Panasonic 55FZ950. Even this survey of Primare 15 options is incomplete, because alongside the DD15 CD transport, there is a CD15 CD player. 5's transport mechanism is mounted on the same sprung 12-lb lead-brick assembly as in the '31. What do you want in a CD transport? The DAC I was using retails at $5400. Hi all, I’m in need of some advice about CD transport to DAC vs. As RCA plugs don’t have a 75 Ohm impedance, you have a mismatch anyway. 2 transport is $1100 plus $75 shipping plus $60 minimum for a new power cord. Within . Teac PD-301DAB-X. ”. CDs tend to sound better on a dedicated CD player rather than a transport /DAC combination . 2MHz. 09-25-2021 at 03:00pm. Esoteric CD/SACD transport. Cambridge Audio makes several disc spinners including a Blu-ray player that will also play CD and other. Been down that road. Option 1: different playback chain gives you slightly different results. That's a difficult price point, your betwixt and between with there be a great many good players under £500 which in fairness has been dominated by the Marantz cd6006 for a number of years. You call it a 'CD transport with a built-in DAC', which is a CD player. Sony 970 CD Player can be connected with optical output cable. Comparing its sound using its onboard DAC might reveal more about how well, or not, DVD/CD players compare to stand alone units. This blog will highlight the network-attached, disc player/transport the firm offers as a companion for use with its DACs: the £2,999 PerfectWave Memory Player Transport (or PWT for short). To the best of my knowledge, no other CD player on the planet (save this one from Shanling). An old skool cd player has literally no cpu and therefore less noise and better sound than pretty much any computer source. The DVD-2900 is a single-disc player, but it's a universal player. the advantage of a cd player, especially if it is tube-based is the possibility of finding applications for non-6 volt tubes. 31 and other Mark Levinson digital processors (the No. Best transport-only player — Cambridge Audio CXC v2. It plays standard Red Book audio CDs, the Red Book layer of Hybrid SACDs, and MP3 digital audio files from both CD-R and DVD-R media. Some folks' bias seems to be that the best 1990s CD players can barely compete with 2000s entry-level players. Little back ground story is - I was looking for CD transport for fun, so I find things from Pro-ject, Audiolab, Cambridge and Primare. It uses the Philips CDM4/19 laser assembly and data are FIFO buffered and reclocked via an internal FEMTO clock. VS INTEGRATED CD PLAYER. My specific needs are 1) AES / EBU out and also 2) as a preferred option balanced XLR out. I have a Timbre DAC. Reply. Make sure you burn-in the player and listen to it as a CD Player and as a Transport, as. The new SACD player that never made it past the prototype stage, which is a pity because it would feature the new 9 series design and if the picture is anything to go by it was going to have a “proper” optical transport. I recently demmed a Rossini player (includes CD mech as well as the DAC) before plumping for the DAC only. On the surface, the PWT appears to be a straightforward ‘CD transport’, but the PWT can also play WAV-format, PCM files at resolutions up to 24. In the Emotiva ERC-4 product page it states "The ERC-4 is a great way to get the best sound quality possible from your CDs, and from the Red Book CD layer of hybrid SACDs". Shanling ET3 offers a range of. But you can also select the Unison USB output, which means you can play your CD directly to a USB-input DAC. vid that inspired this messthis one I take a very in depth look at the. In this video we review the features and functionality of both the CD35 modular CD player and DD35 CD transport that may make them the perfect addition to your system. New to hifi so I decided to start small with Cambridge audio AXA35 amp with matching AXC35 cd player and Elac Debut 2. I like the large display but controls didn't seem very responsive. TEAC 5-CD Carousel Changer. With something like an old philips based player, im not sure the lines will ever cross. A lot of older CDPs will develop problems over time. While there may be precious few Philips or Marantz players using this transport, some other maybe even unexpected brands might have used it at some point. Marantz Super Audio CD Player. 5 m. 1kHz in native form. This one is simply a CD transport with mains power. Best CD player/streamer — Marantz SACD 30n. While it is a fine player indeed in looks and sound, it’s $7k and is not as robust as the Jay’s. In practice it does, but how much depends on your specific hardware. Today, despite the advancement, and evolution of the computer music playback, the convenience of music streaming via PC/streamer, Jacky still believe. All of the Cyrus products share a similar industrial design and tank-like construction. Remote Controlled 6 Disc Carousel CD Player. Pflughaupt. The robust chassis and electronics around this drive, carry the perfect signal jitter-free to its high variety of outputs. 