Keep and use your Luxman CD player as a transport until the laser gets too weak to read a disc. Then toss it or buy a replacement laser pickup. Me, I'll just keep buying cheap secondhand DVD players.
CD transports
I recently started running my CD player ( Luxman D380) through my external DAC and have found a significant sonic improvement. I wonder if I would achieve further improvement in sound quality if I traded in the Luxman and bought a dedicated CD transport ( price range 3-4 K ).
Has anyone gone down that rabbit hole?
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I second @jasonbourne52 ’s advice to keep the Lux until it dies. If not, another contender is TEAC: their CDPs use excellent transports and any used CDP will work very well as a stand-alone. BTW, bits may be bits, but extracting them and transporting them correctly has proven a tricky business*; however, spending 4k on a dedicated transport in the age of streaming seems excessive -- you can buy a whole lot of music for that money:)!
*I auditioned the big Metronome transport. It is amazingly better the little Magnat tube CDP I use as transport, but... 40k??? I’ll stream in hi definition instead, download tons of music, buy a mid-priced DAC, and still have money left over for the holidays!😉 |
Hang on. I recently replaced my 14 year old Rega Saturn laser mechanism box type thing (by a qualified tech, he also took the opportunity to fix some flaky solder etc etc) when it started having issues. Mechanism USD$10 from Ali. That is ten bucks. Note for Rega folk - the most recent Saturn Mk II is a different mechanism from Mk I. The internal DAC (Wolfson) was pretty decent, but antique. Yeah, 14 years old. Hooked up new Topping E30 external DAC. Like @mdrone I am most impressed and surprised.. I was also playing with the idea of a dedicated transport. Nah, not anymore. Not going there for the foreseeable future at least. |
Op, if you want to degrade your sound take this advice proffered above:
"Any competently-designed player/transport (including DVD) will work just as well as a high-priced transport. Digital is not like analog where more costly turntables sound better. Bits are bits! The old analog ideas do not apply to digital! I use a secondhand JVC DVD player" |
I had been using my moded Oppo 105 (LPS, Furutec IEC with silver tail to the power supply and jumper to bypass the 110/220 switch). I play SACDs direct to my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5, but I use a Pangea XLSE digital coax ($169 from AudioAdvisor) to the DDP 1 internal dac for redbook. I have/had a Marantz HD CD-1 as a backup, but recently decided to reinsert it as redbook transport. It is/was quite a it better, but quickly started making a scratching sound. I took it apart and located the problem, but it isn’t a simple fix, requiring a new mechanism @ $150+ shipping. No bueno
I started investigating reasonably priced transports and read the attached review of the Audiolab 6000. I found a slightly used one on Agon (at a great price): it should arrive this Thursday hth |
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