How Jolida JD100 performs as a transport

No, my JD100 is pretty quite and does not "tick".

If using digital out bypasses the tubes (can't remember), then I wouldn't do it. The tubes are what makes the JD as good as it is. I owned two of these players at different times, and sold the first one due (mostly) to lack of resolution. Bought it again for the warmth and rhythm I remembered but I had forgotten about the resolution thing; sold it too.

Other than resolution, a fine cdp and definitely worth the money in any case.

I actually used the Jolida as a transport for awhile with a Nixon Tube Dac and thought it was a nice upgrade vs. the Jolida as just a CDP. Note: I tried almost every tube imaginable with the CDP and was happy for many years.(Mullards,Telefunken,RCA,GE,Sovtek,JJ,etc).
Then I happened to borrow a Audio Note CD Transport ZERO ($550 used $899 new, but discontinued) and was surprised at what a positive impact it had on the overall sound. Basically everything just sounded better...I wont go into all the audio blah blah. The Jolida is just an ok placeholder until get something better IMHO. My 2 centz