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Sub-$600 CDP For Transport and Some Player Duty?

I need some advice on CDPs. Here is my system:
- Project RPM 1.3
- MHDT Havana (w/Apple)
- Shanling T100
- Rogue Metis Mag
- Rogue Atlas Mag
- Zu cables & inters
- Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Sig Sys

I'm moving my Shanling to another system and need a $600 CDP to use as a transport w/Havana as well as a part-time CDP. I would like to get a CDP that is a good transport and sounds detailed and accurate; a detail-oriented CDP would be a good alternative to the Havana on certain recordings.

Some ideas:
- CA 740C (Used) - 840 is better but not happening at $600
- MF Xray (Used)
- Emotiva ERC2 (New) - No idea but interesting at price
- Rega Apollo (Used)

Stretches at $600
- MF M3
- Cary CDP1
- Marantz SA8004

Opinions or other ideas please?
j1bran
jhold
116 posts
 
Rotel RCD-1072 -- a reliable and very good-sounding player, also fine as a transport. Much more user-friendly than the Apollo. I own one, and recommend it highly.
eslaudio
118 posts
 
I had an X-Ray v3 and it started skipping within a year of purchase. Turned out it was an issue with the laser assembly and an extremely expensive fix. Don't know if it was just that unit but caveat emptor...
gfcf424892
77 posts
 
Any Sony ES CD or DVD player.
kbarkamian
647 posts
 
I owned the Rega Apollo for about 2 years and loved it. It stayed until it was replaced my their new DAC.

That being said, I wouldn't describe it as detailed or detail oriented. It eschews the last degree of detail and a few other hifi traits for rhythmic drive and overall toe-tappingness.

They can be a bit buggy in their software. They have a tendency to freeze up and stop taking commands if you get a little squirrelly with the remote. The music never stops playing during this, but that's part of the problem.

I love the Apollo, but I'm not too sure it's truly what you're looking for.
It's pretty good as s transport due to it's analyzing/disc optimizing scheme. I haven't used a ton of transports, so I'll defer to others.
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