Spoke to my dealer couple of days ago on unrelated matter and they now have some cdx2 transports in again.
Hopefully I won’t need one and I’d seriously consider the Rega Saturn 3 if I ever need a new one.
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Ian/Adam, are you able to say more about the mechs? I have a lovely CDS II, which I’m desperate to get working again.
I’ll ring Salisbury tomorrow to see what gives.
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Hi Graham, I just saw on this site and then confirmed by my dealer (Tom Tom) that they had a supply of CDX2 transports, sorry can’t offer any more than that.
Definitely worth getting in touch with Naim to see how widespread the new supply is, fingers crossed for you.
I hope I’m not in the position of needing to make a decision any time soon but good news to see there are still some new CD players coming into the market. I’d still rather have my cdx2.2 for a good few years to come.
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There seem to be a number of manufacturers still supporting the format with new product. The CD format is not dead yet and now seems to me to be a golden time to buy CDs especially in the used market at absolute bargain basement prices. I hope this continues to be the case but who knows s resurgence in interest in the format could result in pushing up prices same as we have seen with Vinyl LPs.
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Definite balancing act on the cost of ownership, was chatting to a professional recording artist who is friend of the family and streaming is killing the career.
I’ve got thousands of cd’s and continue to buy both them and vinyl, cds can defiantly be a bargain, tend to be more selective with vinyl investments.
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@graham55 - It was the CDX2 mech - and it was mentioned on here. A mech for a CDS2 is probably too much to hope for, I think…
Search should be your friend. It was in a thread somewhere about Naim CD Mechs…
(if I can find it…)
PS. Maybe this one… CDX2 Issue
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My first CD player whilst at University was a Philips CD 473 for around £250 - great reviews at the time, but it really sounded ‘digital’ and I quite disliked it. My mate had a cheaper Yamaha CD player for around £180 - it was sublime and sounded completely natural by comparison, I was quite envious.
System synergy is so important, sounds as though you have landed a great deal, enjoy!
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The Yammys of that era even had Natural Sound on the face plate! Didnt you believe them? 
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Think they still do!
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Yes I think they did, maybe it was the Yamaha CD player, his amp (maybe Arcam like me) and the Heybrook standmounts that just worked so well - incredible midrange and vocals for I guess £500. Maybe he just picked items well, after all he was a musician!
Of course I could equally argue that he had the better room sonically in student digs!
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That presupposes that most other manufacturers do have the ability to service and repair their older models. Which in many cases they don’t…
Naim can replace laser mechs on CDS3 players. Mine sounds fab again and was worth the wait!
Interesting !
As a happy owner of any CDS/CDi edition and CD5, CDX editions as well, I’ve realized the scarce parts scenario and went to Rega CD players, not sure if they have other current players than Saturn though.
I had my old first edition Saturn supported and serviced a couple of years back, now as good as new. If I didn’t have an Isis I would have ordered the new Saturn for upstairs.
Rega Isis would be my choice if a new CD player was required however it is expensive. Rega and Cyrus make good mid-level players as well.
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Yes Rega do make a great CD player. I read on Grahams HiFi website that Rega are discontinuing the Applo CD player due to lack of availability of components. That was there entry level CD player so I think the starting price for one of their current models is around £1300.
I dug out of the cupboard today a couple old Audiophile Base isolation platforms that I’ve had since the early 90s and as an experiment put both under the Rotel CD11 Tribute and to my astonishment a huge leap forward in SQ more clarity, dynamics and separation. I really am astounded at how good this CD player is. As the player was so cheap I’m think about getting a better mains lead to replace the standard one. I would be grateful for suggestions on a brand to try that might give me another jump up in SQ.
Yes this Rotel is definitely on my list, I stream a lot more but I still buy CD as my way of owning the music. My aging esoteric cd/sacd player is starting to skip now and I compare it to external Dac (Topping D90SE) Esoteric still wins with better sound stage, but to me that’s the only it does better Topping has better detail and more engaging. I have read and watched reviews on Rotel reviews (Steve Guttenburg) and like you said he thinks it sounds great for the price especially in a decent system. Have you compared it to external DAC?
Andy
I like audioquest cables, but what cables do you use the rest of your system? In my system it used to be various different brands of cables, and I’m gradually replacing them all with audioquest, synergy I discovered really helped tuning the sound. For source like CD player I recommend Audioquest NRG Y3 or Z3 .
I was in a similar position recently. Initially it showed similar symptoms to those you describe, but then, after moving my system around to accommodate a new (to me) 52/Supercap, I found that my Arcam CD23 would no longer even recognise any disc inserted. I was advised by Arcam’s customer services that they would only service/repair the later version of this player (with text display). I thought it was too good to simply recycle so I opened it up, cleaned the parts of the transport that I could with cotton buds and an old ‘stylus cleaning’ fluid, and then sparingly introduced a light oil ( I used model railway motor oil) to each of the plastic cog axles and to the tray’s rails.
It now performs as it should once more, and sounds fantastic through the Naim amps (I was worried that the 52 would be too much amp, but thankfully the CD23 is up to the job).
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Good idea, I should give that a try as Esoteric is famous for their Transport mechanism, it’s sitting in the middle shelf, a chunky 20kg beast, so will get around it eventually ha. Cheers
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Hi Andy,
No I’ve not tried it with an external DAC tbh the sound is so well balanced I don’t feel the need to try it.