2. digital
  3. 137347-3787

If you still spin CD's their is a reference level Transport for reasonable money

I just got in-house the Jay's Audio CDT-2 MK3 transport to review for hometheaterreview.com.  The build quality and physical appearance make it hard to believe that it retails for around $2,400.  Right out of the crate not even broken in yet, it's out performing my CEC double belt transport in the reference system.  It retains all the liquidity and analog smoothness of the belt driven transport but offers more details, tighter bass frequencies, and a larger layered soundstage with more air between the players.

Alvin, of Vinshine Audio set this review up with me, so if you go to his website you can get a lot more details/pictures on this transport.  The reason I was motivated to review a CD transport was I received scores of requests from my readers asking what is a great sounding transport, for a reasonable amount of money.  So far, in spades the Jay's Audio CDT-2 MK3 fits the bill easily.   
teajay
in_shore's avatar
in_shore
596 posts
 
David _Ten , That’s great news and along with Alvin’s fabulous customer service any customer would be in very capable hands .

thebman70
8 posts
 
Help me understand but aren't high end cd players becoming useless provided you have a great dac? A quality dac will receive the digital signal (optical or digital coax) from cd player, or any digital source (hifi streaming, phone ) and perform the quality analog conversion.
So am I correct to so that my $30 cd player connected to my $1, 700 dac (luxman da 250, I think $2,700 new) is probably as good as any high end cd player? If I am correct, shouldn't the original poster be advised to get a cheap cd player (with digital outs) and focus on getting a much more versatile dac?
Brian 
dr-john's avatar
dr-john
72 posts
 
Sim Moon Neo 260-D transport with a 10-year warranty and never look back. 
Post removed 
teajay OP
1,694 posts
 
Hey Brian,

Because I'm lucky to do professional reviewing I have owned and reviewed what are considered reference level DACS.  However, the quality of the CD transport can/does make a significant difference in the quality of what your DAC finally puts out.  Yes, you can use a CD player, if it has digital out option, as a transport to drive an external stand alone DAC, but the quality of the performance would still be effected by the purity of the bit stream being put out by the transport, not just the DAC itself. 
More to discover