Is it worth upgrading a CD player?

Audiolab CDT6000 is very good. Being a dedicated transport, it would likely be a nice improvement over the old marantz cd player. 
But as others pointed out, DAC is at least as important as a transport. The CDT6000 just lays a pretty good foundation for a future dac upgrade. 

 

side22olto OP

13 posts

11-14-2022 at 09:22am 

I forgot to mention my cd collection is ripped to an external drive and then either streamed through the house via Sonos or played directly to the DAC via a USB cable from a Mac. I still manage the music library using iTunes.
 

That’s an important detail.
1 - Mac isn’t good as a streamer.

2 - if you used AIFF, WAV or FLAC format to rip your CDs, a dedicated streamer (i.e Lumin U1 Mini) will do a much better job than your Mac.
In my opinion, as long as your files are in any of the above formats, you’re much better off with a dedicated streamer that has a usb port to connect your hard drive with music to (in addition to usb out to feed the dac). A CD Transport under $1000 retail isn’t going to do a better job in that system than a streamer would.
At a later point, whenever you can, add Qobuz and you’re done.  As far as your marantz, keep it until you decide you no longer need it. 

Apple lossless is compressed. CD transport will most likely sound better.

Good decision @side22olto