Looking for comparisons between CD transports

You want a CD Transport or CD Player?

I went thru 9 players, got recommendations here, did a lot of research, chose and found a lightly used Sony xa5400 es SACD player

this seller says only 330 hrs laser use.

Sony xa5400es, listed 7 days ago

believe it or not, that is a good price for one of these with little use. Lasers do get weak when heavily used.

Sony xa5400 es yay or nay

sacd dsd out?

$600 usd, ask about laser life if known

OP don’t buy used transport or cd player , At all cost buy new one. According to my friend it’s a big risk buying digital components. I wished I listened to Him.

I’m definitely looking for a transport, not a player. I have a Cambridge Audio CXU (their long discontinued universal disc player) which does an okay job as a CD player/transport and and reads SACDs (though in my system it converts to PCM because it can only output DSD through HDMI and my DAC doesn't have that option--very few do) but is best for DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I think the right dedicated transport will offer distinctly better performance for standard redbook CDs.

I have an OPPO BDP-83 that I got used for $200 and use it with this device to play SACD and CD. The HDMI out of the OPPO delivers DSD or PCM. It sounds amazing with the Schitt Yggi+ and Benchmark DAC3B both via SPDIF. My frame of reference is the Sony SCD-1 SACD player, which died recently.

Amazon.com: GeerFab Audio - D.BOB Digital Breakout Box : Electronics

The other option for a transport is a cheap computer drive with the following streamer from ARIES S1 - AURALIC

This is a memory player so the quality of the transport should not matter one bit.

As with AURALiC’s Lightning file streaming, our unique CD playback feature uses the same advanced, jitter-reducing Memory Playback technology. CD data is first read, and compared several times for accuracy into the system cache before playing. The result is elimination of potentially induced jitter from the transport, canceling any negative effects from the quality of your chosen CD drive, potentially improving performance beyond what’s offered from competitors’ CD players.

I can’t comment on the three transports that you want to compare.  I use a Sony 5400 ES and Oppo 105 as transports into my Bryston DAC 3.  My NAS however is a Melco N100, and I bought the Melco Optical Player to use as a ripper.  The player will also function as a disc transport if combined with the NAS and that is actually the best Redbook playback in my system 

I have owned many transports over the decades (from hundred$ to thousand$). My current one (for ~ 3 years) is the CDT 6000, which responds quite well to quality iso devices, power cords and coax cable choices that I picked it up used no-issues! other than when the remote battery loses strength, gremlins creep in. That said, I have my eye on the top loading Shanling ET3, which has more outputs and it's very reasonably priced @ ~$750

hth

About a year or so ago, I went with the PS Audio Perfect Wave SACD transport.  

I have a good sized record collection.  But, I own a lot (and I mean a lot of CDs and SACDs) and was concerned about having quality players available to me, as I am getting up there in age and don't see myself ever embracing streaming.  

My then current CD players (Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24; A2) were at least 15 years old.  I started looking at Luxman and McIntosh players, but was uncertain about dropping $5k or more.  The Luxmans I was looking at used Teac drives.  I had a Unico player, which used a previous generation of the same Teac drive, and I found it to be noisy and I could not locate a new replacement drive  I usually buy new, so this was shaping up as a major purchase and I only wanted to do it once.    

I picked up the PSA at a very good sales price, almost 40% off.  Only proviso is that for SACDs it uses I2S connectors, so PSAs DACs are the easiest way to go.  So, you are looking at a PSA transport and DAC combo, so ultimately cash wise more than the Luxmans and MACs I was looking at.    

Very happy with my purchase.  No issues.  Definite improvement in sound quality, most notable on rebook CDs.  I expect to own this transport for a long time.  

Rich 

I own the Jay's but if it was out of my budget I would have tried  the Shanling ET3.I wanted a top loader.

Save for the Jays..its that much better.

I was surprised to see this CDP get a Red Fingerprint Award from High Fidelity a little while ago. What impressed them was the heft it brought to the sound. It's the SMSL P200 CDP.

You can get it on Amazon for under $670 and return it if you don't like it. 

All the best,
Nonoise

I recently bought a McIntosh MCT500. It is extremely good and AB to streaming Tidal shows clear superiority of sound. It was expensive but I prefer physical media for quality etc and my CDs have never sounded better. 

Thanks, everybody, for the information. The S.M.S.L. player looks intriguing, and I might add that one to the list. I don't know if the PS Audio Perfect Wave player is that much better than their Direct Stream player, but I did own the latter for a short time several years ago and really disliked it--the sound was bright and in-your-face forward, not at all pleasant to listen to. Still, if anybody has experience with any of the 3 players I mentioned in my original post, I'd love to hear about it. 

