CD Transport - budget in the order of £1500

[krolikgena]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the only pure CDT's that have have been suggested are:

Cyrus CDT

Cyrus CDXTSE2

Wadia 571 CD

Chord Blu (second hand to be in budget)

Musical Fidelity M1CDT

other suggestions such as Bela Canto, Plinius and Roksan Caspian are complete CD players with built in DACs, so they don't fit the criteria.

I wll explore further and if anyone else has any relevent suggestions please let me know. No one has mentioned the Heed Obelisk DT which surprises me; I've heard it has had some rave reviews.

Cheers

Ifor

From the review in Hi-Fi World december 2011:

"Listening to the excellent Cyrus CD Xt SE+ transport, which costs f1,550, the opening of Mahler's second symphony is more rounded sonically. There seems to be less detail to the bass, while it is a pleasant sound, it lacks the definition that the Bel Canto has, almost as if there is a cloud of dust surrounding the music. Cello and bass notes don't have the same sting and attack. The soundstage doesn't have the same sense of layering that the Bel Canto provides as a transport. It is quite hard to tell that the basses and cellos are playing an octave apart, both pitches being subsumed into a single note. On this recording the Bel Canto does a better job on its own than the Cyrus does using the Weiss DAC202. This surprisingly shows the importance and contribution that a good transport makes."

Bel Canto CD2 is cd player, transport and preamp in one box and still outperforms a "dedicated" top end Cyrus transport.

just on opinion to think about...

 

[Native_bon]

Get the oppo blueray player 105EU around 900 pounds.. I just got one. In a word stunning!! For some reason it sounds better through my M-dac than my rega dac. If you looking for all in one then this may just be the ticket. Not sure if u got home cinema setup.

The oppo & M-dac sounds better than my cambrigde Audio 840c cdp by a mile & that cdp in good in its own right.

 

[ifor]

Sorry this is off topic but I couldn't recommend enough trying a streamer.

No need to apologise. I admit I've not yet heard a Hi Fi streamer, but currently I can't get my head round why pulling the data from a hard disc should be any better than pushing it.

Because playing a CD involves a fast spinning non-sealed disk. If the disk and player are 100% clean then the effect will be the same. But the dirtier they get, the more error correction occurs, until you start getting drop-outs.

Or conversely, you use something like EAC (Exact audio copy) or dbPoweramp to create a bit-perfect copy of the CD. They include all the error checking and will check resultant rips against a database to make sure they are perfect.

Then you play from an air-tight, sealed hard disk, or better still a SSD which has no moving parts at all. So now everytime you playback the album, song, whatever, you get a bit-perfect rendition. Make a backup of your rips and you have a perfect, indestrucable (save a comet hitting the earth), identical copy of all your music.

And when you buy a streamer, make sure it can playback "gapless". Some of the silly priced ones can't. And it's been proven that the likes of Squeezebox, Sonos etc are bit-perfect. So feed to a modern DAC and you have as good a sound as the most esoteric transport you can imagine.

Fr0g, I think you miss my point. I stream music from my iMac already, ripped with Rip i.e. exact CD copies, and it's pretty good. Not as good as my current CD player, but pretty good. I'm sure a better DAC would improve it, but I'm sceptical as to what a streamer would add.

 

[ifor]

Get the oppo blueray player 105EU around 900 pounds.. I just got one. In a word stunning!! For some reason it sounds better through my M-dac than my rega dac. If you looking for all in one then this may just be the ticket. Not sure if u got home cinema setup.

The oppo & M-dac sounds better than my cambrigde Audio 840c cdp by a mile & that cdp in good in its own right.

I would suggest that attention to the original post and some, only some, of those that followed might have been appropriate before jumping in.

 

[ifor]

Bel Canto CD2 is cd player, transport and preamp in one box and still outperforms a "dedicated" top end Cyrus transport.

just on opinion to think about...

But it has no digital inputs so I couldn't harness its DAC for other duties. It might be a superb transport, but I'd rather not pay for a DAC and preamp I wouldn't use.

 

[BenLaw]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the only pure CDT's that have have been suggested are:

Cyrus CDT

Cyrus CDXTSE2

Wadia 571 CD

Chord Blu (second hand to be in budget)

Musical Fidelity M1CDT

other suggestions such as Bela Canto, Plinius and Roksan Caspian are complete CD players with built in DACs, so they don't fit the criteria.

I wll explore further and if anyone else has any relevent suggestions please let me know. No one has mentioned the Heed Obelisk DT which surprises me; I've heard it has had some rave reviews.

