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looking for the best cd transport only, without dac

I have a Hegel H160 with inbuilt DAC and I'm looking for cd transport recommendation for $1000 or so. I have Harbeth SHL5 + and like an open and transparent sound. I've considered PS Audio PWT and other used options. I'm currently using my $75 Sony bluray player for transport and surprised how good it sounds. I've auditioned transports like Marantz and Cambridge. Options like Primare and Audionote I have't been able to listen to, the latter ones used to get closer to price point. There is also the Oppo 203, but wonder about quality of sound sacrifices in jack of all trades box? When I have compared the few transports I've tried the sound quality differences were quite subtle. So have people here done some serious comparisons of sound quality of just transports and have any great recommendations? Thanks
ckharbeth

Showing 2 responses by auxinput

auxinput
2,921 posts
 
I would not recommend the oppo unless you needed a universal audio/video player, and I would also highly recommend upgrading the power supply to linear power supply from OPPOMOD (and/or doing clock upgrade) if you wanted to use this for CD or PCM transport.

you are much better off getting Cambridge CXC if you want a CD only transport.  Or PS Audio perfectave transport if you want to do hi-res as well.

i will also agree with you that Sony Blu-ray player makes an excellent sounding transport if you use the digital coax output.  I will say that it sounds a tiny bit on the soft side.
auxinput
2,921 posts
 
I’m wondering if anyone saw this PWT review:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/ps-audio-pwt-cd-transport

it it has some interesting features that a normal transport does not have, such as “re-read until successful” vs ecc error checking.
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