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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. 

kjl1065
buzz's avatar
buzz
22 posts
 

@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.

stuartk
3,993 posts
 

@kjl1065 

FYI, Jay's transports have excellent clocks. 

 

voodoofunk's avatar
voodoofunk
46 posts
 

I'm all in with the SHANLING ET-3 recommendation...I liked it so much that I purchased the SHANLING ONIX SACD/CD TRANSPORT...probably the last transport I will ever need.

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,603 posts
 

Jays audio  makes some very good models 

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
1,109 posts
 

I heard the previous model to this model and it was the best CD player I have ever heard. This has a DAC.  Might be interesting to have something that sounds a bit different than you current DAC as you could compare. 

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/hegel-music-systems-viking-cd-player-page-2

 

 

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