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CD player with quiet transport?

I recently purchased a Toshiba SD 4800 DVD player, which I was planning to use mainly for two channel audio listening. Unfortunately I find the transport noise to be unacceptably loud for classical recordings. I am a total newby in the audio world - would I have been better off buying a dedicated CD player, and could somebody recommend me a very quiet machine that doesn't cost the earth - preferably under $200, or am I being unrealistic here?

Alternatively, is there anything I could do to make the SD 4800 more quiet?

As an aside, I am using the SD 4800 (described as having quiet transport on Audioreviews.com) with a Nak AV-500, which according to Audioreviews.com suffers from a noisy fan. The noisy fan is a total joke. There is no chance to hear the fan even in quietest passages of Holst's The Planets - and certainly not while the SD 4800 is busy humming away.

Many thanks
xd7
xd7 OP
2 posts
 
Thanks for all the input. The noise sounds like it stems from the disk spinning. I find it to be quite pronounced, and it really stands out in the quiet passages you often have in classical music. I might try to quiet the SD 4800 like Cellorover suggested. Other than this noise I am actually pretty happy with this machine, and I bought it because it has a built in DD/DTS decoder that I need for my Nak AV-500. If that doesn't work I might have to go and do some test listening. What are other CD players that were top of the line in their day, are still good performers by today's standards, but sell for a reasonable price second hand? I am partion to buying second hand stuff ;-)
xd7 OP
2 posts
 
OK, I opened up the SD 4800 and there is heaps of space all around the transport mechanism. No wonder that the thing is so loud - the whole box acts as a resonance chamber.

There is at least an inch of free space on 3 sides of the transport mechanism, and I filled this space with cut-to-shape sheets of a foam material that came as packaging material with some other appliance I bought recently. On top is just enought room to squeeze in some thin foam material. I used Foamies from the Walmart crafts department for this purpose. I didn't bother to take the transport mechanism out and put something at the bottom of the box. Closed the thing again, and BINGO! The noise has almost totally disappeared. In normal listening distance from my rig I can hardly make it out, and it certainly isn't distracting any more. I am happy :-)

BTW - I stayed away from the Silicon grease since the player is brand new - well, refurbished actually. With a second hand machine I might have given that a try as well.

Again, many thanks!
audiobugged
528 posts
 
Look into a Sony Cdp-xa20es for a player or transport, one up on Agon right now for $265.00, or a Pioneer Pd-65 also on Agon right now also in your budget. Good luck
key_metric
76 posts
 
Music Direct sells 2"x6" 3M Viscoelastic Damping Sheets for $4.99. Apparently they work very well at dampening chassis vibrations. They seem to be a catalog only item (not on the website), so call Music Direct at 800-449-8333 and talk to a salesperson.
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