New Jays Audio flagship cd transport

Upsampling on a CDT2? I did not know that was available. Not sure if I would use it, but it seems to be worth a try. I have the CDT2-MK3. I’ll have to take a closer look at my remote.

Have any of you played with this? Is there any further discussion about this somewhere?

I’ve tried the upsampling with my CDT2-MK3 but I’m using the transport with a Chord Qutest. It automatically upsamples 44.1 and I prefer to let it do what it is designed to do.

But, that said, I haven’t extensively listened to it with upsampling turned on. Just a song or two back to back with it off. It didn’t harm anything. But I didn’t hear an improvement in this limited session.

I need to spend more time listening to have a firm opinion.

You simply click the "Program" button on the remote to toggle between upsampling and no upsampling.

Thyname, thank you for the kind words. And I agree, actually the CDT3 is proving to be one of the best sounding sources available at any price. Kind of hard to comprehend, especially for a Redbook format, but true story.

Mojo Audio uses a CDT3 to demo their DACs as well, for example. I met them at Axpona '22 and enjoyed talking with Ben very much. They had one of the first CDT3 in the US at the time there for the demo; I have a picture of that around here somewhere.. Ben has a very good ear it seems ;)

Speaking of, I happen to have a Mojo Mystique X DAC in house currently and have to say, I am really liking what I hear from it as well. Bravo Mojo! TK

Someone besides PS Audio needs to come out with a reasonably priced and robust CD/SACD transport that will be flexible enough to use a multitude of DAC's.

I just got a Jay’s Audio CDT3-MK3. It arrived yesterday. Out of the box, it’s by far the best CD transport I have ever had. And I have have been spinning CDs on dedicated CD transports and players for 20+ years. Some of them at more than double the price, and several years ago (in those day’s prices). 
 

Fantastic service from Todd @tekaudiospecialties1 ! And the guys in Singapore. It took three business days to arrive from China (yeah, China) via FedEx. It takes longer to get stuff from California or Texas (to East Coast US)

So did the Pavane work with I2S to the CDT3 after all?

@robshaw

I had CEC transports, the big issue was the belts stretch regularly (unless they’ve corrected the cause) and the company prices replacements as though they are made of gold.

I just checked the price of the Jays 3/3: GULP, but to use a line from an old Paul Simon song from One Trick Pony, if you want some quality, that’s that’s the price you got to meet, but $4995? Yikes.

You might try Pro-Jects DS3 CD player, which has a massive aluminum chassis provides the best basis for the CD drive and which incorporates the Blue Tiger CD-80 servo developed by Stream Unlimited from the RS 2T. I am curious to discover whether it is significantly better than my Audiolab CDT 6000, also a slot loader

hth

Got a Project RST-2 today for other home , what a piece of junk . I'm sending it back  

Also take note CDT2 uses CDM4/19 Laser and 

CDT3 uses CDPRO2-LF Laser which is superior 

I have a couple friends that own both players and 

the CDT3 is a big leap forward . 
 

Another friend owns the Project RS2T but let's get real 6 pounds vs 50 pound CDT3 and you still need to upgrade the power supply for the Project RS2T .  

Thank you so much for the very kind words Robert, Jack, a1uc, ..

And lately I've been using a CDT3 at my place as well.. For now I've been feeding AES to a Gaia -> RJ45 I2S to a Termi Plus (and I2S or SPDIF to a couple of other very high resolution DACs).

And I'll try it with direct feed as well. But I find the CDT3 to be very transparent to the source recording, etc and I absolutely love it.  TK  

Yes, if you're in the US order through Todd's website. 

To answer the above, One of the most important considerations of purchase ( CDT 3 Mk 3, is your business affiliation with the above unit. So far everything I've researched of your business is stellar.  Service and repair is paramount to me, as I'm sure as it is to others. In the event I do order one, should it be through TEK specialists? Thanks Robert TN

Well.. Other than the fact that it's a true all-out engineering effort to make the best CDT possible, has an array of outputs including I2S via HDMI and RJ45, sounds fantastic and is built like a tank to extreme high quality.. No reason I suppose :D TK 

REF: Jay's Audio  CDt-2 Mk3 vrs CDT-3 Mk3    Can anyone tell me please, other than the price difference, why I should spend double the price, and what you get for the money, most likely my last CD transport, mirrored with a Meitner MA 1 DAC  Currently running a Audio lab 6000CDT.

