need suggestions - transport for EVS Millenium Dac

I have owned a Cal Delta and have also owned or tried a few different, low cost ($1k<)transports.
The Theta Data Basic is an excellent transport, but I would check on service before you buy.
Newer Theta's are probably very good.
My personal favorite is a Parasound CBT2000, which I have owned for about 3 yrs and have no plans to sell. I also have a modified Aiwa XC37M changer, which gets frequently recommended. While I prefer the Parasound to the Aiwa, it is not bad for little money spent.
I have also tried several digital cables for less than $200 and my favorite is the Harmonic Tech Copper link.

I've been using a Pioneer DVD player as a transport into my Millennium DAC 1 with excellent results. The ability to play the 24/96 DADs has also been fun and very instructive into what we can expect from the new formats, which I'm not venturing into until things shake out a bit and there's a digital connection available. It might be worth going to your local Best Buy and picking up something like a Pioneer 440 for $150 and see what happens, and you can always return it(minus a minor restocking fee if there is one). Many "experts" say very good things about Pioneer DVD players as transports, and given my experience I tend to agree. It obviously won't blow away something like a CEC transport, but it might be an improvement over the Cal and that's what you're looking for, right?

I'm using an Apogee Wyde Eye digital cable, which is very cheap(about $30 at Guitar Center for 0.5m) and compared very favorably with other more expensive cables. Also heard good things about DH labs and Zcable(Ric at EVS sells these, so might be good with Millennium DAC and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee), but haven't heard them. If I were spending more I'd look at Acoustic Zen(see review on Enjoythemusic.com).

As for DVD-A/CD and/or SACD transports, I wouldn't hold my breath--there are lawyers involved you know. This is another reason why, if it works for you, spending $150 on a DVD player for a transport might make a lot of sense. At that price you could even have Ric, Stan Warren, or Dan Wright modify it into a monster transport and still be within your budget. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Tim

While the Pioneer DVD 440 might work fine as a transport, this is one of the newer units that supposedly has the "bad dac's" in it. As such, you might want to shop around for another model that would offer slightly greater versatility as an "all in one" type of player. Should your external DAC ever go down, you would at least have a decent standby player without having "earbleeds" to worry about that way.

If it is still available, i would check into the Teac VRDS model that is currently listed for $450. I was thinking about buying it myself for one of my systems, but if another "needy soul" was to snag it first... : )

If that one is gone, go to www.yahooshopping.com and do a search for a Parasound CBD-2000. Some place has factory refurbs for $500, which is a phenomenal deal. This is a belt drive top loading player, but also makes for a great transport. As mentioned, this would also give you a pretty reasonable "one box" to use in an emergency. I just ordered one of these for my brother to feed his Millennium with. We will play around with cables when it shows up.

Out of curiosity, what digital cable are you using ? Sean
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thanks for all the input

Sean, I am currently using the Z cable that Ric sells with the milleniums but was looking to upgrade (Acoustic Zen, Cardas, Straight Wire)

NOTE - Ric posted a news release on his sight yesterday and is now NO LONGER making the MILLENIUM II. He will only be doing onboard mods to players. I was hoping for balanced outputs for my dac so that I could go into an ARC LS5 without cheater plugs, oh well.

so tell me more about the teac

I may hold off for an affordable DVD/DVD-A/Cd that actually outputs 24/96 from DVDA. Ric told me none of the current ones do that.