Wish to clarify and update my original question. I already stream a great percentage of my music and am happy with my streaming sound. My Dac is currently a Weiss Dac 204 which I use with my Lumin streaming transport. I still listen to cd's on an occasion. The new cd transport that I am considering must have AES/EBU digital outputs to provide the best sound with my Dac or with any future dac upgrade. My research indicates an AES/EBU digital output would provide the best sound. Now, I may not be correct as I am sure there are many that might say there is no difference, or that SPDIF is just as good. In any case, do I need a cd transport with digital inputs as well? Don't think I do, and have not found a cd transport that has both AES/EBU outputs and inputs. I have read AES/EBU digital inputs would allow more clocking options. Thank 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’ve never done transort/dac. I am quite happy with my Sony xa5400es SACD Player, it’s DAC. I gave an Oppo to a friend, he used it as a transport for years, his dac just died, he used the dac in the Oppo, and we both agreed, the Oppo sounded better. This just popped up, I thought it might add to the discussion: I don’t use a dedicated CD transport, I use a decent blu Ray player. I can (and do) connect HDMI for native DSD on SACDs, RCA for SACD non-DSD high resolution and coaxial or optical for standard CD. As far as connections go, RCA is the worst, coaxial or optical are much better, HDMI is really great but you have to have the player for it. I won’t rely on the DAC within the CD player because most are old and not very good. Modern DACs are much better (good ones)."
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I had a great cd transport and it looked smashing. But it stopped working after 5 years. As well as the same company's DAC. Both stopped working after 5 years. I can't name it because this post will be taken off. Great while they worked but they were not in for the lang haul. If only this company spent 90% of their advertising on the long term quality of their product. For the short term they are great. Sorry for the unasked for rant but I spent a fortune on repairs and it was pointless. I now have a Jay's Audio which I like very much but with an extra 5k I could probably have done better. I just did not have the extra 5k. |
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@kjl1065 , I have been using a Nuprime CDT 10 for the past two and a half years. It has an AES/EBU output (among several others), is very well built and performs exceptionally well. Some of the outputs are galvanically isolated and it offers upsampling to high resolution and DSD specs. I have not had any issues with it and highly recommended it at 1/2 of your stated budget. You should check it out: https://nuprimeaudio.com/product/cdt-10/ Also, I do not follow your comments about possibly needing a CD transport with an AES/ EBU input. What digital information would you want to send to a CD transport whose only purpose is to read the bits off the CD you're playing and transmit that to the DAC? As to which digital output provides the best sound, you'll have to judge that for yourself based on the transport, cable and DAC. |
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