daft from engineering POV, given that CD requires constant linear velocity for read - which means very precise control of disc acceleration through playback.

Appealing to ' LP turntable' engineering is a total category-error failure.

 

[Dowser]

Belt-drive for a CD transport was/ is ... idiotic.

Which isn't to say some of those made don't look nice. But it's utterly-daft from engineering POV, given that CD requires constant linear velocity for read - which means very precise control of disc acceleration through playback.

Appealing to ' LP turntable' engineering is a total category-error failure.

Well, for factual accuracy, the CD spins at a constantly variable speed as the laser tracks from inner groove at the start of the disc to the outer groove at the end. Philips chipsets use a buffer to collect the data from the CD, then use the size of data in that buffer to control the disc speed. I assume other systems are similar.

I cannot comment on the use of belt drive to increase SQ, but we are just talking about a data stream here from disc to buffer - I personally cannot imagine why a belt drive would be better…but I’ve been wrong before, which is why I buy different technologies to try for myself…a belt drive transport or CD player never hit my price conscious interest so far, but I would like to try one.

Richard (who has recently confirmed vintage Micromega Duo transport fed into dCS Purcell upsampled into Delius sounds better than my beloved modified CDi )

 

[owl]

I’ve got zero engineering knowledge but my belt drive cec cd player sounds pretty good.

 

[Bodhi]

Belt-drive for a CD transport was/ is ... idiotic.

Which isn't to say some of those made don't look nice. But it's utterly-daft from engineering POV, given that CD requires constant linear velocity for read - which means very precise control of disc acceleration through playback.

Appealing to ' LP turntable' engineering is a total category-error failure.

CEC state in the pdf for the flagship TL0 3.0 transport ...

"The drive and laser motors are electronically, magnetically, and mechanically isolated from the laser pickup and turntable, coupled only by two precision drive belts. The disc drive motor is a cog-free low torque design that is inherently free of vibration. The drive belt multiplies its torque to spin the compact disc on a precision spindle/thrust bearing assembly and supports a 125mm diameter stabilizer clamp weighing 450grams. With inertia comparable to the most massive analog turntable, the flywheel effect of the TL 0 3.0 disc stabilizer achieves perfect rotational stability without the constant electronic servo corrections required in all other CD transports"

Sounds like a clever solution, though I haven't heard that transport, so I can't comment on its sound.

 

[darrenyeats]

The roksan blak has an analogue sound, it doesn’t sound like a c.d player to my ears. That’s why we bought one.
I also have an old Rotel rcd-855 that is pleasing enough - a lot cheaper as well!

The main point being that c.d. players can sound quite different to each other, try as many as possible. Richer Sounds will demo a few to you if you have a branch nearby.

Heard the Roksan Caspian CD player I think it was, a few years ago at the Signals show, into Magnepans. Sounded great. I remember something about a single ended vs balanced demo, the balanced was much better (or I dreamt it, hard to tell these days!)

 

[darrenyeats]

95% of my collection is CD or CD-quality download, all ripped to my server. Also ATM using Qobuz for discovery.

Playing back, everything gets 1 bit shifted, upsampled to 24/192 with an intermediate phase filter, volume+dithered and then streamed. Once the playing field is made more flat like this, I find hi-res has a better SQ ceiling, but often CDs win due to being better masters, especially older recordings before they got Loudness Warred, and they can sound really great.