If you can deal with a drawer that sometimes tries to close before you manage to get a CD in it, the EAD T-7000 is quite easily the best transport I have heard under several thousand dollars and perhaps a bit more.... It is based on a Philips laser disk mechanisim and for whatever reason sounds fantastic. A friend of mine has one and that transport has embarrassed many of our high end one box players when they're used as transports only. The EAD, coupled with a good Audio Note DAC, Audio Logic DAC, or heck maybe even a modified ART DI\O would outperform (easily) most 4000 ---> 7000 one box players (and then some). I think you can get an EAD T-7000 for under $400 used.
Please note! To avoid confusion... Whenever I recommend the EAD T-7000, people usually come back and say, what about the T-1000?? Newer versions of the transport (and one box players) are NOT the same and are NOT better performers. If the unit is NOT a T-7000, it is NOT the unit I am speaking of.
Also keep in mind, the T-7000 is no longer a supported product and Philips no longer makes the mechanisim inside the transport. Beware of this before and if you buy & make sure the unit works well. I will state again, the problem with the door closing prematurely is common to these units and seems to be the only thing to worry about.
Please note! To avoid confusion... Whenever I recommend the EAD T-7000, people usually come back and say, what about the T-1000?? Newer versions of the transport (and one box players) are NOT the same and are NOT better performers. If the unit is NOT a T-7000, it is NOT the unit I am speaking of.
Also keep in mind, the T-7000 is no longer a supported product and Philips no longer makes the mechanisim inside the transport. Beware of this before and if you buy & make sure the unit works well. I will state again, the problem with the door closing prematurely is common to these units and seems to be the only thing to worry about.