BEST CD TRANSPORT

The two players I currently use as CD Transports are REALLY not bad as CD Players either...

(1) Sony BDP-S2000ES

A true ES unit, no SACD, coax opt. digital outputs Great transport AND standalone CD player, Slow loading gen 1.5 Blu Ray player, but worth the wait.

(2) Harman Kardon CD-990

Coax/opt outs, also RCA / XLR analog outputs w twin internal AKM dacs. Suggest sound deadening of (under) top cover with Dyna-mat or Kilmat. Refined rendition of the classic HK sound signature (as a transport) after mod. Also capable of being used as a DAC (has digital inputs).

I won’t say these are giant killers, but they ARE a bit surprising as CD transports.

They have replaced an OPPO UDP-203 AND a Sony UBP-X1000ES used as transports in my rack; into a Schiit Gungnir Multibit A2 DAC.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently added a Sony SCD-XA5400 player to these (large rack). Now using native DACs (analog outs) of the HD 990 to clear both coax digital inputs for the Sonys.

The HK player with it's dual dac's has an excellent analog output btw, and also has

digital inputs so it can be used as a standalone dac. 

 Through the Gungnir into a Freya+ in tube mode the 2 Sonys are surprisingly close (and excellent) sounding to each other. Next step will be a Gungnir 2 DAC. Should be interesting!

With the Jay's Audio CDT Mk 3 I have become enamored with the 4x upsampling toggle. I would now always prefer a transport that has such options.

https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/2570169 Post regarding Esoteric.

I think their reputation/perception is better than reality. My K-07X transport has failed twice. When working or using its DAC, it sounds superb.

Just to add to this: I bought an Urd a year ago (running it into Dac3 B via coax). The combo sounds quite good (comparing it to my Wadia 830 and a modded Oppo 105D). I also use the USB input of the Urd to run my streaming through to the Benchmark which is certainly handy.

But the Urd has gone to Schiit. For repair. Since day one, it only plays a disc upon close about 60% of the time. Open/close, open/close, maybe it plays, maybe it doesn't. Just annoying. (I'm not the only who has seen this odd behavior.) Otherwise, its a very good sounding unit (not really on par with the Wadia but close enough). 

Which has me back in the hunt for a transport (because I really don't have faith in Schiit getting it together, tbh.) Prior to selecting the Urd, I was looking at Pro-Ject, Jay's, Audiolab, CEC, Esoteric, and Teac, I didn't really want a slot loader (which might be a hangover from the car CD days - but the Pro-ject DS2 T uses a Stream 8 - surely it doesn't eat media). And I don't really have the rack space for a top loader, certainly not an RS2T.

Now I'm thinking maybe the DS2T is worth a try. But I'm also intrigued with CEC and belt drive. Drive isolation makes sense to me. And maybe, with most CEC models having the top-loading point at the very front edge, I might be able to load with minimal space above.