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Best CD transport?

I recently bought the new Rotel DAC for my Mac Mini based digital music system. And boy is it good. With Amarra fronting iTunes, I've never heard such good digital. But ripping my CDs to the Mini is getting tiresome. What current CD player would make a good transport for the Rotel DAC? I was thinking that I would just get the Oppo 105 and call it good but that seems to be somewhat repetitive. And of course I would be tempted to A/B the two DACs instead of enjoying music which I've been doing a lot of lately. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks
dfwlistener
dfwlistener OP
10 posts
 
Sorry guys. You are definitely correct that I forgot to specify budget. I was thinking something in the $1k to $2k range. The choice as I see it would be to just buy the Oppo at $1200 to play CDs and SACDs and A/B the two DACs or buy a decent CD or CD/SACD player in the same price range to use as a transport. If the Oppo sounded better with downloaded HD files then I would just sell the Rotel.
melbguy1
1,438 posts
 
With that budget, if you moved on your Rotel dac, you could find a 1-2 yr
old Sony XA-5400ES with the Ultimate truth mod 2nd hand in excellent
condition on here if you're patient. I still think you'd achieve better sound
that way, whilst adding sacd. My two cents.
jrinkerptdnet
430 posts
 
I would look for a "transport only" ... going to assume there IS a budgetary requirement. Try a CAL Delta ... reliable, inexpensive and parts are still available I believe. Also had very low measured jitter
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Dfwlistener, I feel your pain - ripping takes a lot of time but you can try to rip only CD that you want to listen to. It will take less couple of minutes to be able to start simultaneous playback while CD is being ripped. That's how I transferred most of mine.
syntax's avatar
syntax
2,193 posts
 
Try the C.E.C. TL0 3.0 CD Transport
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