Im looking to upgrade my Roksan Caspian M2 CD player with a dedicated CD transport fed into the DAC’s of my Lumin P1 streamer to get the best sound quality from my CD collection.
I have searched the forum and previous threads mostly relate to CD players and not dedicated transports and since recent threads, Cyrus have launched the CDT-XR and Audiolab the 9000 CDT so some new products are now on the market.
I do not need SACD as I have none of those discs so its just normal CD playback I need.
I’m not interested in ripping my very large CD collection as I don’t have the time and certainly not the patience to faff around doing that and I’m not too lazy (just yet) to get out of my chair, choose a CD and pop it in the machine and play it.
My budget is around GBP 3000 but would spend some more if a far better transport was available above this price region.
The Cyrus CDi-XR player gets good reviews so I’m assuming the dedicated Cyrus CDT-XR transport will be better but I’m not too sure about the slot loading mechanism as I’m used to disc trays.
Any recommendations on dedicated CD transports to consider would be much appreciated.
There doesn’t seem to be a vast choice of transports these days. The Cyrus and Audiolab transports always seem to be very well regarded. We have a Melco but my wife prefers to use CD so we needed a transport to feed our Chord Qutest DAC.
We tried the Audiolab 9000CDT and it was really very good. We ended up buying a Moon 260 CDT to match our Moon amp. Considerably more expensive but within your budget. It is exceptionally well made and sounds really excellent. I think one would need to spend significantly more to better this.
Just an afterthought. I know you say you don’t want to rip your CD’s - fair enough. But for your £3K you could buy the Melco N100 library/player and D100 ripper, which is what we have. It couldn’t be simpler to rip discs. Just pop into the ripper and wait till it pops out! Done. Could take some time if you have a large collection but it can de done in spare moments etc. Even if it takes a few weeks or months, once it’s done it’s done.
I recently bought the £400 Audiolab CDT 6000 brand new but at a great discount and I am really impressed with the sound quality. The £900 CDT9000 ought to be superb
This is a Naim forum, so how about a Naim CDX2.2 if there’s a good 2nd hand market where you are? You could use it as transport to your Lumin, but also compare it via its internal DAC into the Lumin’s preamp. If that sounds good, then add an XPS for icing on the cake.
Alternatively, you could go all the way with a CDP555. I’ve seen a couple for sale recently at reasonable prices? If you are serious about playing CD’s a CDP555 will show you what’s really on those shiny discs!
Just to clarify, I am not interested in normal CD players (with DACs) and certainly not anything used where you have no idea how much use it has had or how long it is likely to keep going before it fails, that’s too big a risk for me that I’m not prepared to take.
As per the thread title I’m looking for CD Transport recommendations only.
I’m already checking out on the internet the transport recommendations so far, so many thanks to everybody for those.
Plan is to put a short list together and then go demo them.
I have a good streamer and have a Tidal HiFi Plus subscription so all good for streaming.
In fact I’m using an old VRDS-9 into the SuperNait’s DAC and it sounds very good to me. It’s not always necessary to spend a fortune to stumble into fine gear.
(BTW, I’ve had an Esoteric K-07Xs for some time, a tough term of comparison)
I returned my Audiolab 6000 CDT as I couldn’t get beyond the fact that you could only pause a CD for 5 minutes before it returned to a stopped state, loosing ones place in the album. Barely enough time for a brew !
I replaced it with a 7000 CDT which is better but still seems sluggish in general operation (it takes 12 seconds from hitting the power button until any other buttons work) and the buttons need really firm presses to actuate, hence most first attempts do nothing. I guess I’m tuned into a touchscreen feel.
I wouldn’t choose a unit from this manufacturer if I had my choice again. Luckily the OP budget means there is nothing here of interest.
When my beloved CDS 3 was not able to be repaired, I went on an extensive search for a transport to run through my NDX2.
I ended up with a Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 transport and its companion power supply. I think it’s quite good, as good as my CDS 3, but in a different way. It’s a top loader like the CDS 3 so there isn’t a motorized tray to fail down the road.
