I recently purchased a McIntosh MCT500 transport. It replaced my 17 year old MVP871 AV player. I went through Audio Classics as they offered a really good trade value for my old player against the price of the new player. I’m a McIntosh guy all the way so the new one was always going to be a McIntosh. I love the new player. You should check it out. But my main point here is to check out the trade value of your old unit. It might surprise you.
Looking To Upgrade to a new CD Transport
I currently own a Cary 306/200 cd player which I have had for 15 years. For the last 5 years have been using the Cary as a transport only with a stand alone DAC, which were the Chord Qutest and then the Weiss 204. The retail cost of the Cary CD player was about $5000.00. It is a well built machine. My question is have the transports been improved over the last 15 years. I stream often, but I still listen to cd's. Would purchasing a new transport improve my sound. My maximum budget is $5000.00 new only. Is a move that I am contemplating, a move sideways or would a new transport make a discernable difference in sound improvement. Thank you.
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I was in a similar position. I wanted a high quality transport that was sonically superior to a vintage Conrad Johnson DV-2b that I’ve had for years. I wanted something that would last me the next 10-20 years. I enjoy listening to CDs and R2R tapes. I recently purchased the Jays Audio CDT2 MK3. For the short time I’ve had the unit, it has met all of my expectations. It’s built like a tank and sounds amazing. With your budget, you could opt for the CDT3 MKT3. You can even purchase an additional plug-n-play transport. IMO, the Jays transport is a true sweet spot in modern transports. Like CJ, it just sounds right… |
@ctlesq agreed. That's what I had to do. Streaming is a compelling choice. Roon + RS130 is one option. But not if the internet fails. |
- 46 posts total