Looking for comparisons between CD transports
I'm still a disc-spinner, having a pretty large collection of CDs across a range of genres, though mostly classical. About 2 years ago I bought an Audiolab CDT6000 and lived with it for about a month before deciding it wasn't my cup of tea and selling it off. While its clarity and soundstage were impressive, there wasn't sufficient heft to the music, and it seemed to favor the music's component parts rather than portraying a cohesive whole.
I'm considering the Audiolab 9000, the Schiit Urd, and possibly the Primare DD15. That's the budget range I'm comfortable with. (Despite the glowing reviews, Jay's Audio is kind of out or range for me at this point). I'd be grateful to hear opinions on how these transports stack up against each other from those of you who have heard one or more of them. It will be running through a Sonnet Morpheus DAC, if that info is helpful. Thanks!
I have owned many transports over the decades (from hundred$ to thousand$). My current one (for ~ 3 years) is the CDT 6000, which responds quite well to quality iso devices, power cords and coax cable choices that I picked it up used no-issues! other than when the remote battery loses strength, gremlins creep in. That said, I have my eye on the top loading Shanling ET3, which has more outputs and it's very reasonably priced @ ~$750 hth |
About a year or so ago, I went with the PS Audio Perfect Wave SACD transport. I have a good sized record collection. But, I own a lot (and I mean a lot of CDs and SACDs) and was concerned about having quality players available to me, as I am getting up there in age and don't see myself ever embracing streaming. My then current CD players (Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24; A2) were at least 15 years old. I started looking at Luxman and McIntosh players, but was uncertain about dropping $5k or more. The Luxmans I was looking at used Teac drives. I had a Unico player, which used a previous generation of the same Teac drive, and I found it to be noisy and I could not locate a new replacement drive I usually buy new, so this was shaping up as a major purchase and I only wanted to do it once. I picked up the PSA at a very good sales price, almost 40% off. Only proviso is that for SACDs it uses I2S connectors, so PSAs DACs are the easiest way to go. So, you are looking at a PSA transport and DAC combo, so ultimately cash wise more than the Luxmans and MACs I was looking at. Very happy with my purchase. No issues. Definite improvement in sound quality, most notable on rebook CDs. I expect to own this transport for a long time. Rich
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I was surprised to see this CDP get a Red Fingerprint Award from High Fidelity a little while ago. What impressed them was the heft it brought to the sound. It's the SMSL P200 CDP.
You can get it on Amazon for under $670 and return it if you don't like it. All the best, |
