Reimyo cdp 777 vs Reimyo CDT 777

Impossible to compare, since one is a CD Player, and the other one a CD transport only (no analogue outs).

And yes, the JVC transport mechanism is much more robustly build than the Philips CD-Pro2.

... in which case, the integrated CDP-777 sounds better than CDT/DAC combo.

A friend of mine, a big Reimyo fan, has sold his CDP-777 when 777/999 combo came out, but felt disappointed and quickly sold the CDT/DAC combination. Shortly after he bought ... another Reimyo CDP-777. He have been using it ever since, with Reimyo pre, Reimyo power amp, Reimyo power conditioner and no intention to sell it.

IMO the difference can be atributed to both better transport mechanism in the CDP-777 and the lack S/PDiF interface in the integrated player - eveything is in one box, so you do not have to encode the data and clock signals into S/PDiF (coaxial digital out) and then decode them back in the DAC. The S/PDiF interface is very prone to jitter, if the DAC and transport are not clock linked - and in case of Reimyo stuff, they aren't.

The digital part - BB1704 24-bit DACs and JVC Extended K2 processing - is the same in both.