Robert TN   Thanks    Ps was also considering a CEC tL5 and a Project RS2T 

My guess is that RJ45I2S is only output that don't use a output transformer and this is why it sounds superior 

Yes, CDT2 Mk3 has it. And yes, have used it :) The "program" button (if I recall correctly) will switch it to 4x. You'll see the display change accordingly. I would only use it with an NOS DAC downstream though. TK

Upsampling on a CDT2? I did not know that was available. Not sure if I would use it, but it seems to be worth a try.  I have the CDT2-MK3.  I’ll have to take a closer look at my remote.

Have any of you played with this? Is there any further discussion about this somewhere?

Thanks,

Toolbox149

Thanks Todd, when I get time I will do some 'real' listening with & w/out upsampling with me Pavane and let you know what I find : )

Upsampling can be a deep topic for sure. One problem with NOS at 44K1/48K frequencies is, the waveform starts to look bad as we go up in frequency. Really bad in fact by 20KHz for example as there are only 2.x sample points available per cycle at 44K1 FS. Could we draw the desired exact waveform through only those 2.x points? Seems problematic..

Some will argue that it’s ok, the FS components are above the audio band and thus don’t matter audibly. In a perfect case with a perfect NOS stair case waveform that is ~ true. Ignoring what ultrasonics might also do to the downstream components. But in the real world the stair case waveform can be imperfect (often is), which could/does put unwanted frequency content tones down into the audio band. This all adds up to raising the noise floor dynamically.

Perhaps even worse, there are beats that come in- the waveform is also amplitude modulated (ackk). My theory is, this could be a part of why old (current?) CD audio tended to have the timing/rhythm messed up vs analog.. Next time upsampling, try and see if it affects the music rhythm or not.

For those interested take a look at http://www.mother-of-tone.com/cd.htm It’s a great resource about CD format.

Higher FS ~ fixes all this basically. Which makes sense as more points gets it closer to an analog waveform. However, upsampling itself is not trivial nor a benign process unfortunately. Seems it’s likely best to avoid double upsampling in a system.

If only we could go back in time and make CD audio at least 96K FS.. The world has suffered from 44K1 FS.. /Lament

Early on I had the then new CD walkman, the first, the D50. Made a suspended carrier thing to use it in my car audio system (it would skip if you breathed on it, so much for the "walk" part lol). It’s probably still laying in a box around here somewhere. https://onlythe80s.com/238/sony-discman/ My gosh the truth is early CD sounded abysmal lol.. "Perfect sound forever", they crowed.. indeed.

Anyway, at the end of the day may the best sounding config win in a given system :)

I also concur that RJ45 I2S generally seems to sound a little better still IME vs HDMI I2S, for whatever reasons. TK

Good to know you got the RJ45I2S to work with your DAC - motivates me to do the same.  I have a NOS dac (Metrum Pavane), so upsampling on the transport is fine in my set-up.  Upsampling does sound a bit different - too early to say much, but my initial impression was a bit more air and extension on top, maybe slightly more incisive sound - I'll chime in once I know something for real ; )

I’d like to thank "Todd tekaudiospecialties " Vincent " and crew for the great service and support .

Jay’s Audio CDT is a excellent transport !

The AES output on the CDT3 is excellent but RJ45I2S is superior. 
I would say these are the (2) best outputs

I've often used upsampling with the CDT2 feeding an NOS DAC downstream.

Seems what we probably should avoid is though, upsampling in the CDT followed by upsampling again in the DAC.

Anyone use Upsampling on CDT3 ? 

I made a cable tonight for CDT3 RJ45IS and will be 

comparing to AES , I report back in a couple days 

Right on a1uc - have fun with the CDT! : )   If you, or anyone, have suggestions for specific CAT7/8 cable one can buy in bulk I am all ears.  I am looking at DH Labs  "Reunion CAT8", and Audioquest  "CAT700 Carbon" . . . that is kinda all I am finding  . . .  

👏 👏 I hop you enjoy! Todd

Out of box amazing !

That's great news, congratulations :) How's it sounding? Todd

Got my CDT3 today ! 

