Are all red book cd transports created equal?

@steve59,

I understand you are not quite ready to give up on CD’s yet. I would use Pioneer player in the interim and invest in a high quality streamer with internal hard drive so you can enjoy bit perfect rips of your CD’s.

There are plenty of software programs (Express Rip, Audiograbber) and standalone high quality ripper like Innuos Zen Mini MK3 or Vault 2i that will make exact copies of your original CD’s.

My 800 plus CD’s rips stored on my Aurender N10 sounds just as good as my original CD’s.

I would use Pioneer player in the interim and invest in a high quality streamer with internal hard drive so you can enjoy bit perfect rips of your CD’s.

This will only be close to bit perfect if he uses a good CD transport, other wise there’ll be errors and jitter transferred to the HD.
Then there’s write and read back errors from the HD, probably powered by an smp, so noise to add to that also.
I’ve yet to hear a streamer/hd sound as good as a proper CD transport playing the same CD.
Cheers George

+1 George!

steve59
there has never been a better time to keep your CDs and enjoy a newer cd player/transport.  Utilize the Pioneer Elite in the short term while auditioning other options.  Post an impression or opinion on Jupiter vs PDR-10RW.
Happy Listening!

For whichever transport you use ensuring the disc is spinning absolutely level is a start in the right direction. Also painting the tray turquoise is a good idea.