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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
teajay OP
1,703 posts
 
First, I made an error regarding the moniker on this great transport, it's the CDT2-MK2, not CDT2-MK3.  The CDT2-MK2 retails for $2,598 Singapore dollars, not $4,980-that's for the reference CDT3-MK2.  The CDT3-MK2 internally up-samples all CD's and does not present native Red book. Therefore, it was ruled out as a candidate for my review.

Historically, I have had some of the highest regarded CD transports in my system: CEC TL-1x, ML-31.5, Ensemble Dirondo, MBL 1621, CEC TL3N.  The CEC TL3N surprisingly out performed the much more expensive MBL 1621 transport for my tastes.  The CEC TL3N I believe retails for around $2,500.  It's still a great transport. However, the Jay's Audio CDT2-MK2 out performs it across the board, is built to a higher standard, and costs less in US dollars.

Baranyi, when are you going to get your butt over here to hear my new reference DAC that replaced the Concert Fidelity DAC-hybrid 040?  For right now I'm not highly motivated to review another DAC, my review on the new piece will be published some time this month.  Then, I could see if Alvin would be interested, in the future, to setup a review on the highly regarded Denafrip reference DAC.

Finally, to answer phil9624's question:  Did I ever hear a CD ripped to 96/24 WAV. Yes, and I don't think they sound any better then the Red book CD in comparison.
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ncarv
983 posts
 
teajay, how does your TL3n compare to the TL-1X?
acresverde
400 posts
 
@ Teajay,

As far as you know are there any significant differences in quality/durability between the CDM4 mechanism (as implemented in the CDT2 MK2) and the CD PRO2 (as implemented in the CDT3 MK2)? BTW, Vinshine's website makes it rather easy to wrongly interpret that the PRO 2 is the basis for both units unless one reads both product descriptions thoroughly.
teajay OP
1,703 posts
 
Hey ncarv,

I have not had for a very long time the TL-1X in my system.  However, when CEC went to their latest two belt vs one belt technology which trickled done from the reference model the less expensive new models seemed to be better performers then the older more expensive single belt drives.
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