7" wide by 3. Cambridge Audio Transport CD Player. Location: Liverpool, England. Best CD player shelf system — Denon D-M41. 1 kHz, both have more than sufficient bandwidth for playing Redbook. 1kg. #3. You'll have to check with the manual as to how you engage the analogue output. Ian White March 17, 2023. "A nice mid-fi system," according to an audiophile acquaintance. The Cambridge CXC is a real sign of the times in the world of hi-fi. 2 Channel Ultra HD AV Receiver (2020 Model) – Wi-Fi. The ol' workhorse single-handledly defeated all CD/DVD/BD players that I compared it to. . Digging for an image now: View attachment 842101. Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Location: Western Washington, the State, USA. The left half is the transport mechanism itself, the right houses the decoder, control circuits, and digital output. This feature is made possible by a communication link between the No. Here, the PerfectWave made strides from the CD layer that comes with each disc. 24 (1998) Meridian's 508. It's decent but certainly not a high end transport. 64 posts. The mechanical mechanisms in a few of the CD players I've owned have failed, one just weeks after the two year warranty expired, probably the part that is replaced most on CD players and transports. since you already have DAC you need pure CD transport without inner DAC uder $1000 the best option I can think of is the Cambridge Audio CXC . High-end players will also offer. Nevertheless, here we are in 2018 with the Cambridge Audio CXC, seemingly a unicorn in the audio world of under $500 components. Outputs Twin analogue, optical and coaxial. There's also some relevant information on CD. File formats handled Up to 768kHz/32-bit and DSD512 on USB, 192kHz/24-bit on others. . Subtotal. Some of the very finest High End transports utilized the top loading drive mechanism approach. Established Member. Transport used is a VRDS-0 with Sanyo SF-C93 / SF-C99 laser. The weak link in any CD player is the disc drive and the drawer that usually comes with it, Rega have got around the potential issues of the latter by having a top loading drive with a manually operated lid. Compact Disc Transport $1,199. The Best CD Player For Home Theaters: Audiolab 6000CDT Dedicated CD Transport with Remote (Black) The Best All-In-One CD Player: Yamaha CD. JAY'S AUDIO, founded by Jay Ho, focused on designing and manufacturing Redbook CD transport, CD Player using the Philips CDPRO2 LF, and CDM4 mechanisms for nearly two decades. . 03-30-2021 at 07:20am. The CDP-R1 Transport. For this part of the review, I listened to the player feeding non-Cyrus components. Cheers. 5 SACD/CD player/transport: $41,000–$46,000 Base price is for the SACD/CD transport, which has TosLink, AES3, and CH's proprietary high-rez CH Link HD; two MQA-capable mono DAC cards add $5000. It also uses the same slot-type transport as seen on the 8300CD (which is priced around the £1,000 mark). To date, after 31 years of the CD format, it is only via computer that I’ve heard the audio from a CD disc sound indistinguishable from the master used to create that CD. It can also connect with most streaming services and it also has Bluetooth connectivity. 5 receiving yards (-115) Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports. Reina | Mar 18, 2011. Marantz CD5004 CD player. (Image credit: Future) Music streamers are, of course, much newer tech than CD players. Superb DSD play-back in direct mode. 891 Network Player / Preamplifier. You’ll need to use the front panel USB Type A socket to get the files into the player, as there are no other digital inputs here. CD35 Modular CD Player and DD35 CD Transport. Connecting the well-regarded Arcam irDAC 2 to a 90s era award-winning Sony CDP-561E budget CD player via optical-out (TOSlink) has not made any substantial improvement to the sound to warrant using a good quality external DAC with the CD player - it sounds pretty much the same with or without the DAC! So my only way to improve on. b) The Pioneer sounded the worst. The Sony SCD-1 is a top loader using a sliding top door. 0 6. Try it! In today’s computer-driven marketplace the C31 CD player can just as reasonably be considered a “DAC with transport. New, easier to read LED display. Also consider Audio Lab for amp. It supports 24-bit/192kHz and DSD 5. ”. The 200 transport technical story The 200 transport, which is the cosmetic and electrical companion to the 263, has a unique two-chassis construction. That statement is already explained earlier in the review. Best CD player shelf system — Denon D-M41. The Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2 Digital and Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T are designed to work in tandem to deliver the best sound quality from CD’s. 5 hours of CD playback. But with Sparkler Audio’s Ether integrated amplifier, the sound was clean and up-front. A true high-performance, high-end, affordable digital product that meets current and future