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$150 Transport anyone?

I have developed a $150 CD Transport which I am trying to determine if there is enough interest for me to make it available for purchase. The unit is a true Transport with nothing more than a digital output in one of the 3 popular forms XLR, BNC or RCA. The unit is a small metal casing with a CD-ROM drive inside controlled by an IR remote control or by the buttons on the unit iself. It comes with silver wiring inside and a Canare or WBT or Neutrik output jack. The internal power supply is quieted by Ferrite beads and the output wiring is done with pure solid silver wire. This unit has got it where it counts no cheapo 10 cent output terminal or inexpensive wiring. The wire costs $2/foot and the casing is made of metal. The compact unit weighs about 10lbs while only being 9.5" wide by 11" deep and 2" tall. Solid construction with internal vibration dampening and a cooling fan. Is anyone interested or should I just keep making them for my friends and family???
orbeck
jvia
195 posts
 
You say it does not have a display and you think it may not need one, but what about a way to locate tracks? What about at least an audible fast forward? These units would have to potential of getting tiring to use without at least one of these features. No offense to your logic, but a cassette or R2R timer/counter means a great deal once you have run that tape, either in record or play, on that machine, I can look at a # and know where the music I want to hear is on that tape. LP's has grooves I can find and set my stylus down on. Not to say there's not a market for what you have, but if you have a product that is not easy to use the way people tend to use them. or has a certain attractiveness about it, they fade rather quickly.
orbeck OP
12 posts
 
Jvia

It does have an audable fast forward and rewind feature. I agree that the lack of a display sucks and if I could give it a display I would but I am pretty sure that the IDE interface on the drive would require a desktop computer to interpert what track number is currently being played. Short of the display it really is a fully functional Transport. For $150 its not a bad deal and for $100 in kit form you cant beat it. I am not trying to make the best Transport on earth, just one that works well and can produce excellent sound when teamed with a good DAC.
viggen
838 posts
 
The CD-ROM has a digital output?

What kind of interface is the digital output? SPDIF? ATA/IDE? Are you using a IDE to SPDIF backplane?

Also, does it have any other button on there other than eject, say... a play button?

I've never seen a CD-ROM that isn't controlled through the PC's GUI because CD-ROMs don't generally have command buttons on them.

Also, can I hook an after market powercord from the wall straight into the CD-ROM?

Notice, I haven't called this device a "transport" in this thread, yet.
orbeck OP
12 posts
 
Viggen

It is a transport because it does have buttons to control it and it does have a Sony/Philips Digital interface SPDIF. The casing has a IEC type power inlet. What you havent seen does actually exist. I have been building desktop computers for 7 years and I assure you that Creative Labs makes a drive such as the one I have described. Go on ebay an search for "Creative Infra" and you will find the drive.

Notice I have called it a transport because that is exactly what it is. Not all CD-Rom drives are controlled only through Graphic User Interfaces and I have owned one a while back that had play/pause and digital volume adjustment and a stop/eject button and a track forward button. I tried the drive as a stand alone and it worked with just 12v & 5v power being fed to it. So you are wrong and this is a Transport and that is why I call it a transport.
orbeck OP
12 posts
 
The CD mechanism is the same one used in the Redgum RGCD5 which sells for $1600. So My price of $150 is a bit more reasonable. The Redgum unit is a full CD player not just a transport, but you can get a Burr Brown based dac for a few hundred dollars. Then later on if you want a better transport you can get one. But for now Just add a dac and you've got one very good cd player. www.redgumaudio.com/. My unit uses the exact same CD-Rom drive. I can say that the Redgum unit was somewhat of an inspiration/ignitor of my creative fuels on this project.
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