Definitely a separate transport/DAC. I’d ditch the Node and replace it with an Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer/server that will sound much better and also let you load all your CDs into it so basically becomes your transport as well. Add a Musician Pegasus R2R DAC and you’ll have a very nice digital front end for about $3500. Best of luck.
CDP or Transport and DAC? Recomendations?
Current setup:
Rega Apollo CDP
BlueSound Node 2i
Rega P6 TT (upgrading to P8 after 1st of 2022, when I can hopefully find a new one)
Rogers High Fidelity KWM88 Integrated
Tekton Moab
Looking for advice on a CD upgrade. Budget around $5000. Want new equipment. Is it better to look at a separate transport/dac or a cdp in that price range? What are your recomendations?
Have around 3000 cd’s dating back to the mid 80’s when cd’s first came out. Have SACD’s as well as burned cdr’s. Need to play everything.
The Audiogon members are always the most helpful and I appreciate your time/thoughts.
Thanks
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- 35 posts total
In that price range I bet most players will have a good DAC built in. The obvious difference is with separate components you can choose both in stead of one. But this only helps if you have the opportunity to listen to different transports and DAC’s and can choose the ones that sounds best with the rest of your setup. You could also consider to skip the CD’s entirely and utilize a higher end streamer and DAC than the Bluesound Node (which I think a wonderful component by the way). Combined with your (lossless) streaming subscription this may even improve the sound more. |
This is quite right - however what is at issue is the transport. For this you really need something dedicated, and that is the tricky bit. This is the next logical step up the ladder. Perhaps a few steps up. With transports it is a 100% technical thing. Which one reads the data on the disc the best, and whatever accompanies that rather functional task. Traditional CD players have many other functions to perform, of course, and design compromises are made that are not an issue with a transport. The OP was not asking about streamers. |
FWIW...I too have a few thousand CDs. I ripped all to an SSD drive and use one of my PCs as a media server. I connect an NAD C658 through wifi and play everything through my Rogue M-180s and Focal Kanta 2s. I also use the NAD as a preamp until I can find a tube preamp I like. Most likely a Rogue RP-7. I sold off the 3 CD players I had.I never got on board the SACD train. I counter that with buying hi-res flac files from either of a few sites and so far am quite happy. |
How does the sound compare to a dedicated transport direct to DAC with preferably balanced technology? |
- 35 posts total