Aurender Music Server and CD Transport comparison

Both Jays and Pro-ject are commonly cited as top echelon transports.

Having said that one of my earlier, less resolving streaming setups beat the Mark Levinson No. 37 cd transport I was using at the time. ML used Phillips Pro laser/transport mechanism, top notch power supply and proprietary mounting system for the Phillips Pro.

If you are judging streams only I could see a transport rivaling the streams, I have over 3500 cd rips played via NAS with LPS which continue to beat out streams for SQ.

The Audiolab and Schiit might get you there, the Jay's definitely will..there have been some recent threads about serious reliability issues with some Pro-Ject...I would go with the Jay's...

Inclined to go with Audiolab based on op's list.

@sns - comments are spot on.  Other options are CEC Tl-2X not in current production but an excellent sounding transport.  The Pro-ject was the best sounding transport we tried. Older options are the Marantz CD-93 (I think that is the model number or CD-84) and then an older Metronome.  Not sure what they offer today.  They are build very well and offer a very musical sound.

Happy Listening.

@blakcloud ,

I do not understand why you (or anyone for that matter) would use a CD transport when you can rip all of your CDs to a hard disk. The hard disk would connect to your Aurender. Will then have the all of the digital information without the mechanical problems of a CD transport.