CD TRANSPORT THAT MAKES AN AUDIBLE DIFFERENCE

Paul,

Mid level recommendation is an Audiolab 6000CDT for $600. GREAT transport for the money, sounds amazing with my Denafrips Pontus II DAC.

Would replace it with a $2,500 Jay's Audio CDT2-MK3 if cost were no object. My friend let me borrow his for a couple of days, and hated giving it back.....but the Audiolab holds it's own, and at 20% of the price.

I quit borrowing equipment from him after I borrowed his Aurender N10 streamer, and am now saving the $6,300 for an N200

Asctim,

"That's fascinating. I wonder exactly what is going on there to make such a difference? The DAC must be getting a different signal, and I'd guess it has to be a more accurate one with the better transport, or at least one that is somehow better suited to that DAC."

Jays CDT2 Mk3, beautiful build quality and superior components: OCXO (oven controlled crystal oscillator), neutrik connectors, galvanic isolation, discrete linear power supply, milled aluminum bilet case (weighs 33 pounds), high quality isolated toroid transformers, I2S outputs, etc.

asctim,

You sound much more knowledgeable about such things than I am. I'm an engineer, but the mechanical kind. I'm assuming you could do what you're looking at, but as an audiophile my job is to find the companies that do what I cannot....at a cost I can afford.

Having owned several CD players, and since transports; the Audiolab is the best I have owned, and the Jay's is the best I have personally had in my system on loan.

As with most things in this hobby, I have found that bits is not bits.....and higher quality components usually provide better sound