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What transport should I get?

Hello all,

Well I finally made a decision on a player. I bought a Wadia Digimaster X32 DAC. I have always loved the Wadia sound so I can't wait to get it.

In the meantime I can use my Rega Planet 2000 as a transport but I am looking from something better. The money I get out of my Rega will be the money I have to get a new transport - just so you know what price range I am looking at.

So the Wadia has two BNC inputs and a Toslink.

I found a Teac Reference PD-500 for sale on demo ($400 CND) at a local (3.5 hours away) stereo shop.
Here is a link so you can see what it is:
http://www.teac.com/ref/500/pdh500.html

From what I understand the player is based off of the VRDS transport and is very similar, which makes me think it could be good. The only downside is it only has toslink out. I would prefer to have a BNC or coax if possible for better quality. So my questions are:
1.) How good of transport would this TEAC be?
2.) How good is a good glass toslink ($150+) compared to a good ($150+) coax cable?
3) If the Teac 500 would not be that good transport (due to the player itself or the Toslink cable) what are some other alternatives I could look at?

I was thinking a used TEAC VRDS 10, 25 etc.. as another alternative.

Thought and opinions are welcome.
Cheers,
Nick
nickway
nickway OP
168 posts
 
Hello,

I have been looking and found a few used transports.
I was wondering how the Teac VRDS-9 and the Parasound CDB2000 (CEC transport) would compare to each other?

From what I understand:
The Parasound is smoother but is a little rolled off on both ends.
The Teac is dynamic but a little less smooth than the parasound.

The Teac is fairly old, but still works good, while the parasound is newer but needs repair.
Once the parasound is repaired it would be a little more than the TEAC.

My questions is, how dynamic is the Parasound and is it's lack of bass a big problem? What one would be the better choice. My DAC is a Wadia Digimaster X32.

Thanks,
Nick
nickway OP
168 posts
 
Correction:

I should have said the Teac Esoteric VRDS P-500 in the above post and NOT the VRDS-9.
My typo, sorry. :(
tabl10s's avatar
tabl10s
1,091 posts
 
How much are you looking to spend?
nickway OP
168 posts
 
I don't want to spend more than I can sell me Rega Planet 2000 for.
Because I still have to buy a good digital interconnect and another upgraded power cord.
ciscomc
10 posts
 
Your transport will make the single biggest difference. I would keep and use the Rega, which has a very good transport, until I saved up enough to replace it with a great transport. Only pretty big ticket units, (over $2500.00 used) will give you a noticeable improvement.
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