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Half width CD player into DAC

Ponty

Ponty

pfm Member
Looking for a half width CD player. It will be used with my Yamaha RN803, so probably via optical output to use the Yamaha DAC, which sounds great. I’ve seen the small Tangent CD player at circa £150. I’m sure it’s far from being the world’s best player but if I’m using the Yamaha DAC, how bad could be be?
 
^^ I think it will be a case of taking a blind punt in the current environment. If it reliably reads the disc, that’s fine, right? (lights blue touch paper...).
 
You can buy specific transports of course, though not sure how many are half width. Cambridge, Leak and Audiolab have examples. I suspect the Rega CD player will be a good transport due to its transport. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of these if you take a punt.
 
I’ve heard very good things about the Audiolab and it’s a dedicated CD transport unlike the Rega. That would be my choice.

Although not half box, for reference I tried a Cambridge Audio CXC. It felt cheaply made and was noisy. Sounded ok but not as good as my Oppo UDP203 when used as a transport.
 
JezmondTutu said:
I’ve heard very good things about the Audiolab and it’s a dedicated CD transport unlike the Rega. That would be my choice.

Although not half box, for reference I tried a Cambridge Audio CXC. It felt cheaply made and was noisy. Sounded ok but not as good as my Oppo UDP203 when used as a transport.
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I’ve heard the Audiolab gets the nods over the CXC and I do find that CA lower end does look budget like. Never really liked their look. They major on VFM and sound generally. Their Dacs are excellent.
 
Rega Apollo R, Cyrus (reliability issues?) , Exposure CDT, Heed Audio Thesis, Project (various), Audionote Zero, Audiomeca Damanation, Sony (CDP3000 ?) , Sugden CD master (Bijou Series), Acousticplan Drivemaster CDT and I think Denon and Teac both have made half width CD players, though perhaps generally sold as part of a half width or midi system.

I'm sure there maybe others too.

Some of the above are top loaders, some are slot or tray, some are just transports, some maybe quite rare but do turn up from time to time and of course a variety of values and pricing, good luck with your searching.
 
Bel Canto make a half width unit, and there might be an older one as well, cannot recall the model that could be gotten on the used market.
 
I use an Exposure XM CD player. It is half width and sounds good through a Chord 2Qute dac, in fact almost as good as the Linn;) It is also nicely made and a pleasure to use.
 
I have a Marantz HD-CD1 used as a transport and perfect is the word that best describes it.
Easy to use, robust and very good sounding when used with an external DAC.
My other choice would be the half width Exposure as mentioned by others.
 
Many thanks to all for the suggestions. Might stick a wanted advert up. I guess I’m also trying to understand if these more expensive players will sound better via the Yamaha DAC than the £150 Tangent player, which also looks really neat.
 
If you don't mind used, there are plenty of half width (or close to) CD players from the Teac HD500 series on eBay ... unfortunately most are over-priced for the age :(

I have an HD500 amp in the shed that still works fine - but obviously doesn't have one of those pesky mechanisms inside ....
 
Ponty said:
Many thanks to all for the suggestions. Might stick a wanted advert up. I guess I’m also trying to understand if these more expensive players will sound better via the Yamaha DAC than the £150 Tangent player, which also looks really neat.
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I may listen again to my Rotel tethered to the Yamaha. Didn’t really have a good enough listen last time.
 
The Cyrus players going all the way back to the CD7 are excellent and offer great upgrade potential. Cyrus still provide product support for a good number of them (full details are on their website). The PSX-R does make a difference.

The CD7Q and CD8 have an excellent DAC stage which when they were released was well ahead of comparable kit. In measurement terms it is still competitive today, which is saying something considering how far DACs have come.

If very long term reliability is key go for a Rega. They are still fairly confident in being able to repair just about everything they've ever released.
 
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