Audiolab 6000CDT


Does anyone own this CD player? Interested in your input, I may purchase this in the near future.

128x128rockysantoro

Yep, I bought one about 6 months ago. Replaced my ‘player’. Excellent, *especially for the money*. My CD’s now sound much better. A real improvement, and very pleased. The presentation of my CD’s now has a nice weight and fullness I did not have before, and not ‘glarey’ at all. Prior I would say my streaming setup sounded better than my CD’s, but the 6000CDT flipped that back around. Granted, Im a vinyl guy mostly, so don’t have a lot of money sunk into the digital rig side.

You will find many here are big fans of the 6000CDT.

I have owned some really good $3-5,000 players, IMO, the majority of people buying the CDT don’t usually have the budget for a quality dac and cables, but a quality coax and PC transformed my 6000 into a very high value performer; of course the amp and speakers need to be good enough to hear the improvements. I no longer buy silly expensive heavily advertised/reviewed cables, or their entry level offerings. I buy from Ali-Express, specifically from DIY Hi-Fi. I am very fond of their Nordost Knockoffs (wish they called them something else like Neardost...), specifically the Odin Gold range of PCs, interconnects and Coax. I replaced both the coax and PC for less than the price of an entry level cable from any of the highly advertised and considerably more expensive cables

FYI, if you check you can find the CDT for <$400 slightly used, most likely because they did not buy high quality cables for it

hth

I returned the 6000 .  It just didn’t sound good in my system at that time,  Since, my system has completely changed and I decided to rip all my cds with a laptop and usb CD drive.  My CDs  now sound amazing.  My point is not to criticize the transport, but suggest that you consider a NAS and pay attention to cleaning up power, ethernet as it enters your system and interconnects.

@tweak1 I have a $15000 DAC. I hardly ever play CDs. but I bought the CDT6000 when I realized my CDs (played through a player with onboard DAC) didn't sound as good as streaming.   

It is all about the DAC.  

so I think you're saying that bad reviews of the CDT 6000 may be really reviews of DACs and cables. 

Good point.

I'll add that there is also price bias on this forum.  the CDT 6000 doesn't cost enough to get a good review from some people here.

Jerry

@chayro

I meant to correct and put a 'slash' players/transports, but revisions had timed out

@rockysantoro 

I have the 6000CDT and use it probably 4 days a week. It sounds great with my system and for the money, even the remote is pretty darn good.

All the best.

I'll add that there is also price bias on this forum.  the CDT 6000 doesn't cost enough to get a good review from some people here.

My observation has been different. The Audiolab 6000CDT is mentioned often on this forum and in a positive light. For 600 dollars many consider it a very good value proposition.

What I have read is that those familiar with the 6000CDT have simply stated it can be noticeably bettered if one has a higher budget ceiling. Usually, they are referring to the Jay's Audio CDT2 MK III (Certainly the CDT3 MK III) or the Pro-Ject RS2T, CEC etc. This is hardly a putdown. These are much more costly and do perform at a higher sonic level. No shame in that at all.

For 600.00 USD you'd be hard-pressed to beat the 6000CDT. If someone is willing to spend 3-5x the cost, then the other transports will demonstrate their relative worth. Seems fair and logical to me.

Charles

I find myself wondering if one added a good re-clocker like an Empirical Audio Synchro Mesh or a Wyred4Sound Remedy how much closer the Audiolab might approach the better transports at significantly lower cost?

I've owned the 6000 CDT and doubt you could find a better dedicated transport for the same cost.  Is it as good as other products mentioned at higher prices?  Probably not, but that's not the question.  Could you buy a better unit at the same price?  Probably not. 

@soix  - A few years ago I tried the Wyred Remedy and it produced zero SQ benefit in both of my systems. I have no experience with the EASM

My entire system took a giant leap forward with one change...

I have Emerald Physics 3.4 OB speakers all components were in a Solid Steel vertical rack for 2+ decades, but have long thought about replacing it and going horizontal, thinking the tallish vertical rack was screwing with the sound stage. The opportunity finally arrived early this week, as I was able to pick up a sold maple table top (5 x 2 x 2") locally. OMG the improvement in overall sound is so much more organic and 3 D then it ever was in the rack. This of course affects my 6000 CDT. Now I am aware that owners of the 6000 moved up to the Pro-ject RS2-T and report how much better it is, and I don't doubt it, but going horizontal on solid maple is for me a giant leap in enjoyment

hth

It’s an excellent transport. I bought mine about a year ago and feed into my MHDT Orchid DAC. I have a Wireworld Supernova 7 Toslink connecting them together.

I've used the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M and the Wyred4Sound Remedy Reclocker with my 6000 CDT for over a year, and I'm still impressed. To my old ears it sounds a little closer to 3-D sound than what I had in my budget system before the upgrade. It's especially noticeable to me whenever I play Disc 4 of the Miles Davis Seven Steps box. Mort Fega's introduction and the audience applause prior to Autumn Leaves creates a fairly credible illusion of being there in the concert hall. And once Davis and the band start to play, it gets even better. Every CD I've played so far has been improved tremendously, no matter what style of music it is. Not bad for an investment of around $1500.

I have 2 systems in my house, and have the 6000CDT on both with a high quality DAC. The sound quality is amazing. 

I also have one and as a transport it outperforms both my Oppo 203 but have no idea how it compares with the more expensive transports like Jays. When talking with the dealer he said the the CDT 6000 was noticeably better than the Cambridge transport. Have also heard but the Rega has some reliability issues but again no direct experience. Also worth pointing out if you're not in a hurry AudioLab is on the verge of introducing a new transport at $1K and it is a tray loader rather than slot loader. The NuPrime transports are also supposed to be very good as well. 

@routlaw can you post a link to where I can read the info on the forthcoming audiolab transport please?

https://www.audiolab.co.uk/9000cdt/

Link above for the forthcoming AudioLab transport. Worth noting I have yet to find this component on any of the online sources that sell AudioLab. Maybe its available across the pond but doesn't look like it has made it over here yet. 

 

@jerryg123 yes I already have that one as well as many others within this thread, however AL is introducing the new 9000 series a different critter.

Soix,

The reclocker takes the incoming audio signal from 16-bit/44.1 kHz to 24-bit/96 kHz playback, which seems to be one of the standards of streaming playback.

In my experience the CDs sound more alive now (a more natural-sounding reverb, more definition to the soundstage (instruments are placed left-to-right/front-to-back more realistically)). It was probably the best $400 I’ve spent on my modest system.

If you’ve read anything from Bob Lefsetz about his experiences with streaming and the Dragonfly dac, he raves about the sound being pretty close to the vinyl experience. Since I have a ton of CDs, I didn’t want to give up on the discs, and that’s why I chose to try the Remedy reclocker. Since I’ve tried it, I know I’ll never go back to the usual CD playback. And although I’ve never done a side-by-side comparison with streaming, I’ll bet my system sounds pretty close to at least a modest streaming system.

(Sorry for the late response - password problems.)