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Resolving CD Transports Crowd Sourcing

Hi everyone! A couple of years ago I purchased my endgame CD transport- a Pro-Ject CD Box RS2T. Loved almost everything about the unit--highly resolving presentation, dead quiet background, balanced placement of instruments in a believable 3 dimensional soundstage, and  the synergy it had with my components. In fact I loved the transport so much I had two of them because Pro-Ject quality control and customer service is the pits. After almost a year of hassles, I'm swearing of Pro-Ject.

I'm in the market for a replacement CD transport that has the same qualities of the Pro-Ject minus the quality issues and customer service.

PS Audio, Jay's Audio, CEC, Audio Research (which are CD/DAC units) come up in my search. What are your thoughts? With all the bells and whistles the Pro-Ject was around $3300, so that gives you an idea of my budget, though I could go higher.

Thanks in advance!

128x128wharfy

Showing 2 responses by deep_333

deep_333
866 posts
 

. I have auditioned the Jay’s CDT2 MkIII both in a friends system, and in mine. It is without a doubt the best CD transport I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing.

Very detailed, yet not at all bright or fatiguing. In my system it was paired with a Tubes4HiFi VTA St-120 tube amp, and a Denafrips stack which leans toward a more relaxed slightly warmer sound. The extra detail was a welcome addition to both combos, and a great pairing.

Hmm, so, Jay’s fabulous spinner transport was "very detailed, yet not at all bright and fatiguing"....Hmm OK, It was paired with some tube amp and a Denafrips dac. Hmmmmmm, so, how exactly did you figure out that the transport did the "very detailed, yet not at all bright and fatiguing" sound and it was not the Denafrips and the tube amp’s doing all day long????? Could any fairly decent spinny transport paired with your tubeamp and Denafrips do the "very detailed, yet not at all bright and fatiguing"?????????

Enlighten us a bit more about your assessment, will ya @vthokie83 ?

deep_333
866 posts
 

maybe you’re not a fan of Jay’s or in ChiFi at all. I gave a short impression/opinion of the unit tested in my system, with my ears, in my house....nothing more. My system tends to be more "laid back" or warm, and I am always looking to add more detail in my budget restraints....if it does not lead to fatigue.

At the time I had the Jay’s transport, I had a direct comparison with my Audiolab CDT6000 and my ancient Onkyo C-7030.

I like good quality Chifi or any quality hifi from my country or anywhere in the world just fine. I don’t like the crap from China...or other trash from the good ol’ boy here in town or anywhere else in the world.

For what its worth, one of my dacs is a denafrips. Generally, a Denfafrips+tube amp pairing can tend to sound detailed without fatigue (what you’re describing), no matter what the source is..i.e., it could be digital files from a NAS, or a flash drive or a CD transport. So, blanket attributing such a sound signature entirely to a transport seems rather strange (like you did on your first comment).

There are all kinds of dudes on youtube doing speaker reviews, preamp reviews, amp reviews, dac reviews, etc somedays and i know they’re conflating and describing some other component in their chain (not homing in on the component they say they’re reviewing)....

 

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