needs. thanks! System: Rogue RP-1, Rogue ST-100, Martin Logan Montis, Chord Qutest dac. The first generaton Toslink was "slow". vincei. In my opinion if your speakers + amp + DAC are under $30k there is no need to improve transport. ” Either way, its performance is uncompromising. So you get all the benefits of a cutting-edge Hi-Fi system, like MQA when used with Streaming Amp, plus all the simplicity you could want. For testing, I connected the unbalanced outputs using ERC-3 using Monster Cable ULT I600-8 THX Ultra Cables to an Anthem MRX-500 in preamp mode. The 6000CDT fits very easily into the Audiolab family in terms of aesthetics. While this expression is typically used to describe people, it also works for machines that play 5" optical discs. ” Either way, its performance is uncompromising. With this transport, the DAC didn't sound like the $15k DAC that it is. Today Yamaha sells a CD player that comes in any $7,000. Priced at just $100 more than the original Apollo, the new player employs a similar means of loading CDs—you raise a hinged lid to expose a top-mounted, manual-load disc bay—but, at 8. sennj, BrentB, Front 242 Addict and 6 others like this. I am currently runny a CD 6 SE2 and it is brilliant. ” for engaging/disengaging the internal 4x upsampler. This entirely new design sports the latest 24-bit Wolfson DAC chips. A CD player is a physical transport, streamer, and DAC. Anyway, the difference between the ARC as a DAC and the Berkeley was simply so small to be noticed by anyone but a very experienced. The advantage of using a CD player as a transport gives you the flexibility to experiment with different external DAC's to tailor the sound to your preference. The CD-S700 & CXC use the same transport, Sanyo SF-P101N, the same one used for all of the former CA Azur series, 351C, 651C, & 851C, & all the Marantz 5003-6003 thru 5005-6005 CDP's. I also like the raised feet that elevate the player to help resist vibrations that might interfere with the sound playback. Owning a CD Transport is a brilliant idea if you have a nice CD collection that you listen to often. Lindsay 1 Like Stu299 August 21, 2021, 8:58am 5 I did briefly try it with its own DAC versus a 272 earlier this year. I'm currently using a Cambridge Audio 540c as a transport which sounds great, but have seen it mentioned by a few people of the benefits using DVD players for the function. CXC is a CD transport that’s designed to work with DACs and compatible amps – like our award-winning CXA81. Ever wonder what's the difference between a CD transport and a CD player and more importantly - why's it matter? Audio Advisor is here to help explain and gi. The best ever made. The 5425 is a MASH machine utilizing the MN6471 DAC, which has balanced analog outputs. Will mostly use with a Space Tech Labs DAC. It's not about SNR or bit levels, to me it sounds like is a temporal smearing of the high frequency end. It also handles music from flash drives inserted into its front-panel USB socket, which allows for significantly more storage space than optical discs. Control is via two coaxial knobs on the front panel or with an app for Android devices. Buyer's Guide. Onkyo 6-Disc CD Player. 1Pro-Ject RS2 CD BOX Transport. Well the CD player was never sent and they say not till may so I exchanged it for the Cambridge audio CXC. 2 cd player. A couple of caveats. Not that CEC don’t make their own DACs; indeed there will be a partnering DAC, the DA5, for this transport coming out soon at £3999. Also BD players offer wide support for Audio and video codecs than CD players. Externally, the MCD600 is classic McIntosh. A CD transport removes the digital to analog conversion piece. And a guy says they level matched them. Proponents of the expensive CD transports will tell you all sorts of things about how crucial the clock timing or the vibration damping or what form of ancient sorcery was used in the creation of their $1,000 product. Marantz CD6007 ($599) The Marantz CD6007 is a versatile CD Player, which includes support for hi-res digital music playback via USB. 1) A method of reading the digital data form the surface of the disk (transport) 2) A method of converting the digital data to an analogue signal (DAC) 3) A method of amplifying the analogue data (AMP) About this item. Here. The Esoteric P-2 is the matching transport to the D-2 digital converter reviewed in Vol. In that mode, it delivers perfect pace, pinpoint attacks, high detail resolution, and, well, just about everything else you could wish for. On the higher-end Cambridge Audio, Audiolab, Cyrus and many others are only making CD transports. 42" deep. At Long Last! Listen To Your SACDs Through an Outboard DAC. 016 euro. A dedicated CD player should of course be even better than a "universal disc player" / Blu-ray player. Technical description. c) With the Rega player, everything sounded open, airy and gritty. A CD Player, Transport, And DAC – All In One. (Image credit: Future) Music streamers are, of course, much newer tech than CD players. An CD transport only has digital outputs. " The new Moon Evolution 650D ($7999) is physically and functionally identical to the 750D. CDT-8 Pro . Best audiophile player — Mark Levinson No. Very expensive though. S. Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2 Digital. Cambridge Audio Transport CD Player. Your stereo might have been expecting 48 Khz while CD Audio is 44. Not extremely silent, but fast enough and sturdy. Dvd blue ray player are ugly for listening cd via spif. The other (this is what this thread is about) is a CD Player or CD Transport. You are simply using the Denon in that situation as a transport. After I explored the DA5 and its capabilities while streaming, I spent much of my review period enjoying the CEC DA5 and TL-5 as a simple CD player—albeit in two boxes. At the very least, most likely a more substantial transport (drawer/ loading mechanism). What's the difference here? johnnm. . Location. I have broadcast market CD players which do well to last 2 years of life before laser dies. Re: cd player vs computer hard drive system. 3 lbs and measuring 16. Urd also has two USB inputs that you can connect to other USB sources, and switch between them. The Arcam Alpha 9 CD player is a mid-priced player at the top of the Arcam line. For example I have listened to my current cd player azur 851c vs the cxc cd transport (which is the same as the transport of 851c) with the 851D dac (which is the same DAC section as the one found inside 851c) and I find it marginally better! Like x 2; List; Last edited: Apr 10, 2019. The 272 wiped the floor with it. At the time I was in the market for a new CD player. The No. While there may be precious few Philips or Marantz players using this transport, some other maybe even unexpected brands might have used it at some point. The CD14 CD player doesn’t try to be anything but a CD. Bottom line: This upgrade path is real. . The player has two digital outputs – a 75ohm BNC coaxial connector and Toslink for optical connections. This configuration is said to provide high linearity with low distortion and that hard-to-quantify musicality found in tubed products. all-metal chassis to eliminate performance-robbing vibration. A CD player's transport is the tray you put the CD into and the mechanism that spins it and reads the information on the disc. until the other day when I ran my LG BH200 through my Topping D50. 00 (Normally $799. Therefore, the original CD Player becomes, and functions as a CD Transport. The PerfectWave’s detail, especially on vocals, was astounding compared to the CD version. a CD "Transport"? M. 192 kHz/24-Bit Audio DAC, Optical & Coaxial Digital Outputs. The aluminum finish on the front of the player is a great choice for this price range, ensuring the player doesn’t have a cheap look. The unit is powered by a pair of 18650 batteries that are rechargeable via the supplied outboard unit for up to 7. London. was looking at the following: Onkyo C-7030. The Best Digital Players: Transports and SACD Players. This function was used to route the internal transport back into the player while keeping the dac synced to pevent. Luxman D-105u CD player. You can utilise it for movie and music. got into the CD transport market. A rear mounted 12V trigger, RS-232 socket, a 3. While buying a good streamer and DAC will set you up for the rest of your life. NAD 5425: $299. If you want small CD transport there are many other options a lot cheaper than cdt-8 so it really comes down to what you need and what you value. This place was epic in comparison to what Philadelphia had to offer and the object of my stepfather’s eye was a Compact Disc player. a server/NAS drive with a CD drive for ripping and a 2 TB hard drive with similar digital outs to a CD Player/transport and control via an Android or iOS app. . It's generally better. The differences are inside. A cd rom or dvd based player has more digital logic and therefore more noise and poorer sound. (I think it was a CDP-501. . So a CD player has a. Option 3: there is no option 3. CD Transport TEAC CD 5020A-AT; RCA 1 digital output; Toslink 1 digital output;The Cambridge Audio CXC is a CD transport. So it seems very reasonable to conclude that the Denon DCD-755AR CD player not only applies its Alpha Processing to its analogue outputs (measured noise: -113. Dimensions: 16. As can be seen below, in Nov 2023 neither Cambridge CXC Transport nor Nuprime CDT 8 Pro were recommended by key experts who publish Home Audio CD Players recommendations. CD played in the rs2 as good (but different) than same album SACD in the Arcam. #14. It may have been the best CD transport (no SACD though like SCD-1) I ever had. Discussion in ' Audio Hardware ' started by Art K, Jul 12, 2019 . They say a jack of all trades is the master of none. Equipped with a Philips CDPRO2 LF. Press?? Enter? for Accessibility for blind people who use screen readers; Press?? Enter? for Keyboard Navigation; Press?? Enter? for Accessibility menu; B2B, Gov, Students & More. A well-designed DAC should not depend on its source of data for the end result, in any way. CD players without built-in DACs are called “transports. I currently use an older generation P. Review: Marantz CD60 CD player is a good CD player with a slightly higher price tag that is a no-brainer upgrade for Model 40n. CD Transport - does it matter digitally? Hey r/diyaudio - I'm in the middle of a huge dilemma. Location: Maine. do not produce an audio signal. Once again, CD playback SOUNDS BETTER than streaming w/ MARANTZ CD60 (& Rotel CD11 Tribute) In this video we learn why a CD transport is important and which are the best ones out there, from. Digital: Rockna Wavedream Net streamer, Lampizator Pacific 2 dac Analog: Technics SP10 MK2, Trans Fi Audio Terminator Pro tonearm, BMC MCCI phono stage, DaVa field coil cartridge Preamp: Passive Goldpoint SA2XM-I (Timbre Audio silver cable rewired) Amp: Benchmark AHB2 monoblocks Speakers: Tempo Electric EP1(modified. Copy Comment URL. Joined Jan 13, 2004 Posts 34,759 Likes 81. However, whereas the No. 23 db. Ever wonder what's the difference between a CD transport and a CD player and more importantly - why's it matter? Audio Advisor is here to help explain and gi. The Fifth Element #86. Its weighty sound was substantial, able to drag every bit of nuance from a track. Chances are any CD Player capable of acting as a good transport, is already good enough that it doesn't need an external DAC. 6000CDT is also cheaper. Product Design: S3 Servo. Mine never worked well but I left it too long to return it. The TL-5 is a perfect cosmetic match with the CEC DA-5 DAC. Long Live Analog, billystamps, ogdens_sliced and 3 others like this. A pair of RCAs accommodate the use of an external word clock (10MHz), and a tiny toggle switch marked “UpS. Again, the CEC TL-5 is surprisingly affordable for the quality of sound, starting out at $3,095. DecentLevi June 2, 2020, 1:20am 1. Whether the DAC is in the same box or outside is irrelevant,. I have broadcast market CD players which do well to last 2 years of life before laser dies. Usually a CD transport is designed to spin the CD and provide a digital output. remote control. nope not good enough. It is redundant technology after all. It's best to consider these hook-ups as no more than a 'get started' measure. The heat this time just triggered the overtemp sensor and poof. (Not the new one) I just got here by random google search. The VRDS is as reassuringly mechanical sounding as we remember from older TEAC products and the player responds swiftly to commands. All of the analog section from the CD player was removed and only the necessary circuitry needed to play a CD and get a digital signal from it were left intact. While I was researching about CD transport, (I just want one. Switching to a lesser player after the CD-7 was a bit of a comedown. Like the BDA-3, the BCD-3 uses as its DAC chip the AK4490 from Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)—two per channel, in differential mode. 1992-at least 1996. Location: Western Washington, the State, USA. The Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2 Digital and Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T are designed to work in tandem to deliver the best sound quality from CD’s. These culminate in the duo we have here, the £2150 CD Box RS2 T CD transport and £1750 Pre Box RS2 Digital DAC/headphone amp/preamp, available in either black or silver. CEC TL1-N BELT DRIVE CD Transport. It is NOT drop-in or backward compatible with CDM-3, CDM-4 or other non-Pro family CD player modules. a) There was a difference and it wasn't subtle. The original PerfectWave Transport (PWT) used an OPPO laser mechanism. 1 optical (Toslink) digital audio output. When it's used as a player, all data. With ET3 we continue to build our line of compact top-loading CD players. Plays Audio CDs, MP3-Encoded CDs, CD-R/RWs. The price may not be that low, but it offers the same beautiful design as the high-end Model 30 and Model 40n. The company’s history is littered with five-star products and Award winners, and this new one goes into a sparse sector where the shadow of Marantz’s pricier, but truly excellent, CD6006 UK looms large. #11. Its sole purpose is to spin up CDs to the correct and stable speed so that a laser can read the pits and lands that are encoded into the polycarbonate layer of the disc. laptop to DAC. 6000CDT. Control is via two coaxial knobs on the front panel or with an app for Android devices. Also not sure where the cut off is in price vs. No SACD, DVD-A, Blu-Ray or other disc formats are supported and, of course, it outputs a digital stream only, no analog. . 