@cooper52 -

I had the Urd for a short time. It was just ok. Nice sounding BUT, skimps on detail/resolution. I think that will be noticed with your DAC. At your price point, what are your thoughts about the Cambridge CD transport?

David

Thanks, David--that is very useful information. In a sense, I already HAVE a Cambridge Audio transport, that is, my CA CXU referred to above which I'm using as a transport. It's actually pretty good but I think for redbook CDs other transports might be better. One thing that attracted me to the URD is its AES/EBU output, which corresponds to the only available input in my current DAC. The rest (optical, coax, USB) are already occupied. 

Do you think the CXC is significantly better than my current disc spinner?

@cooper52 -

The CXC does not have an AES/EBU output, so that sounds like a non-starter. I may have overlooked that in your previous posts.

FWIW, I had the Urd during trial period because it had AES/EBU output, along with a USB-C input, and I liked the idea of running my Aurender music server into the Urd, and then going from the Urd to my DAC (Musutec 005) via AES/EBU. And through the AES/EBU the Aurender sounded really good.

Since the rest of my system is ARC and ProAc, it's possible the revealing sound qualities just didn't mate well with the Urd, which is why I thought it didn't have resolution and detail I look for.

I'm sure you know that Schiit has a trial period, giving you the opportunity to try it out in your own system.

David

I thought that, at this point, it might be helpful to list the rest of my system in hopes that it may provide some insight into which player(s) would best complement it.

Modwright KWI 200 integrated

Ryan R610 standmount speakers, REL S/2 sub

Sonnet Morpheus DAC

Cambridge Audio CXU

Power conditioning: Furman Elite 15 PFi, Core Power Technology Deep Core 1800

Audience AU24 SE speaker cables, Audience Studio 1 jumpers, Cerious Technology Graphene Matrix XLRs (DAC to amp).

Hope this is useful.

I took a look at your Sonnet Morpheus DAC and noticed it doesn’t have a HDMI i2s input so you don’t need a CDT that has one. Knowing that, I’d like to refer you to this Audiophiliac video from Steve Guttenberg,

He goes onto say that comparing Coax and Toslink of the TEAC to a Jay’s Audio CDT2 Mk3, it was a toss up and only when using the Jay’s HDMI input did the Jay’s pull way ahead. It does cost more than the SMSL I mentioned earlier but Steve feels it's a very well made CDT.

Hope this helps and good luck with your search.

All the best,
Nonoise

@cooper52

Stating the obvious in such cases can’t hurt. The most reliable way to determine what you prefer in terms of sonics is to listen for yourself, in your room. There are a number of online vendors that offer home trials /return policies, such as:

https://www.safeandsoundhq.com/products/teac-vrds-701t-70th-anniversary-cd-transport

I bought a Jay's Audio transport around a year ago, second hand from The Music Room as a replacement for the CXC that I was happy with until the drawer began acting up.I did not expect the leap in sound quality that ensued.The hype turned out to be real. The company has the lasers and transport mechanisms in stock and they can be easily switched out at home if the need arises.I'm extremely happy with mine. Unless you're dead set against it, buying a used unit from a reputable seller is very affordable. 

@jtcf -Did you purchase a replacement CD Pro laser assembly? They are no longer being made, and that's the part of an excellent CD transport that will poop-out over time.

David

Here’s an update: I looked at the various alternatives and from what people have said in various reviews and to keep the budget under control, I’ve added the Shanling ET3 to the system. There was a really good deal offered by their online store so I took the plunge. Took a while to get here (about 3 weeks, but hey, I’m patient) and it’s now going through its paces in my system. Right away, I’m hearing a significant improvement over my previous player (the above-mentioned Cambridge Audio CXU), and I’m hoping that with further hours of break-in time things will improve even further.

It’s connected to my Sonnet Morpheus DAC via AES/EBU (from Audio-Art Cable) because that’s the DAC’s only available input--the rest are all spoken for by various components. Of course, right out of the box, things did not sound particularly good, but over the next few hours that initial thinness and harshness moderated quite a bit though there’s still, perhaps, a way to go before it finds its voice--I’ve only put about 8 hours on it so far. We’ll see.

This transport imparts a sound that is plenty detailed but definitely fuller and more unified than the Audiolab CDT6000 that I used to own. I’m hearing the music as a whole event, not parsed into individual instruments, but the little details are definitely all there. There is also a sense of spaciousness in the presentation, definitely wider and deeper than my other player(s). 

