$150 Transport anyone?

The unit is basic meaning it does not have programability which I have never used myself and I find it somewhat pointless. The fan is tiny and is basically silent. It is very well shielded I used 8 ferrites in my prototype 3 on the incoming power 1 on the ground and 4 on the power lead going to the drive and I will also be using one on the output. Yes It is very well silenced against RFI.

Warranty 1 year parts & labor through me. Its not an easy unit to kill and the drive is easily replaced so I am giving it a warranty.

Returns, sure why not I am not sure what the period will be yet but yes I will give a grace period for you to determine if you like it or not.

If you have any further questions email me directly and I will get back to you ASAP

I havent tested it for temperature yet but the casing just happens to have a fan on it. The drive itself is in an internal metal casing so I dont think that much dust will be getting inside unless you live in a very messy household then I might have to add a cotton filter to prevent the dust mites from taking up residence in my transport. I dont think that the drive actually generates much heat at all.

Marakanetz if you would like a beta version you can place a $70 deposit and I will build one for you so that you can test tinker and play untill you turn blue. I have already taken in 2 orders for beta units.

I will take pictures of the unit later on this week. I will also prepare a word document that gives all of the features and such for comparison sake.

The Transport! only exists because of a coincidence that a particular computer CD-ROM drive has both a digital output and stand alone operability. I have seen the drive being used for this purpose before but it was at an audio dealers home and I dont remember who made the CD player that employed this same drive. It literally is a CD-Rom drive If you were so inclined you could take it out of the casing and pop it into your desktop computer and use it to read CDs. The drive is not available for sale in the USA unless it is in OEM form so you cant just go the local comp USA and buy one. Obviously if the drive was garbage it wouldnt have been used by another company in their CD player which had an internal DAC with Analog outputs. Theirs also had a flip down wooden faceplate that revealed the drive. It was very cool but it was still the same drive which means that that $1000+ cd player is based on the same mechanism that my $150 unit is. So when used with an excellent DAC my Transport! has the possiblity of performing very nicely. Note that the Unit I saw lacked a display also so I am pretty sure that a display is not possible. Realistically a display is a luxury that is not needed. Cassettes have timers but they correspond to nothing so they are totally ambiguous and Records dont have track numbers either. The Transport! is as basic as possible without sacrificing functionality. It will play CDs CDRWs and CD-Rs as long as the info on them is Redbook spec. This unit is a shortcut to superb sound just add a 2nd hand DAC and you've got a serious CD player. That is what I made it for. If you are on a budget but want the expensive sound this is an option that might be ideal. I will also make the unit in black upon request.

Jvia

It does have an audable fast forward and rewind feature. I agree that the lack of a display sucks and if I could give it a display I would but I am pretty sure that the IDE interface on the drive would require a desktop computer to interpert what track number is currently being played. Short of the display it really is a fully functional Transport. For $150 its not a bad deal and for $100 in kit form you cant beat it. I am not trying to make the best Transport on earth, just one that works well and can produce excellent sound when teamed with a good DAC.

Viggen

It is a transport because it does have buttons to control it and it does have a Sony/Philips Digital interface SPDIF. The casing has a IEC type power inlet. What you havent seen does actually exist. I have been building desktop computers for 7 years and I assure you that Creative Labs makes a drive such as the one I have described. Go on ebay an search for "Creative Infra" and you will find the drive.

Notice I have called it a transport because that is exactly what it is. Not all CD-Rom drives are controlled only through Graphic User Interfaces and I have owned one a while back that had play/pause and digital volume adjustment and a stop/eject button and a track forward button. I tried the drive as a stand alone and it worked with just 12v & 5v power being fed to it. So you are wrong and this is a Transport and that is why I call it a transport.

The CD mechanism is the same one used in the Redgum RGCD5 which sells for $1600. So My price of $150 is a bit more reasonable. The Redgum unit is a full CD player not just a transport, but you can get a Burr Brown based dac for a few hundred dollars. Then later on if you want a better transport you can get one. But for now Just add a dac and you've got one very good cd player. www.redgumaudio.com/. My unit uses the exact same CD-Rom drive. I can say that the Redgum unit was somewhat of an inspiration/ignitor of my creative fuels on this project.