SLOT LOADING CD MECHANISMS - DO THE DAMAGE CD'S?


Of recent, I have been considering the purchase of a new CD transport (no DAC). There are several that have caught my attention; - - one in particular is made by AUDIOLAB. The one factor that leaves me "hanging", conceptually speaking, is the fact that AUDIOLAB exclusively uses "slot loading" CD mechanisms.
I have owned a couple of good quality CD players employing this type mechanism, and in both cases, eventually discovered marring to the playing surface of the CD. I am fanatic about proper preservation of CD playing surfaces. I certainly don’t want more CD’s ending up in the garbage can. (and I don’t like polishing, making a bad situation, worse !)

In turn, I have read many articles and customer reports complaining of the same issue. I consider AUDIOLAB products to be of a quality and performance level that leaves me somewhat dumbfounded as to why they would employ the use of a questionable mechanism that has so many historic issues.
So, what have they done that would be any different than other companies using this concept? I can’t imagine that they would invest the R&D money to develop their own proprietary mechanism.
Anyone out there that can validify the credibility (or lack of) AUDIOLAB’S use of "slot loading ?. Direct experience would help the most.
128x128axpert
I bought a project rs2... Beyond superb. Rather unbelievably the cd layer of a hybrid SACD sounds better of the rs2 than the sacd layer sounds on my Arcam SACD.

I'm hitting charity shops buying cds for less than £1... 
I bought the AUDIOLAB 6000cdt a few moths ago and I am very pleased with it. Sounds much better than the CAMBRIDGE CXC i had before.
The slot loader is from JVC. Never noticed any scratches on my cd's. Nearly the same player is also available under the LEAK (cdt) brand from the same manufacturer. The only disadvantage for me is that there is no RANDOM function on the AUDIOLAB. 
I have had the 6000 CDT for about 6 months now and I love it. I have not noticed any scratches on the CDs.
The high end Esoteric, DCS, and MSB tech CD players/transports all have tray-loading mechanisms. They are not slots or tops, but trays which slide out of the machine on which the user places the disk. DCS and many others used to use Esoteric's mechanism, but I am not sure that this is still the case.