Aurender Music Server and CD Transport comparison

blakcloud OP

14 posts

02-01-2024 at 08:46pm 

Very typical here and on other forums. I ask for an apple and you all tell me I need an orange. Somebody knows the answer and that is who I am waiting for.

@blakcloud the distance up the playback chain you need to go might seem uncertain but will start with your music itself: will the CD’s you use be the same as the album files your streamer plays? As in, if the exact same masters/releases/pressings/etc. are not being pushed through cd transport and streamer, there is no way for even the most comparable cd transport and streamer to aim for what you want.

If you expect tracks on your CD’s and whatever version of an album/track is on the streaming service(s) you may be using to sound the same, that’s an equation no one anywhere is gonna have an answer for. 
That make sense?

May want to check the Shanling ET3.  Supposed to beat the Schiit but haven’t seen any detailed reviews yet. $750

I recommend the Jays transport. The Pro-ject I would be leery of at the present time simply because of the quality control issues happening now,not because of sound quality. I bought a Jays several months ago and it was a much bigger upgrade than expected.The instrument separation,clarity,and smoothness is way beyond what I'd hoped for.

@blakcloud -

If you search "CEC Tl-2X" on hifishark, you will find one listed on another audiomart site (I am not the seller).

I'm afraid that I can't provide a good answer to your question but I have some experience that might be helpful.

I have a Jay's CD3 MKIII transport as well as a Teac VRDS 701. Before these I had a PSA PerfectWave Transport. I also have two DACs; a Berkeley Audio Reference Series II MQA with the Alpha USB and an Audio Mirror Tubadour IV. I stream using Qobuz through my ASUS ROG laptop into the Alpha USB/Reference II.

I have over 4K CDs that I have ripped to uncompressed FLAC. I usually play the CD because I'm a geezer who likes physical media (I also play LPs).

I have found that origin of digital music doesn't seem to make much difference in the sound. My two transports sound similar if not identical and when I compare a CD with the corresponding file on Qobuz I am hard pressed to tell the difference. If my PC is mangling the sound or adding noise I can't hear it. Someday I'll replace my PC with a streamer but I'm not going to spend a lot of money because I don't expect streamed music to sound better than playing a CD through one of my transports. From a technical standpoint it's hard to understand how a digital file that has been sliced and diced through the tortuous journey of the internet can sound better than playing a CD on a state of the art transport.

I have two transports because they have some significant differences. I have a collection of HDCDs and the Jay's Audio uses dither in the LSB where the HDCD information resides. My Berkeley decodes HDCDs so I need a different transport to play them. It also has MQA and it takes a special transport to play an MQA CD. The Teac transport passes all 16 bits cleanly and it will do the first unfold on an MQA CD and the Berkeley DAC does the rest.

I am at the age where I'm trying to do my last upgrade on each component. I had a horrible experience with the PSA transport which used a cheapo computer grade drive ($15 cd drive in a $4000 transport?) which failed repeatedly. I vowed that I would never buy another transport unless the manufacturer clearly stated what cd mechanism they were using. The Jay's uses the final generation of the Phillips transport and the Teac uses their own VRDS mechanism. Both of these transports will likely have a longer life than I will.

I can recommend either of these transports. The Jay's Audio is a sexy piece of gear. It is beautifully finished and the sliding door on top of the unit has a very nice feel. I love using it. It also upsamples to 176 kHz which can sound better on some DACs. The Jay's has several outputs including I2S so it can easily be hooked up to more than one DAC. The Teac is also very nice and if you think you might want to play MQA CDs it has that capability. It only has one Coax output.

Bottom line - in my experience the transport probably isn't going to be a big factor in whether or not a CD sounds better than your streamer. But if you play a fair amount of CDs the transport is the component that you most interact with. It is also the most prone to breakdown. For these reasons I am an advocate of buying the nicest transport you can afford. Pride of ownership is a big factor in this hobby and a good, smooth, quiet, reliable transport is a joy to use.