advertisement


For those looking for a good CD transport at low cost...

Manimal said:
Thanks for the heads up. My old CD spinner has spun its last disk so was on the look out for something decent but not too expensive. The Pioneer looked just the ticket so have grabbed one from the Sevenoaks clearance.
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll be disappointed. I've now had mine for a few days. Some observations:

This is a well put together bit of kit. It's in a very rigid case indeed. The buttons all have excellent 'feel' to them and the player responds quickly. The CD tray opens and closes gently, unlike many other players irrespective of price. Display is easy to read with adjustable brightness. Pretty good remote control. The disc mechanism when playing is very, very quiet.

Using this as a transport in to a Moon 380D it performed as the specs suggest; no detectable problems. I no longer have the Cambridge CXC and Audiolab 6000CDT that I have previously compared (with a slight preference for the Audiolab), but this Pioneer is my new favourite of the low cost transports. Indeed, I very much doubt that more expensive transports would bring much more to the party. But I don't have any to hand, so can't comment further on that.

However, what makes this Pioneer an absolute stonking bargain is its audio performance (i.e. from analogue outputs). I had this connected to my Sugden A21SE Sig directly from the audio outs, and also as a transport to the Moon 380D via its fixed analogue outs to the Sugden. I could swap instantly between the two with no discernible change (output levels are very similar). In a quick A/B it was impossible to tell the difference! The Moon 380D is no slouch and is widely well regarded. However, in extended testing then it did pull ahead, but it certainly wasn't night and day. For the money then you get an excellent, well built player, that performs well as a transport but is also a class player in its own right. I would put this up against any sub £1000 player. If some 'high end' company took the Pioneer badge off and substituted a name with magical properties, then this would sell for a great deal more that the £200 I paid for it!

As a further test, for those that are interested, I moved on to comparing streaming vs CD. I used 'The Mage' by Greg Foat and the remaster of PF's "Wish you were here". The same mastering of each album was used, as far as I could tell. I shan't go in to details but the results on a sound quality front was:

1. CD played via the 380D

2. CD played via the PD30AE

3. FLAC stream from Qobuz (via the 380D)

4. FLAC stream from Tidal (via the 380D)


I've always found that CD played locally has a better SQ than streamed files (note: not necessarily on local files played via my network). Quite noticeably 'better'. As I've become disillusioned with streaming services (albums becoming unavailable (greyed out), problems with playback, glitches in the 'net, etc) that I'm now returning to CDs. I have thousands of them, after all! I can discover new music via apple Music and then buy the CD. So, I've bought what I hope proves to be a high end CD player. Time will tell
 
Onkyo and Pioneer are the same company - or very close cousins. It leads me to think that this Pioneer will have a similar quality to that of the Onkyo c-7030, which has an excellent transport. I've often wondered if moving from it to an Audiolab 6000CDT would be more of a sideways step; the description of the Pioneer's qualities seem to confirm my suspicions. I'm resigned to spending a fortune on a CD player/transport then. Gotta love this hobby!
 
vinylslug said:
Onkyo and Pioneer are the same company - or very close cousins. It leads me to think that this Pioneer will have a similar quality to that of the Onkyo c-7030, which has an excellent transport. I've often wondered if moving from it to an Audiolab 6000CDT would be more of a sideways step; the description of the Pioneer's qualities seem to confirm my suspicions. I'm resigned to spending a fortune on a CD player/transport then. Gotta love this hobby!
Click to expand...

Theres an odd quirk apparently with the Audiolab 6000CDT that when you use it in programme mode it's add a space between the tracks, so if playing a cd with no gaps you will get a space between them.
 
Thanks for the feedback Simon. We moved house 4 months ago and my old Cyrus player didn't appreciate being packed up and transported.
I'm looking forward to hearing some music and playing with a new toy. It'll be moved between acting as a transport into my mdac in the lounge and then going via it's analogue outs to an old but good Rotel in the spare room. Should get here later this week.
 
Thanks for the heads up and report, I love pioneer build quality and I would love to try out this player based on the info above.
 
An interesting thread

I had the CXC last year and never came to like it.
Allways preferred a Rega Apollo/R or my own Saturn used as transport only into a Rega DAC

I hate clumsy drawers and CXC had exactly that
Will give the Pioneer a try.
 
Just to add some personal observations on this topic.

I tried the previous similar budget Pioneer player, the SACD non USB model, the PDS 30. Comparing that model to the Cambridge CXC I thought they were on about the same level if using the Pioneer as a transport or standalone player.

Neither could beat the old Rotel 965bx which has resided in my system for some time now, so, we're moved on.

I do have a more expensive player to compare, Naimly the CDX2.2.

Comparing Rotel to the Naim is closer than I would expect. Its only in the longer term listen that the player 15 times the price (current values) pulls ahead. Leading edges are more natural sounding and the mid range more intimate and communicative with the Naim.