Cheers

Ifor

Given that you have taken against any answers other than those as a direct answer to your question, I'm not sure where this thread is going. You've had very few suggestions of transports in the main because very few people have heard these transports, because they use alternative sources, cheaper sources or all in one CDPs. Of the suggestions you have had, many of the people haven't heard them and even fewer, if any, have heard several of them to compare. You then criticise even those who have answered the question by saying no-one's suggested the Heed to you! It seems to me the best way to go about this would be simply to research all the transports in your price range, read the reviews that are available, find our which you are able to get held of and then listen to them yourself. You could do us all a favour with a detailed report of your findings. This may actually help someone. This thread has achieved nothing other than to aggravate you and stoke up old arguments.

 

[richardw42]

I did write to Roksan a while back suggesting digital inputs for their CDPs. No reply.

Why don't more manufacturers do this ?

Think I know the answer.

 

[fr0g]

Fr0g, I think you miss my point. I stream music from my iMac already, ripped with Rip i.e. exact CD copies, and it's pretty good. Not as good as my current CD player, but pretty good. I'm sure a better DAC would improve it, but I'm sceptical as to what a streamer would add.

I did miss that. Although I doubt a "better" DAC than the one you have will improve anything. Trying to gain improvements in the digital domain is seriously hard.

If you have good money and "really" want the best sound, then you should be looking at active speakers IMO.

 

[ifor]

Trying to gain improvements in the digital domain is seriously hard.

Maybe, but possible.

If you have good money and "really" want the best sound, then you should be looking at active speakers IMO.

I'm not remotely interested, through ignorance as much as anything else, but I would prefer to keep components separate.

 

[ifor]

Given that you have taken against any answers other than those as a direct answer to your question, I'm not sure where this thread is going. You've had very few suggestions of transports in the main because very few people have heard these transports, because they use alternative sources, cheaper sources or all in one CDPs. Of the suggestions you have had, many of the people haven't heard them and even fewer, if any, have heard several of them to compare. You then criticise even those who have answered the question by saying no-one's suggested the Heed to you! It seems to me the best way to go about this would be simply to research all the transports in your price range, read the reviews that are available, find our which you are able to get held of and then listen to them yourself. You could do us all a favour with a detailed report of your findings. This may actually help someone. This thread has achieved nothing other than to aggravate you and stoke up old arguments.

Ben, you could be right, it probably isn't going anywhere and some of your suggestions as to why are probably sound. Having said that, it really isn't very useful to me for people to answer different questions to the one I asked. I have not criticised anyone for not suggesting the Heed; I just expressed surprise that it hadn't been mentioned. Irrelevant answers may have been given, but they certainly haven't aggravated me; to be honest I find some of them quite amusing. As for stoking up old arguments, I have to plead not guilty. If others want to argue I can hardly stop them.

 

[Al ears]

Can WHF delete the post where I'm assuming Lhc is a tw*t as I don't know he is one, but he is behaving like one.

You could've edited your own post. Not much point though, now I've quoted this one.

I tried, hence it duplicated which has never happened before - editing on forums is not reliable

No it is not is it.

Hence you have to be 'kin careful about what you post in the first place.

To the OP I might suggest you have a look at any transport made by Stello (April Music) - see my sig.

They are rather good!

 

[ifor]

To the OP I might suggest you have a look at any transport made by Stello (April Music) - see my sig.

They are rather good!

Thanks for that; I've not even heard of Stello. I'll do some research.

 

[ifor]

To the OP I might suggest you have a look at any transport made by Stello (April Music) - see my sig.

They are rather good!

Thanks for that; I've not even heard of Stello. I'll do some research.

I can't find a manufacturer's website. Is there one?

 

[shooter]

The Perfectwave Transport but it would have to be an ex-demo or similar as they are $3K new. These are one of the new breed transports with solid state buffer memory, it works similarly to a rip with error correction on.

 

[Al ears]

To the OP I might suggest you have a look at any transport made by Stello (April Music) - see my sig.

They are rather good!

Thanks for that; I've not even heard of Stello. I'll do some research.

I can't find a manufacturer's website. Is there one?

Not many people have heard of them it would appear. They are missing out!

The website is www.aprilmusic.com .

Stello is one of their lines, the other being the Eximus range.

They are a Korean company that have received a whole bunch of accolades for there kit including the jolly old 'Blue Moons'.

I have, however, just noticed that my transport appears to have been discontinued along with the CDT100.

There may be a few ex-display knocking about.

 

[xxxx1234]

Do consider a streamer like the Cyrus Stream X2 to feed the DAC with FLAC or other lossless format. You can keep an old drive as a transport in case you want to use it.

Advantages are:

* Sound quality at least as good as CD - see http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/index.php/internet-audio/391-cyrus-stream-x.html?start=2

* Ability to play higher resolution formats (CD is 44kHz/16 bit; 192kHz/24 bit is current top end for streaming)

* Access to whole CD collection from a smartphone/ tablet/ dedicated remote with better display information (eg track titles)

* CD collection available in multiple rooms (plus remote access via internet is possible)

The downside is:

* Computer (+ NAS drive required) to rip CD collection

* It's time consuming if you have lots of CDs

 

[Singslinger]

The Perfectwave Transport but it would have to be an ex-demo or similar as they are $3K new. These are one of the new breed transports with solid state buffer memory, it works similarly to a rip with error correction on.

