BEST CD TRANSPORT


i'ld like to know your experience: please indicate two CDT: your prefer and wich one you have comparated with (also integrated cd player but only use as transport)

let's go:

gpana

Hey hybrids, I could like those too (with a second mortgage on my house).

I am using an Audio Note UK CDT2/II though and I like it just fine.

Adding to the other perspective, sometimes a great CDP or SACD player can make a great transport. It all depends on who made it and what their design criteria was/is.

My Technics SL-G700 SACD player is used as a CDT for CDs using its Toslink out and the RCA outs are used only when playing SACDs. The sound I get with CDs can be breathtaking compared to my old Marantz Reference CDP.

All the best,
Nonoise

@bolong Did you see the review on the Jay's Audio CDT3-MK3 in the May edition of Stereophile? John Atkinson's measurements were not very flattering! Because of the high noise it only offered 15 bits of information to the DAC versus 16 bit. It may sound good but this would be concerning to me.

Stereophile Review of CDT3 Mk3

I suggest that everyone interested in this CD Transport read Atkinson's review. It was not at all unflattering, and the final note on bits was that engaging the 4x upsampler captured all the bits which is why I run in that mode. I can see why the manufacturer put an in-your-face toggle switch on the machine rather than try to use an array of buttons. This strategy tells the owner to "looky here" at this switch and try it.

@willywonka : unless switched to up sampling (172/24 or 4x), which everyone would do with these units. Including myself.

Copy / paste :

I don’t know what effect this dither will have on the performance of D/A processors that are connected to the Jay’s CDT3-MK3, but it will limit the effective resolution of CDs played with the transport to closer to 15 bits rather than the 16 available on disc. By contrast, the upsampled output is bit-perfect with 16-bit CD data. Both types of output offer low jitter and well-resolved eye patterns, coupled with excellent error correction.John Atkinson