35) which sends the inversion command to the processor. The $1200 D-105u, the top of Luxman's CD-player line, is novel in its twin-triode vacuum-tube amplification in the analog output stage. The company’s engineers have also worked hard on the power supply arrangement too, making the feed stiffer and quieter. What's the difference here? johnnm. Delete. With this output, a CD player can become a dedicated transport bypassing the player’s internal DAC. 05-14-2021 at 02:31pm. If the CD player has a good transport, you are comparing the same AVR's. A well-designed DAC should not depend on its source of data for the end result, in any way. 219,253. I gather the difference is the CD Transport has digital outs only and the AXC35 has a DAC so it also has analog line outs. Yes, this is where we are in high end audio today. Starting with the transports. The Rossini Player from British company dCS, which I reviewed along with the Rossini Clock in our December 2016 issue, was an example of this last category: the Player costs $28,499, the Clock $7499. Rotel CD14 CD. Instead, its rear-panel S/DPIF digital outputs – coaxial or AES/EBU – can be used to connect a third-party DAC to handle D/A conversion. While it is a fine player indeed in looks and sound, it’s $7k and is not as robust as the Jay’s. That it costs as little as it does is further reason to pay it attention. The Wadia 861 cd player has several outputs, inputs and a clocklink to link the dac-clock to that of the transport. Been down that road. IMHO this has nothing to do with the impedance. Most CD players and CD transports are. Some clarification on terminology a CD Player includes a disc transport and a Digital to Analog conversion section. The core of a transport is its disc mechanism. The Denon duo in the limelight here are an obvious refresh of the previous generation DCD-1600NE disc player and PMA-1600NE amp, introduced in 2017, rather than entirely new designs. Transport mechanism: not specified D/A conversion: Wolfson WM8742 Sample rate USB type B in: max 192kHz/24-bit Maximum dimensions. Table of Contents. In generall BLER will be very good with CD PRO2 compared to other transports. In fact most of the time the output (and often the input at the DAC as well ) is RCA. Audiolab says of its transport: “the transport uses read-ahead digital buffering to reduce disc reading failures and deliver the highest level of digital signal extraction from a wide range of CDs, even capable of reading scratched and damaged CDs that are unreadable by conventional mechanisms. CD Players. I currently use an older generation P. Playing a CD versus a rip from the same CD the difference in SQ was tiny, akin to the difference between the Rossini filters (which amount to barely perceptible). It’s a CD transport, rather than a CD player, meaning it will simply read the data on the disc, requiring an external DAC to handle all the digital-to-analogue conversion. Let’s look at which format has more advantages, CDs or streaming. George Graves. Right out of the box, it impressed me with its hewn-of-a-piece construction. In today’s computer-driven marketplace the C31 CD player can just as reasonably be considered a “DAC with transport. In my world, nicer players especially, laser life is a make or break. So it seems very reasonable to conclude that the Denon DCD-755AR CD player not only applies its Alpha Processing to its analogue outputs (measured noise: -113. Those can be used as a CD. Considering another CD player / transport, need 2 within my business. This entirely new design sports the latest 24-bit Wolfson DAC chips. 791 Network Player / Preamplifier. You won't notice a difference as chances are you are converting from a lower or equal quality file. having played with various transport, ime they can make or break a DAC. Trade-in. It also uses the same slot-type transport as seen on the 8300CD (which is priced around the £1,000 mark). As a £895 CD transport, it can’t really be described as a budget player – it’s a premium player but it’s not uber premium that it will be a bank account shocker. If the players you want them for support data CD then just stick with that. You could simply buy a basic CD Player like a Yamaha CD-S300 (~£170). Yamaha CD-S303. Slack, Nov 3, 2019. Fit'n'finish come no higher. Regards, Wayne A. Have just about given up on my dreams of the Lector Digidrive TL cdp transport or the CDP-7T-MKIII tube cd player because of budget. Best value for the money — Rotel CD14 MkII. if you are willing to spend more the Cyrus cdt or the other pure. Equipped with a Philips CDPRO2 LF. More than just a CD Player EC Mini is much more than just a simple CD player, under its hood it actually matches our MTouch portable players. the transport is also a very big part of the sound of a DAC or cd player. The MCD85 offers USB-B plus pairs of optical and coaxial S/PDIF ins together with fixed analogue outs on RCAs and balanced XLRs. Unlike your average CD player most of the CEC’s machines, including the TL5, don’t even have a DAC built in. Digital and streaming has been getting better and better over the last couple of decades. I have a large CD collection and a really old CD player from the 1990s. Audio Perfect Wave Transport which has served me beautifully for 8 years. The other option you can get SACD player/transport like Yamaha CD-S1000.