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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
dsper
663 posts
 
Hi celander,

I noticed that you are using a Theta Digital DS ProBasic IIIa DAC.

Can you comment on the sound and how it compares to other DACS you have used?

Thanks for listening, 

Dsper
celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
I’ve only used the Theta Digital DSPro Basic IIIA as a DAC. It’s potential is greatly affected by whatever transport feeds it. My original CAL Delta Transport (having a <50 psec jitter output) sounded great with it. My Sonic Frontiers Ultra Jitterbug reclocker (having a reclocked digital stream with <40 psec jitter) or an AE Synchro Mesh OTL reclocker (having presumably 8psec jitter) didn’t really improve the SQ from the Theta DAC using the Delta transport.

I tried a NuPrime CDT-8 Pro transport (having 120 psec jitter output) with the Theta DAC. The resultant SQ from the DAC wasn’t better (might have been worse in imaging) than with the Delta transport.

I then obtained a Jay’s Audio CDT2 MK2 transport to mate with the Theta DAC.
💥BOOM!💥
The Jay’s Audio transport brought out the best SQ from the Theta DAC I’ve ever heard. As most here know, the Theta DAC is an R2R ladder design. I could easily live with the Theta forever.

I’m going to try out the Benchmark DAC3 DAC-Pre for reasons partly unrelated to the DAC section. I’ll sort out the SQ of their DAC section when I audition it. But based on the Theta DAC design and its resultant SQ when mated with a high resolution transport, I might be biased towards R2R ladder DACs.
celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
I had a Counterpoint DAC that I traded in for my then-new Theta DSPro Basic IIIa DAC. I believe it was also a R2R design. One nice feature about that Counterpoint design was that one could swap out DSP chips to change the flavor of the analog section. The Theta was a better unit, in terms of SQ. 
mac48025's avatar
mac48025
672 posts
 
My Jays Audio CDT-2 mk2 arrived today and my initial impressions pretty much mirrors most everyone else here. As most have stated its a gorgeous unit that's built like a tank. Right out of the box it sounds much better than my CEC TLN-5. Bass is tighter, soundstage has opened up more, the air and high end detail is greatly improved with a very relaxed and real sound. It's at least as "analog" sounding as the CEC, probably even more so. It certainly is one heck of a bargain at $2,250. It looks and sounds like a unit costing much more. Thanks for the heads up on it teajay.
toddrhodes
49 posts
 
I am seriously listening to mine for the first time right now. The first disc I put in was Jeff Beck - Truth, which I listened to from my old player (TASCAM 500b) just a couple of nights ago. 

The Jay's is a gamechanger. I paid $2000 shipped and I'm planning my next trip to wherever I can get to to pick up more CDs. Thrifts, music stores, don't care. I need to hear more. 
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