The ML is too noisy and too cumbersome to be used as a transport. It does what it's designed to do quite well, but it was never designed to be used as a transport for a serious audio system. OTOH I do use it as a transport when I want to break-in a component and need to put a CD on endless repeat. I'd rather burn up its cheaply-replaced CD-RW drive on stuff like that than the expensive drive mechanism in my primary transport.
Alesis Masterlink as a CD Player?
Does anyone use this recorder as a CDP in their systems? I'm wondering how it stacks up. A year ago, Michael Fremmer's review in Stereophile compared it to a $5000 MF Nuvista CDP, and said that it was a bit on the cold/sterile side. But how does it compare to a good $1000 CDP? Those in the know, please speak up!!! I'm thinking its use in a second system could "kill to birds with one stone". Thanks.