+1 TEAC recommendation. I believe either Sparkler Audio or 47 Labs use TEAC drives in their machines. After reading good reports (here) I use a small form factor TEAC PD H600. It was compared to an Ayon valve player by other users —which I had owned for years before, a beautiful natural sounding machine— and sure enough, feeding an Abbas DAC 2.4SE, this little TEAC helps present potent rich music with air and wide soundstage. Available used for around $400 dollars.
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!