New, Very Interesting CD Transport

Folks, there are those that are transport aware and those that are not.

It’s not a plus for CD playing to have a disc drive and electronics that handles SACD or BluRay. That’s actually a minus. Different colored lasers arcing in different patterns are required for SACD, etc. Also, Computer disc drives, and multi-format drives have to play at different speeds, constantly speeding up and slowing down.

A pure Redbook CD Transport is optimized for CD playing - the drive, the drive speed, the laser, the power supply, the digital handling within are all important. As you may have heard everything is important in digital playback.

This player competes against the Audiolab CDT7000 at $800, the Audiolab CDT9000 at $1,500, The Jay’s Audio CDT2 MK3 at $2,500, the Pro-Ject RS2T at $3100. And other transports between $5000 and $18000.

For this price, the Shanling surpasses all in terms of inputs and outputs and overall features.

How does it sound? It’s not been released yet. Just announced and set to be released by next month.

The Shanling transport looks interesting and has a few features that mat be valuable to some users. One of the key things about the Shanling is that they specify the brand and model of drive they are using. I don’t know whether or not this Phillips drive was developed specifically for audio playback but hopefully it is a robust drive. The overarching problem with audio transports is that they often use a cheap drive meant for computer use (spin up, read data, turn off) and these tend to fail under audio use. A computer drive was not designed for hour upon hour of playback on a daily basis and they simply wear out.

I’m the unlucky victim of this problem. I bought a PSA PerfectWave Transport ($4k retail) which seems to be built to a high standard except for the assembly at the heart of the unit - the drive itself. They used a cheap rotgut computer drive that must have cost them $10 wholesale (yes, in a $4,000 transport) and I’m on my third drive and it is beginning to fail. PSA wants $500 to fix it which ain’t gonna happen. I’m going to try the surgery myself and if I ’f it up it goes to the recycling center.

My advice about transports is to make sure the heart of the thing is actually designed for the demands of music playback. My strategy to solve this problem long term is that I bought a Marantz KI Ruby SACD player on closeout ($3000) which has a drive optimized for music playback. It was designed and built by Marantz from the ground up and should last forever. I’ve had two other Marantz players which I played the hell out of and never had a drive failure. The reason I need a transport is that I have a Black Ice tube DAC that I like the sound of for CD playback.

OTOH, if you are comfortable that all transports sound the same then a cheap DVD player is a great option. For $30 bucks you can just replace the thing when it breaks.

True:

ANYTHING that reads a CD spins at the same variable speed to maintain the bit rate?

CDs spin at an angular speed of 500 rpm when read from the center and 200 rpm when read near the circumference. Besides having an angular velocity, the CD also has a constant linear velocity (CLV). The CLV of a CD has been standardized by Philips at 1.2 to 1.4 m/s.

SACD's have separate lasers, focused on the hybrid's alternate SACD/DSD layer. Beneficial, not a handicap. Note the optional upscale to DSD in the unit you mentioned.

I too once used an LG BluRay player as a transport, then the ever popular Onkyo 7030 CDP. Both sounded blah but I was willing to believe it was just the CD medium.

I heard someone raving about CD Transports and as luck would have it someone local was selling a Cambridge Audio CXC Transport. So, I could find out for myself immediately. WOW, eye opening improvement. Not subtle at all.

Suddenly, the 800 CDs in my attic became a playground of new/old discoveries. 300 of which have made it into my listening room. Now I wish I had not given away all those CD Racks.

I heard other great reviews of the Audiolab CDT6000 in the same price range as the CXC. So, taking a bit of a risk I bought a used one of those, too. I really like the CXC but the CDT6000 is just that little bit better.

These two models are on the used market for between $300 and $400. You owe it to yourself to try one - don't be a bits is bits guy proud of his $16  purchase on eBay. Don't be someone with zero actual knowledge how good your CDs can sould and then tell others that it's crazy to spend more on something designed to do a much better job doing a single job as perfectly as possible.

I didn’t mean CDs don’t spin at differing rates - but a constant velocity as you mentioned. A different velocity from SACDs and Video disc playback. The drive is optimized for Redbook playback. The laser is optimized for Redbook playback. The power supply is optimized for the CLV of Redbook playback.

I didn’t say DSD wasn’t a plus as a format. Just that when you are working at Redbook optimization the multiple lasers, tracking angle, speeds and extra cost are not a plus to include a SACD dirve in a Redbook CD Transport.