My CD-player stopped working. Does it make sense to invest in a new CD-transport?
My older CD-player stopped working, so I am considering whether I should go now for a new CD transport. Most of the time I stream audio (Qobuz) and I have a many €€€€ streamer and DAC. So no need for a CD transport?
However, though I haven't bought a CD for at least 10 years, some people say that a CD still sounds better than streaming. And I have a huge collection (classical, jazz, blues, pop). I was looking at the front loader Teac PD 505t or the newer model PD 507t (about €1000-1300). Does that make sense? Or just forget about CDs and CD-players, keep or rip some for the good memories when buying them, and donate or sell the rest? What do you think?
This is not my experience at all. Switching from a Moon 260 DT to a Jay’s CDT2MK3 resulted in a very noticeable improvement. I’m confident many others here will agree that the transport can make a significant difference. |
@stuartk Fair, perhaps a gross simplification on my part. Reading up on the Jay's CD transport I can see how much of their tech would help there. I guess depends on appetite for budget - but I also still think pairing a CD player with a good DAC will make a huge difference. Thanks for correction. :) |
@rikkipuu Yes, that is what I am starting to find out too. It will cost me a lot of money to get a transport at the same level. Personally, I ripped all my CD's to a server after my transport died and the CD's are now out of the way in storage. Very high WAF. I've optimized streaming with switches, filters, optical and the like to where Qobuz sounds amazing and more often better than the same file from the Innuos server, and that holds true for Hi-Rez music I purchased and downloaded. I do feel DSD sounds better in general, too bad it can't be streamed by Qobuz. Even if you keep your CD's they have a lifespan. Most will be good for 100 years but 4 percent reach end of life at 10 years. Temperature and humidity play a huge role, a disc's life span can be increased over 10 fold by storing at 50 degrees and 35 % humidity vs 77 degrees and 50 % humidity.
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I suspect my response as worded comes across with an "edge" I wasn't originally cognizant of. My apologies. If memory serves, I paid 2k for the Moon and 2.5k for the Jay's. The latter just seems to extract more sonic information from the disc. I'm not technically astute, so this may not be what actually occurs. It's simply the best verbal description I can formulate for what I've heard.
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With respect, from my reading of the CDT2MK3, it outputs using I2S over an HDMI cable. This is not a native HDMI implementation! I2S performs no error detection and no error correction. It was originally designed by Philips in 1986 to allow two chips on the same board to pass 2-channel 16-bit PCM signals. Presumably to avoid paying HDMI licence fees, I2S is now being fed into HDMI sockets and then HDMI cables to transfer 2-channel digital between boxes. The lack of any error detection or correction means that cable lengths should be kept to a bare minimum. If this is not a warning, I don't know what would be. The fundamental proposition for digital is that errors can be detected and corrected So in view of the lack of error detection, let alone correction, I am not surprised that transports using I2S may sound different, but I agree with @malbers original proposition that only the separate DAC really matters for CD transports (with the qualification that they must natively output HDMI or similar) |
