CD TRANSPORT THAT MAKES AN AUDIBLE DIFFERENCE

I don't have the budget a lot of you folks have; my DAC is a Gustard X16 and it has appreciated the changing of coax cables from my transports. My first was a Sppo 103D which also allowed me to play SACD through it. My second was an Emotiva ERC3D which made a fantastic transport but the drives themselves only last about 3 years. Now that I but the drives from Emotiva direct it's not a huge cost. While I was waiting for a drive to show up I configured an older Pioneer Elite DV-47A for nothing but CD?SACD and digital out.  It sounds really well, especially at the price.  I'm trying to swing Audiolab 6000CDT to try out next,  I'm still amazed at how much the coax cable makes a difference considering we're talking digital frequencies here.

I have been few a variety of Cables over the years, exchanging OFC Wire Cables for OCC Copper/Silver Wire Cables.

Most recently OCC Copper/Silver has been superseded by PC Triple C Wire and D.U.C.C Wire that is used in Cables.

The D.U.C.C Wire used in a Cable has worked excellently as a CDT>DAC Umbilical COAX. The D.U.C.C Wire Cable superseded Mapleshade Ribbon Cables.

I was also a user of Mapleshade Clearview Double Helix Speaker Cable.

The Mapleshade Speaker Cable was Trialed in a line up of Cables at a Bake Off on a well known system. Speaker Cables were present up to £1500 per pair.

The Mapleshade Cables used in this system came in as a unanimously agreed by the attendees, Joint First Place on this system.

The Mapleshade Cables are superseded in my system today with PC Triple C Wire used in the Speaker Cable. 

When in comes to Umbilical Connection, I have recently been demonstrated on a Ponostage by the designer /owner the impact a Pure Copper Low Eddy RCA Chassis Mounted Connector can have on the SQ.

Two identical Schematic > Topology Phonostages were available, with the only differences being one has a Pure Copper RCA the other has a Pure Copper Low Eddy RCA Connector   

Along with the Chassis Mounted Connector there were Two Identical Cables, where one was with the Producers RCA Connector and the other with a Low Eddy RCA as a exchange RCA Connector.

The differences detected was substantial and for the better.

The Cables used on the Chassis Mounted Copper RCA was quite obvious the Low Eddy cleaned up the presentation to a much more attractive SQ.

The Cables used on the Pure Copper Low Eddy Chassis, was quite something to experience, the Producers Cable>RCA was used first and it was a good presentation.

When the Cable was exchanged to the Low Eddy RCA Connector, the magic occurred, the X Factor was presented, there was no going back to compare again, it was blatantly perceivable the betterment was present.

As the owner suggested, imagine doing this all again with a few hundred usage hours on the Phon' and Cables.

If a DAC > CDT has a device out of a warranty period and they are willing to tweak to extract a little more, this is a very cost effective way to investigate, and one that can be achieved with relative ease.        

+1 charles1dad

The Jay's CDT2 is great, but the CDT3 is proving to be one of the best sources available at any price, actually. Hard to believe with Redbook CD but it's true. I think it must be the CLK system mostly, which occupies the whole right third of the unit basically. If you're very serious about audio it's definitely worth it.

A high end friend in the DFW area has been trying to beat his CDT3 with various expensive streamers (eg Naim, Rockna, ..) but has been unable to so far.

And I went to audition some Focal a few months back and had a hunch by now that I'd need to bring my own CDT3 to be able to hear what the speakers could really do. That hunch was entirely correct. The shop guy was stunned by the magnitude of improvement vs their streaming setup.

True stories.

TK TEKAudioSpecialties.com

The newer Jay's Audio CDT3 MK3 now has a toggle switch on the back that activates 4X upsampling of redbook CD's. This is a much more sound way to activate 4X than it was on previous versions. I was skeptical of such upsampling, but the newer iteration of this procedure is easier to "find," and I have fallen in love with 4X even though I have been told this is mostly a "dithering" strategy. Whatever - it sounds very good.