A new cd transport

I am in the same boat.
I am also using an A3 24 dac.I am using an old Pioneer Elite player as a transport. I really don't know if a great transport is going to make a differance or not as the dac takes the signal and cuts jitter before being converted.
I am also shopping for a nice transport to see.
If you do put a CEC or something else in your system, I would be interested in the results.
I will return the favor.
Tom

Gentlemen:

Speaking from experience, the switch to a transport was the single most satisfying up-grade to my digital front end. The Chord DAC 64, showed me how bad my DVD/CD combo was, and when I added a ML 37, my digital got very near analog quality.

Good luck and happy listening,

Dave

CEC transports are very very close to analog. Smooth, detailed, can listen for hours sound. (non digital, no congestion etc...)some say too slow, but only when compared to a digitally harsh system. I had a CEC TL2X and miss it, I have a new player coming in and will be very intersted in how it compares.

So far, I have heard nothing that compares.

I have done shootouts with modified MF A3 and Perpetual Tech P-3A. I found both of them to benefit from low-jitter transports. The de-jitter circuits are really not that effective. I do digital mods to reduce jitter, so I have transports with very low jitter. See this post on audiocircle:
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/viewtopic.php?t=1998&sid=7263fca45e595f9d7123f1c1ffb4bc5a

I would recommend a low-jitter transport or just mod the one that you have.

Just another query: How lasting are belt-drive CD players? Do the belts need servicing and replacement? If so, how frequent is that?

I don't think you will have to worry about the belt as a potential for servicing. If you kept the transport for 10 years, then you may want to replace the belt. But even so you may not need to then. I don't think this should be an issue on a CEC or other belt drive transports, although even if it needed replacing, you could easily do it yourself.