From Audio Research ref cd player to what ? (Cd Transport, streamer, Dac.....?)


I have sold my Ref cd7 as I was willing to upgrade. I thought buying a new dac with a new transport , giving more versatility would be better.
I realize now that lots of transport are available and that finally I just have 200 cd’s or so and the investment on a transport is maybe not that wise....

What quality of transport do I need to buy to be at least at the level of the cd7 ? Moving up the scale I have seen the nuprime cdt 10,  simaudio 260d or t , a newly developed project rst2, or the jay’s cdt2 mk2.

What quality of DAC for not to be disappointed with my previous cd7 ? I have seen Ayre  Codex or Yggdrasil or Bryston BDA3 or psaudio , or mytek....

Is it better to buy a streamer as I don’t have thousands of cd’s ? But what ?

All of this will be associated to an Audio Research Ref3 ,  2x Audio Research Ref 250 , Magnepan 20.7.
I don’t like anemic sound and prefer full bodied, romantic, yet envelopping and textured sound.
I don’t need over transparency as my above rig is sufficiently transparent to let everything appear even in the smallest details.

What do you think ?
thank you


antmou

Showing 2 responses by wharfy

@antmou FWIW-I have Audio Research REF5SE and a REF 75. I’m using the PS Audio Directstream DAC with a streaming bridge and a Cambridge CXC transport. They mate really well for the reasons you articulated, in what you are looking for.