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Which Vintage CD Player To Use As A Transport?

I need a bargain CD player. Emphasis on bargain. One possibility is buying a cheap Schiit DAC and a vintage player to use as a transport. $100 or so for something described as “bulletproof.” Two questions:

—Is this a good idea?

—Which brand/model/year would be a good choice for a transport? 

Many thanks. 

paul6001
tweak1
3,651 posts
 

Not a good idea because the dac outputs on old CD players leave a lot to be sonically desired and/or your replacement dac won't have the old outputs

vrao81
59 posts
 

Not sure what tweak1 is talking about. Plenty of old high end dvd players from Sony, Pioneer, Toshiba, etc make great budget transports. They all have coax/optical outputs which all modern dacs have. I personally have a Tascam Cd200 which I picked up for $80. Nice transport. Another good choice is Sony s7000 or 7700.

xrayz
105 posts
 

If you want cheap, I'd get any JVC XL-Z model. You'd have to use an RCA SP/DIF to connect to your dac. I used to think all transports sound the same and used an old Sony DVD carousel. It died and I put a JVC I'd had forever in and the sound was so much better I couldn't believe it. It's as good as the budget Cambridge a lot of people love.

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