New, Very Interesting CD Transport

I use my ET-3 plugged in via I2S into my Holo Audio Spring3 KTE DAC using a run of the mill HDMI cable. It sounds great. I like the I2S sound quality over using USB. I even like S/PDIF over the USB output.

I've never had any skipping nor any CDs that would not play.

The ET-3 doesn't read or play any DSD disks, but will upsample PCM or output DSD via I2S. With USB you cannot upsample at all.

It does recognize and play MQA disks, if that matter to you. I bought one just to see and it plays at 88.2mhz.

For the price it has a lot of features. The main plus is the top loading mechanism in my book. I have never streamed with it.

A good CD transport should load fast and be very mechanically silent. I had an old Sony ES CD player years ago that I used as a transport. It would only play redbook CDs, and it loaded faster, switched tracks faster, and ran more silently than any multi-disc reading transport I've had since. 

@alexberger

Thanks your 411 is very helpful. I may still get one if the price is right. FYI my digital connection is coax and my Audio Alchemy DDP -1 + PS 5 dac/pre is old. it still sounds amazing

@creative Thank you too. Bummer that it doesn’t read DSD I have a lot of them. So it's no longer on my radar

Hi @creativepart

ET-3 Plays DSD from USB memory and does it great!

I can use PCM oversampling though coaxial. But don’t need oversampling. My DAC has AKM AK4191 that is built to work with AKM 4499 DAC chip and does oversampling job better then ET-3. But I prefer not oversampling mode of AKM 4499.

And cable quality matters! My $1000 NBS coaxial SPDIF cable overperforms any $100 I2S cable that I have by a big margin!

I was talking about USB output not inputs from USB sticks/drives. I have no idea of it's capabilities other than playing CDs.