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Accessible, yet elite sounding, musical CD machines. Current vs next upgrade

I’d like to start a thread of musical, all out CD transports and players, in leu of the physical media’s resurrection in the hifi world. 
 

I use a TEAC PD-507T. For its external clock input and tried-and-true drive mechanism and chassis engineering. This CD drive mech. is arguably one of the best designs in the industry, which is why you see so many high end transports with TEAC trays. But the 507t lacks tubes and i2s input….
 

I’ve been drooling over the Triode TRV-CD6se. For its magnificent 6922 preamp tubes in a tube buffer output stage, AND IT HAS i2s!!! 
Now the tube buffer won’t be included in the i2s output path, you have to choose either the tube output through the Burr-Brown chips, or a digital transport over i2s, but how cool!? What is everyone using currently and what’s in your upgrade chamber ?

jbuddha882
pindac's avatar
pindac
4,051 posts
 

Shigaclone, I have heard one of these designs built into a Panzerholz chassis, and the experience has been, from my assessment, extremely impressive, and has an attraction I would really like to maintain. 

Never heard the Shigaclone in anything but P'holz as the structure, so I can't suggest other models built into other structures will have the same impression.

P'holz has been assessed as a comparison material to other materials used as a structure for another Source, and P'holz has proven itself to be extremely attractive and wanted to be the maintained material, which it is. 

jbuddha882 OP
27 posts
 

@pindac Yes very familiar with that wood, I’ve been pricing some out from the one distributor here Precision Composite Industries, in the US, for some cabinet speakers I’m building. So these are kits you can build ? Marvelous. You should build a pholz cd transport 

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,464 posts
 

@jbuddha882 

I'm confused.  In Australia, at least, the TRV has an ESS dac, not Burr Brown.  ESS is a mighty plus in my book, based on my experience with Reavon!

You have a transport, and now you are looking at a player?

I note the obsession with I2S, which was never designed for anything except transfer of 16-bit audio between two chips on a board.  It does not do any of the things that make digital reliable, such as error detection and correction.

Why not look for a transport that also plays SACD?  In 5.1 channels?  Maybe also Pure Audio Blu-ray?  Digital has come a long way since CD

jbuddha882 OP
27 posts
 

@richardbrand oh is that so? Interesting, I’m more of a fan of burr brown. And my Grok Ai app told me it was burr brown, but looks like you’re right. Also this is a dual transport and player. So CDs are actually making a huge comeback, and lots of people are discovering they like the sound of physical 44.1khz media, a lot of the times with non oversampling DACs! Who would have thought. But I do a lot of Roon streaming, and I upsample to DSD 512 with an apple Mac Mini. That’s 8 times the quality of SACD, so for resolution and reference sound quality, I’m covered friend. Just looking for any and all cd players and transports, and I’m open to SACD options. Also, if you’ve never heard an A/B test of USB vs i2s, it’s dramatic. You’ve got to hear it for yourself. I don’t understand the 

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