I'll use CAT 6 that I have if your buying some get CAT7 

Right on : ). I just got the pin information so I can do the same - the pinning for the Metrum Pavane DAC and Jay's CDT3 are very different, but with the info from both makers in hand now (thank you Metrum and Jay's!) I am ready to go.  May I ask, what cable are you doing to use to make your RJ45I2S?  

I have all my tools for making a RJ45I2S at my other home

I will be there in a week , I’m going to use AES till then .
Looks like I might see my CDT3 today

You're welcome Ed. Looks like your Metrum application will need an adapted pinout RJ45 cable to work. Todd

Btw, the pinning appears to be different between the Jay's CDT3 and the Metrum Pavane . . . still working on it, but it might require a custom cable to get that I2S connection . . . will update as we work this out. 

Thanks Todd and a1Uc.  a1uc, it'd be great if you could post your progress with the RJ45 I2S connection between the CDT3 and Lampizator.  I plan to buy the I2S module for my Metrum Pavane L3 dac, and Todd noticed it seems to have an RJ45 port, as does the Jay's, so I am hoping that connection will work - BUT WHAT RJ45 (that is, ethernet) CABLE SHOULD I BUY?  So many options . . . any input on this front would be greatly appreciated - I will not have time to different ones, so feedback from folks with experience would be GREATLY appreciated : ). Happy 4th!

Speaking of RJ45 I2S, I have found a good DDC (eg Gaia or Hermes) to be ~ indispensable in my system. Which also provides RJ45 I2S out, which does seem to sound better generally than HDMI I2S. It's how I feed my Terminator Plus for example. T

My goal is also to us the RJ45 I2S connection to my Lampizator Horizon 

which will need a custom cable . Really looking forward to receiving the CDT3 

Just a shout-out that Todd and Alvin have both been fantastic; they have responded to all of my e-mails RE my CDT3 Mk3 in a timely manner, and my unit was promptly shipped with truly outstanding tracking information, and it even arrived earlier than expected. I do need to follow-up with Alvin to see if we can connect the CDT3 to my Metrum Pavane via an I2S connection (which will require a custom cable that, apparently, Vincent can help with).  Again, the CD3 is a sweet transport. It functions flawlessly, and has a wonderful natural, slightly mellow, fulsome, organic sound.

Hello folks, Todd here of TEKAudiospecialties.com. Let me apologize please for the confusion a1uc. And BTW your item has shipped.

I need to add a note on the website clarifying the shipping expectations. The site is still somewhat of a work in progress.

And if I may clarify the overall order process- we usually ship direct from the manufacturer. This works well and saves an additional shipping cost, which can be substantial with this bulky, heavy audiophile gear. We may also stock some of the less bulky and more common items as well for convenience.

So once the order is placed and paid we then place it with the manufacturer. There can generally be a day delay in communication due to our time difference. They receive the order, process it and it usually ships in < 1 week (assuming the item is currently available).

It’s been my experience lately as well that the item usually arrives within ~ 1 week or less as well, once shipped.

I do hope that helps.

Todd @ TEKAudiospecialties

BTW the CDT3 is impressive.. it’s very well engineered as a flagship product, quite heavy and built like a tank. The subchassis is precision machined into individual board enclaves, similar to some very expensive other gear.

That said, the CDT2 is not obsoleted either and still also quite impressive for those with less to spend on their system.

CDT3 inside: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lnFujMy1rL5-55WvYEb47o98iFZgg7S8/view?usp=sharing

Thank You for the update , again I apologize 

I just thought a in stock item would ship a bit sooner .

Hey @a1uc 

My apologies on behalf of my team. The CDT3-MK3 (Black) was handed to the shipper yesterday. My logistics team will provide the tracking information in approx 48hrs.

Many thanks,

Alvin Chee @ Vinshine Audio

I just saw this post above 

"Alvin advised me that the units are shippable in 7-10 days

just like the CDT2" 

If this is the case I apologize, but it would be nice if one is told this at time of sale 

Where are you located?  Who did you buy it from?

@a1uc if unit hasn't shipped and having 2nd thoughts just cancel.

I placed a order and paid 5 days ago , was told unit was in stock 

still not shipped. Email reply's are 2-5 words max . I was really looking 

forward to the CDT3 but now having 2nd thoughts if this is what I 

have to look forward to if there is ever a issue down the road no thanks