I happily own a Audio Research Ref CD9SE. An absolutely wonderful DAC and CDPlayer. I compared it with a Berkeley Reference Alpha DAC ($22K) for a couple weeks and the difference was miniscule… the ARC was a tiny warmer and the Berkeley a tiny more detailed. I was prepared to buy the Berkeley… but surprisingly the ARC sounded better to me.
Resolving CD Transports Crowd Sourcing
Hi everyone! A couple of years ago I purchased my endgame CD transport- a Pro-Ject CD Box RS2T. Loved almost everything about the unit--highly resolving presentation, dead quiet background, balanced placement of instruments in a believable 3 dimensional soundstage, and the synergy it had with my components. In fact I loved the transport so much I had two of them because Pro-Ject quality control and customer service is the pits. After almost a year of hassles, I'm swearing of Pro-Ject.
I'm in the market for a replacement CD transport that has the same qualities of the Pro-Ject minus the quality issues and customer service.
PS Audio, Jay's Audio, CEC, Audio Research (which are CD/DAC units) come up in my search. What are your thoughts? With all the bells and whistles the Pro-Ject was around $3300, so that gives you an idea of my budget, though I could go higher.
Thanks in advance!
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- 228 posts total
- 228 posts total