Looking for comparisons between CD transports

You want a CD Transport or CD Player?

I went thru 9 players, got recommendations here, did a lot of research, chose and found a lightly used Sony xa5400 es SACD player

this seller says only 330 hrs laser use.

Sony xa5400es, listed 7 days ago

believe it or not, that is a good price for one of these with little use. Lasers do get weak when heavily used.

Sony xa5400 es yay or nay

sacd dsd out?

$600 usd, ask about laser life if known

OP don’t buy used transport or cd player , At all cost buy new one. According to my friend it’s a big risk buying digital components. I wished I listened to Him.

I’m definitely looking for a transport, not a player. I have a Cambridge Audio CXU (their long discontinued universal disc player) which does an okay job as a CD player/transport and and reads SACDs (though in my system it converts to PCM because it can only output DSD through HDMI and my DAC doesn't have that option--very few do) but is best for DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I think the right dedicated transport will offer distinctly better performance for standard redbook CDs.

I have an OPPO BDP-83 that I got used for $200 and use it with this device to play SACD and CD. The HDMI out of the OPPO delivers DSD or PCM. It sounds amazing with the Schitt Yggi+ and Benchmark DAC3B both via SPDIF. My frame of reference is the Sony SCD-1 SACD player, which died recently.

Amazon.com: GeerFab Audio - D.BOB Digital Breakout Box : Electronics

The other option for a transport is a cheap computer drive with the following streamer from ARIES S1 - AURALIC

This is a memory player so the quality of the transport should not matter one bit.

As with AURALiC’s Lightning file streaming, our unique CD playback feature uses the same advanced, jitter-reducing Memory Playback technology. CD data is first read, and compared several times for accuracy into the system cache before playing. The result is elimination of potentially induced jitter from the transport, canceling any negative effects from the quality of your chosen CD drive, potentially improving performance beyond what’s offered from competitors’ CD players.

I can’t comment on the three transports that you want to compare.  I use a Sony 5400 ES and Oppo 105 as transports into my Bryston DAC 3.  My NAS however is a Melco N100, and I bought the Melco Optical Player to use as a ripper.  The player will also function as a disc transport if combined with the NAS and that is actually the best Redbook playback in my system 

I have owned many transports over the decades (from hundred$ to thousand$). My current one (for ~ 3 years) is the CDT 6000, which responds quite well to quality iso devices, power cords and coax cable choices that I picked it up used no-issues! other than when the remote battery loses strength, gremlins creep in. That said, I have my eye on the top loading Shanling ET3, which has more outputs and it's very reasonably priced @ ~$750

hth

About a year or so ago, I went with the PS Audio Perfect Wave SACD transport.  

I have a good sized record collection.  But, I own a lot (and I mean a lot of CDs and SACDs) and was concerned about having quality players available to me, as I am getting up there in age and don't see myself ever embracing streaming.  

My then current CD players (Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24; A2) were at least 15 years old.  I started looking at Luxman and McIntosh players, but was uncertain about dropping $5k or more.  The Luxmans I was looking at used Teac drives.  I had a Unico player, which used a previous generation of the same Teac drive, and I found it to be noisy and I could not locate a new replacement drive  I usually buy new, so this was shaping up as a major purchase and I only wanted to do it once.    

I picked up the PSA at a very good sales price, almost 40% off.  Only proviso is that for SACDs it uses I2S connectors, so PSAs DACs are the easiest way to go.  So, you are looking at a PSA transport and DAC combo, so ultimately cash wise more than the Luxmans and MACs I was looking at.    

Very happy with my purchase.  No issues.  Definite improvement in sound quality, most notable on rebook CDs.  I expect to own this transport for a long time.  

Rich 

I own the Jay's but if it was out of my budget I would have tried  the Shanling ET3.I wanted a top loader.

Save for the Jays..its that much better.

I was surprised to see this CDP get a Red Fingerprint Award from High Fidelity a little while ago. What impressed them was the heft it brought to the sound. It's the SMSL P200 CDP.

