2. digital
  3. 139174-2546

Is the NuPrime CDT 9 Pro a Best Kept Secret?

Recently the lens fell out of my heavily moded (Musical Concepts)  Pioneer PD 65 which I use as a transport, toslinked to my Audio Alchemy DPP/DAC. I glued it back in, but it won't play.  I  may have inserted it upside down, alas, there was no telling which way was up even wth my magnifying glass

so I am in search of a transport. The NuPrime CDT 9 Pro (MSRP $795) caught my eye, but I cannot find a review

Anybody know anything? 
tweak1
maritime51's avatar
maritime51
1,288 posts
 
Cdt 8 allows easy DAC upgrade!
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,313 posts
 

The CDT-8 Pro is a transport, that also has an upsampling converter on board (though it seems to be defeatable).

The CDP-9 adds full DAC plus preamp functions.

It you're looking for an inexpensive transport, the '8 is obviously a competitor to the few other ones out there (e.g. Cambridge), and there have been threads dedicated to this topic.

Googling the '9 for reviews and impressions, it seems to tend to hew to the, how shall I say, slightly less forgiving end of the spectrum that we're all familiar with.

tweak1 OP
3,529 posts
 
Oops I meant '8'.

well, I found out that the remote does not allow for direct track selection, which seems unconscionable these days. I emailed them about it

I was intrigued by the SRC upsampling of both coax and toslink

The other issue: I sent 2 emails that are still unanswered 

I settled on a used Marantz HD CD 1 which will be used as a transport

Im looking for a buyer for my Pioneer PD 65 (heavily moded by Musical Concepts, including outboard power supply) which needs a new laser. It is an amazing transport 
celander's avatar
celander
1,502 posts
 
@tweak1

I’ll pm you my NuPrime contact info (CEO). He’s quite responsive. I tried the CDT-8 Pro. Here is a summary of my impressions that I posted on their FB Page:

“The CDT-8 Pro is a beautiful transport in terms of finish, functionality and features. Though my Theta Digital DSPro Basic IIIa can only accept PCM/44.1kHz and PCM/48kHz input digital streams, the DAC locked on to the CDT-8 digital stream when the SRC value was set to "off", "PCM-44.1kHz" or "PCM-48kHz" data stream sampling rates.

“All of the functionality of the Remote is duplicated with operations control buttons on the CDT-8 transport face plate. Only exception is the SRC value settings, which must be set using the Remote from what I can tell. The same might also apply to track repeat and shuffle functions—seem to be Remote only functions.

“Only minor bit of confusion in reading the User’s Manual in relation to CDT-8 transport function is the operation of the Standby button on the transport face plate. Impatient American’s like me simply cannot quickly punch that Standby button in the hopes of engaging the operational features of the transport. One must hold the Standby button down for at least 2 seconds or until the Standby LED blue light turns off and the transport’s menu LEDs turn on. Same applies to re-engaging the Standby status using the transport’s front panel Standby button. Push and hold the Standby button on the unit face plate until the Standby LED blue light illuminates. The same patience is not required of the unit’s on-off button on the Remote: a quick punch of that button immediately prompts the desired command.

“Support sent me an email regarding the output circuit jitter level for the CDT-8 Pro being at 120 psec. Though this is higher than my CAL Delta transport, I will figure out an appropriate DAC solution for it.

“Great communication from Jason, the CEO. He obviously cares about his product working for his customers.”
Here is the only online review thread about the CDT-8 Pro that I discovered:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=158771.0

I’ve since returned it to NuPrime’s NA Office in California for a refund. I opted to a Jay’s Audio CDT2-Mk2 transport.
tweak1 OP
3,529 posts
 
well it's a tough to compare a ~ $1600 player to Jays (~ $500 more), BUT, Jay doesn't include toslink, which to me is important, at least when using WireWorld toslink cable 
More to discover