This difference will become more apparent with some forms of music like classical or solo jazz playing, and, also, when playing at higher levels.

So, in my experience, the advantage of a high end transport / player over a budget one is subtle but in some circumstances more musically rewarding.
 
I ordered one from Amazon at £249 and it duly arrived today. Clearly the box had been opened several times and re-sent from the Netherlands... on opening, the side packaging was absent so the unit was flopping around in the box, and there was a small scratch to the top plate (and unless I'm dreaming evidence of spit in the drawer). New from Amazon, lovely.

I did plug it in and it does work. Pretty good, but it's not a Cyrus CDt transport.

Needless to say it's going back. I may try and source a factory-fresh one from Sevenoaks (who at least are British ra ra ra etc groan)
 
simon g said:
As I've become disillusioned with streaming services (albums becoming unavailable (greyed out), problems with playback, glitches in the 'net, etc) that I'm now returning to CDs. I have thousands of them, after all! I can discover new music via apple Music and then buy the CD.
Click to expand...

I'm doing the same. I'm also a bit underwhelmed by the current state of CD quality streaming.

I've made a note to try a CD transport sometime, but for now I'm pretty happy with lossless rips streamed with the CloudBeats iPad app through a USB converter.
 
Ptah said:
I ordered one from Amazon at £249 and it duly arrived today. Clearly the box had been opened several times and re-sent from the Netherlands... on opening, the side packaging was absent so the unit was flopping around in the box, and there was a small scratch to the top plate (and unless I'm dreaming evidence of spit in the drawer). New from Amazon, lovely.

I did plug it in and it does work. Pretty good, but it's not a Cyrus CDt transport.

Needless to say it's going back. I may try and source a factory-fresh one from Sevenoaks (who at least are British ra ra ra etc groan)
Click to expand...

No, it's not a Cyrus. neither does it have the Cyrus price tag. You can buy 4 Pioneers for the price of a Cyrus. Plus if you want to actually play a CD and don't have a DAC, then you've got a problem with the Cyrus! As a transport, given the measurements made on the Pioneer, I very much doubt the Cyrus is technically superior. Indeed, I suspect it doesn't measure as well.

Of course the Pioneer is not the be and end all. I'm merely highlighting the level of performance available from a budget player. It's up to each of us to decide how we want to spend our cash. As we all know (even if we don't always admit it) there's much more to a purchase decision than pure technical performance.
 
Calm down, dear. My main point was the condition of the ostensibly brand new item I'd ordered from Amazon.
I mentioned Amazon because there was a positive reference to it earlier in the thread.
I mentioned Cyrus because this Pioneer had been posited as a potential quality transport, and because I have a Cyrus transport. The difference isn't subtle. I wasn't intending to place the two in direct competition...
I bought one as I was looking for a budget player for my second system.
All makes sense, see.
 
very interested to see the differences in the 2 transports , the cdt and the pioneer . i was most impressed with my cd8x which packed up and i still have !! it was good when it worked !!! even better with a psxr
 
Yeah thats the problem with some Cyrus kit
Will it work or not ?
Will they support or not ?
I'd never buy any of their kit again
A pity really, as some of it were great (if working)
 
This Pioneer sounds like what I need, but unfortunately it's a full size separate. I'm looking for a half size transport for my setup.

Do people know of any decent half-size transports? Something like the Cyrus but without the silly price tag?
 
notevenclose said:
Project Box RS. Really good, especially with the PSU upgrade.

https://decoaudio.com/deco_audio_cd_transports.html
Click to expand...

I normally quite like the look of Project stuff but, in pictures anyway, hate the look of that thing! I'm also personally not keep on top-loading players - partly because a couple of my amps are so big that they need to go on the top shelf of racks, so the CD players are on lower shelves which works better with front loaders.

Others mileage may, of course, vary!
 
Ptah said:
Calm down, dear. My main point was the condition of the ostensibly brand new item I'd ordered from Amazon.
I mentioned Amazon because there was a positive reference to it earlier in the thread.
I mentioned Cyrus because this Pioneer had been posited as a potential quality transport, and because I have a Cyrus transport. The difference isn't subtle. I wasn't intending to place the two in direct competition...
I bought one as I was looking for a budget player for my second system.
All makes sense, see.
Click to expand...
This is exactly the kind of comparison I was hoping to discover in this thread. I suspect that this Pioneer, like my Onkyo, punches above its weight and can arguably compete with the more expensive Cambridge and Audiolab transports... but if you really want to get the most out of a CD, then you've gotta climb the ladder a little. It sounds to me that this Pioneer is certainly good enough to live with while you (i.e. 'me') save for something better. I'd certainly have the Cyrus CDT on my shopping list - I'm less concerned about their flakey reputation of a few years back as they seem to have solved many of those issues in latter years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top