I *think* the guy at Great Northern Sound was once a tech or desinger for CAL. He does mods, and he could probably fix your transport. I would bet that a mod from him would sound better than a stck unit in that price range, but I have no idea what he'd charge. I use a Ric Schultz (from EVS) modded Sony CDP as a transport and it blew away anything I ever owned (CDPs from Denon, Rega, Revox, Studer, and a Pioneer DV-05). It was originally a $300-ish Sony player, so the mods made a huge difference.
Best Buy or Good Value in a Transport CD
I've been using a Cal Delta / Cal Alpha transport DAC for a number of years and have been very happy. Well, the Delta transport needs repair and I'm was wondering if I should consider anything other thant having my Delta repaired or purchasing another Delta. There are many used Delta's here on Audiogon for sale. My budget is $500. I don't want to invest in too much since I hope that this will be a short term fix with the newer generation upsampling CD players and SACD. Bottom line is, for around $500 used, is there anything better out there?