You can get it on Amazon for under $670 and return it if you don't like it. 

All the best,
Nonoise

I recently bought a McIntosh MCT500. It is extremely good and AB to streaming Tidal shows clear superiority of sound. It was expensive but I prefer physical media for quality etc and my CDs have never sounded better. 

Thanks, everybody, for the information. The S.M.S.L. player looks intriguing, and I might add that one to the list. I don't know if the PS Audio Perfect Wave player is that much better than their Direct Stream player, but I did own the latter for a short time several years ago and really disliked it--the sound was bright and in-your-face forward, not at all pleasant to listen to. Still, if anybody has experience with any of the 3 players I mentioned in my original post, I'd love to hear about it. 

@cooper52 -

I had the Urd for a short time. It was just ok. Nice sounding BUT, skimps on detail/resolution. I think that will be noticed with your DAC. At your price point, what are your thoughts about the Cambridge CD transport?

David

Thanks, David--that is very useful information. In a sense, I already HAVE a Cambridge Audio transport, that is, my CA CXU referred to above which I'm using as a transport. It's actually pretty good but I think for redbook CDs other transports might be better. One thing that attracted me to the URD is its AES/EBU output, which corresponds to the only available input in my current DAC. The rest (optical, coax, USB) are already occupied. 

Do you think the CXC is significantly better than my current disc spinner?

@cooper52 -

The CXC does not have an AES/EBU output, so that sounds like a non-starter. I may have overlooked that in your previous posts.

FWIW, I had the Urd during trial period because it had AES/EBU output, along with a USB-C input, and I liked the idea of running my Aurender music server into the Urd, and then going from the Urd to my DAC (Musutec 005) via AES/EBU. And through the AES/EBU the Aurender sounded really good.

Since the rest of my system is ARC and ProAc, it's possible the revealing sound qualities just didn't mate well with the Urd, which is why I thought it didn't have resolution and detail I look for.

I'm sure you know that Schiit has a trial period, giving you the opportunity to try it out in your own system.

David

I thought that, at this point, it might be helpful to list the rest of my system in hopes that it may provide some insight into which player(s) would best complement it.

Modwright KWI 200 integrated

Ryan R610 standmount speakers, REL S/2 sub

Sonnet Morpheus DAC

Cambridge Audio CXU

Power conditioning: Furman Elite 15 PFi, Core Power Technology Deep Core 1800

Audience AU24 SE speaker cables, Audience Studio 1 jumpers, Cerious Technology Graphene Matrix XLRs (DAC to amp).

Hope this is useful.

I took a look at your Sonnet Morpheus DAC and noticed it doesn’t have a HDMI i2s input so you don’t need a CDT that has one. Knowing that, I’d like to refer you to this Audiophiliac video from Steve Guttenberg,

He goes onto say that comparing Coax and Toslink of the TEAC to a Jay’s Audio CDT2 Mk3, it was a toss up and only when using the Jay’s HDMI input did the Jay’s pull way ahead. It does cost more than the SMSL I mentioned earlier but Steve feels it's a very well made CDT.

Hope this helps and good luck with your search.

All the best,
Nonoise

@cooper52

Stating the obvious in such cases can’t hurt. The most reliable way to determine what you prefer in terms of sonics is to listen for yourself, in your room. There are a number of online vendors that offer home trials /return policies, such as:

https://www.safeandsoundhq.com/products/teac-vrds-701t-70th-anniversary-cd-transport

I bought a Jay's Audio transport around a year ago, second hand from The Music Room as a replacement for the CXC that I was happy with until the drawer began acting up.I did not expect the leap in sound quality that ensued.The hype turned out to be real. The company has the lasers and transport mechanisms in stock and they can be easily switched out at home if the need arises.I'm extremely happy with mine. Unless you're dead set against it, buying a used unit from a reputable seller is very affordable. 

@jtcf -Did you purchase a replacement CD Pro laser assembly? They are no longer being made, and that's the part of an excellent CD transport that will poop-out over time.

David