+1. :cheers:

 

[El Hefe]

ifor,

I have....for many years use a CD player connected to an external DAC until last year, I purchased a dedicated CD transport (the Musical Fidelity M1 CDT). I then realised that having a dedicated transport does provide a different music experience. However, I am using an AES/EBU connection between the CDT and the M1 DAC. So the different music experience may be due to that too.

My opinion on the CDT can be found at www.notanotherhifiblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-main-reason-i-want-to-test-this.html

 

[El Hefe]

ifor,

I have....for many years use a CD player connected to an external DAC until last year, I purchased a dedicated CD transport (the Musical Fidelity M1 CDT). I then realised that having a dedicated transport does provide a different music experience. However, I am using an AES/EBU connection between the CDT and the M1 DAC. So the different music experience may be due to that too.

My opinion on the CDT can be found at www.notanotherhifiblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-main-reason-i-want-to-test-this.html

 

[ifor]

Not many people have heard of them it would appear. They are missing out!

The website is www.aprilmusic.com .

Stello is one of their lines, the other being the Eximus range.

They are a Korean company that have received a whole bunch of accolades for there kit including the jolly old 'Blue Moons'.

I have, however, just noticed that my transport appears to have been discontinued along with the CDT100.

There may be a few ex-display knocking about.

Thanks

 

[ifor]

The Perfectwave Transport but it would have to be an ex-demo or similar as they are $3K new. These are one of the new breed transports with solid state buffer memory, it works similarly to a rip with error correction on.

Thanks. Googling took me here < http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/psaudio7/perfectwave.html > where I found the most easy to understand explanation of why CD audio is not just 0s ans 1s that I have ever read.

 

[ifor]

Do consider a streamer like the Cyrus Stream X2 to feed the DAC with FLAC or other lossless format. You can keep an old drive as a transport in case you want to use it.

Advantages are:

* Sound quality at least as good as CD - see http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/index.php/internet-audio/391-cyrus-stream-x.html?start=2

* Ability to play higher resolution formats (CD is 44kHz/16 bit; 192kHz/24 bit is current top end for streaming)

* Access to whole CD collection from a smartphone/ tablet/ dedicated remote with better display information (eg track titles)

* CD collection available in multiple rooms (plus remote access via internet is possible)

The downside is:

* Computer (+ NAS drive required) to rip CD collection

* It's time consuming if you have lots of CDs

In due course. I've ripped everything to ALAC already and stream from iTunes (see sig). I want to get the streaming as good as I can without a dedicated streamer first; that's why a better DAC is first on the list of purchases.

 

[DocG]

The Perfectwave Transport but it would have to be an ex-demo or similar as they are $3K new. These are one of the new breed transports with solid state buffer memory, it works similarly to a rip with error correction on.

Thanks. Googling took me here < http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/psaudio7/perfectwave.html > where I found the most easy to understand explanation of why CD audio is not just 0s ans 1s that I have ever read.

Thanks for the link, ifor. It is a very apprehensible article indeed.

It may also explain why sometimes a CDP works better than a CDT+DAC: the use of I²S instead of SPDIF. So you might consider the combination of the PerfectWave Transport + PW DAC. The only other DAC I know of, with a I²S input, is the Wired4Sound DAC2; so PWT + W4S DAC2 might also work.

 

[CnoEvil]

The Perfectwave Transport but it would have to be an ex-demo or similar as they are $3K new. These are one of the new breed transports with solid state buffer memory, it works similarly to a rip with error correction on.

Thanks. Googling took me here < http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/psaudio7/perfectwave.html > where I found the most easy to understand explanation of why CD audio is not just 0s ans 1s that I have ever read.

Thanks for the link, ifor. It is a very apprehensible article indeed.

It may also explain why sometimes a CDP works better than a CDT+DAC: the use of I²S instead of SPDIF. So you might consider the combination of the PerfectWave Transport + PW DAC. The only other DAC I know of, with a I²S input, is the Wired4Sound DAC2; so PWT + W4S DAC2 might also work.

I agree.....what an interesting explanation.

For me, it lays out the logical argument for getting a perfect rip (if possible), storing it, and then streaming it with a device that has no moving parts and which has the jitter / clocking problms sorted out, all in one neat box.

 

[Anonymous]

And it explains why the OP wants a CDT. there is basically two ways to approach getting the data. He already has the computer version which is doing streaming duties, and he thinks better fidelity can be achieved with the CD route. In my experience of demoing, I actually found the all in one cd player route worked best for me.