The ET3 offers an option to upconvert from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz or to several DSD densities (the Morpheus doesn’t do DSD, so that wasn’t an option for me) but I didn’t think the upconversion to 192kHz added anything compelling to the sound. It may be slightly sharper, but it’s also brighter and perhaps a bit more shrill.

One or two things that I’m less happy with: the transport has trouble reading some discs, possibly because its error correction (if any--not sure here) is less robust than some other players. This may be because the designers didn’t want to add any more processing than absolutely necessary, though this is just a theory. I tried one disc in my collection that plays fine in every other player I’ve tried, but the ET3 simply refused to read. Another of my favorite discs exhibited clicks and dropout on certain tracks, a problem I haven’t experienced before. Everything else I’ve tried seemed to work just fine.

This transport can also play from USB sources, and I did try that out. Getting the feature set up turned out to be quite an adventure, though. There’s an app you can add to your phone (Eddict Music Player) from which you can access and control the information on the flash drive, but you have to follow Shanling’s detailed instructions carefully go get it to work. Not for the tech-averse, this process. In the end, I still preferred the sound of the actual CD to that of the USB drive.

So far I’m pretty happy with this transport despite the problems I’ve detailed above.. Definitely intend to live with it for a good while. Then we’ll see whether stepping up the upgrade ladder becomes a temptation. (Believe me, I did give a LOT of thought to investing in the Jay’s Audio machine but just couldn’t justify the price, at least, not yet).

Hope you’ll find this info useful.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-88-teac-vrds-701t-cd-transport

I have had this a little over a week.  It is phenomenal. 

@oddiofyl

Congratulations, looks like a very good transport.

Thanks !  I am loving it.    Major step forward from a universal player as a transport.   Wish I did it a while back but life, kids, college, etc kept budget in check.   I did have one dedicated transport years ago, it was an Audio Alchemy based on a Sony CD drive.  It sounded good but didn't live very long.   

It's the closest I'll get to an Esoteric and there's a lot of trickle down technology in there.   Hopefully it'll be my last player for a long time.  

I just installed a 701t to go with the T+A Dac 200. Kills my streaming setup which I thought was pretty good. Black background. Tone and definition. As oddiofyl mentioned this is a a leap from the Oppo 103 that I had “tried out” with the Dac 200.  
I really don’t have anything to compare it to in its price range but pretty damn happy. I do find myself listening to much more of the cd vs skipping around while streaming. Only on the 3rd day but it’s been on repeat for 48 hrs. Loving it so far!!

If your transport sounds better than streaming it is the fault of the streamer. 
 

Skipping around with streaming generally means a lack of musicality in your system somewhere… typically lack of mid-range bloom and PRaT. My system more than once edged over there. Now my streamers have me glued to music I never thought I would listen to. I accidentally play the wrong thing and will usually end up listen to it. 

‘If your transport sounds better than streaming it is the fault of the streamer.’
 

George you have a system that most of us will never get to . Your Aurender is what over 20k? Congrats on working your ass off to get to that level  

I have had enough digital front ends from Auralic, Cary, Aurender,Lumin all in the 4-7 k range and none of them come close to the the sq of the Teac 701T . Of course lot of variables involved but we are talking redbook only on the Teac vs Hi-Rez files on the streaming and server side .  

I think skipping around a bit is just knowing you have hundreds kick ass songs available on Qobuz,Tidal and Local storage. 

It’s been like upgrading to a decent vinyl rig without the work. I am digging it  

You do not need to invest over $20K to get a streamer that will equal alternative formats. Obviously It will depend on your system and components. Typically today streaming can be done in the same ballpark investment range as alternatives. Takes some careful work to choose.

I cannot comment specifically on the Teac 701T. I have a fair amount of experience with contemporary streamers to believe given whatever the OPs preferences they could be equaled with the right streamer. 

The 701t betters my Aurender N200 with 44.1k streams and many "remastered" hi res titles with Qobuz or Tidal.   The N200 is no slouch either....

I'm not quite sure what I'm getting with streaming.  Are earlier albums recorded prior the advent of CD just sample rate converted 44.1k files? Are they analog mastered in 24/96?  I know there a lot of copies of the same recording out there that don't necessarily sound the same.   What's really going on with the stream? Where are the originals sourced from?   

Some streamed content is amazing, some is kind of disappointing.     CDs through that 701t sound great,  even CDs that grated on me are very listenable. 

 I'm  glad I didn't purge my CD collection,  I'm rediscovering some great recordings