I disagree with slot loaders being rubbish. I've had several tray loaders malfunction, break, jamb, stick, you name it. Mechanical is mechanical. Anything with a moving part can break. As far as the slot loader harming the disc,,, I haven't experienced it.
older CD transport vs newer ones.
I added a fairly inexpensive CD transport to my DCS Rossini DAC/Clock and am shocked how much better it sounds spinning a disc vs streaming it. It's not even a close call. I was thinking of bettering my CD transport and was looking at options such at the Jay's CD transport. There are also options such as Mark Levinson 31.5 which was a 10K unit in it's day. Any thoughts on the best way to go? I get a little worried about one of these older units breaking and not being able to get it fixed.