CD Transport / Player Thread

Not interested in the CD-200?
https://www.amazon.com/Tascam-CD-200-Professional-CD-Player/dp/B002DOVT7O

 

Should I be?

I saw @Marvey advising against most modern transports.

I'll check out the reviews.

 

Positive comments here (before and after):
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-as-redbook-flac-rips.3962/page-2#post-121806

 

Didn't someone recommend sorbothane?

 

The Denon DVD-3910 is decent stock and also has plenty of room for mass loading as well as many relatively easy mods available. Used as just a transport, I'd probably just pick up one of these and do the mass loading and a PS mod. They're still available regularly @$200, and with patience $150 is a good target. You can also find them already modded occasionally (though it's always wise to exercise some caution purchasing pre-modded gear).

 

Thanks for the tip. They seem to be more widely available than the DCD models.

 

I have the Tascam CD200 and I briefly had a Cambridge CXC. They sounded nearly identical ... the CXC maybe had a slight edge but if I tested blind, I would would be hard pressed to tell which was which. For the price, the Tascam is a good buy. I don't think it makes sense paying for expensive transports at this time.

 

Its sort of sad that CD players have devolved over the years. I'm sure my Tascam underperforms compared to the high end transports from the golden age of CD but my ears probably are not good enough to pick up the differences.

 

I picked up an old Rotel RCD 950 about five years ago for under $100. I am sure there are lots better, but the thing has worked flawlessly. If it dies, I'd look into finding another one cheap.

 

I know modern transports don't get much love around here, but does anyone have experience with the Emotiva EC-3? I see generally positive reviews...

 

ERC-3 wasn't a bad deal if you look at it compared to the expensive USB shit out there. Alternatively, you could pick up a used philips CDV400 or some other vintage drives for cheaper if you look around. I use mine as a pure digital transport and have disconnected all the analog boards. I believe it to be superior (practically any CDT for that matter) to all USB fukery so that was its intended use and competition in my mind.

USB solutions I used on Yggdrasil tended to collapse staging, kill dynamics, and add a warmth. The sound would be sterilized of some of the ambiance, shading, I guess we call that micro details here.

As you mentioned, it appears to utilize a modern high speed CDROM drive mechanics and laser, which is not great but it looks like its easy to upgrade, replace, and modify being modular and compartmentalized. Emotiva has product experience in power conditioners and DC filtering so you can see that implemented in the PSU sections. The AES digital output might be isolated and transformer coupled.

Steel chassis is solid and weighs like 25#. The box where the cd drive located is double thickness. I am in the process of mass loading the plastic frame. If i could do it over again i wish i bit a bullet and bought a Wadia 7 or Esoteric P2 or 3.

 

My Denon DVD2900 finally quit on me, so I decided to get a vintage Sony DVP to use as a CD transport, with the intention of using it to feed my Jotunheim /HD 650 bedside rig. I managed to pick up a Sony DVP-S9000ES this weekend for $60 from CraigsList. Nice, well care-for unit in original Box with remote. The first thing i noticed is that this player is heavy - over 27 Ibs, and the construction and build quality to outstanding, compared to today's offerings. It was the top of the line DVP from Sony, when released in 2001, for $1500.




I realize that the laser on the unit could quit at any time, and given its age, a replacement laser is likely to be unobtainable - but even if a get 1 year's usage, i will consider this money well spent. A nice feature of the player is that it has a Video defeat to switch off all the video processing for direct audio playback.

Now I just need to get a Modi Multibit to feed into my Jot.....

 

Try looking up the service manual for the Sony. I'm not sure about the S9000ES, but a lot of their other players can self calibrate if you have the right codes from the manual. I've had a SCD-C555ES that wouldn't ready hybrid SACD (just like this one one eBay) that worked perfectly well after inputting the service code to calibrate the laser for hybrid SACDs. If the S9000ES is anything like that unit (or the SCD-CE595 or SCD-XA777ES), you can probably keep it running for quite a while.

 

Yes. I read on an old online forum that in the setup menu there was the ability to run a calibration for the laser. I have not tried this yet, but from quick test with a Hybrid SACD it seemed that it was only picking up the CD layer.

Thanks for your advice - will definitely look for a service manual online.

 

I found a service manual for mine here: https://elektrotanya.com/?q=keres

 

Congrats on the purchase, I picked up the same player NOS a while back. It works great as a CD transport. You snagged a much better deal than me though

The video defeat feature will also disable the digital SPDIF output, so you would have to use the built in DAC and R/L RCA interconnects out to your amp/pre-amp.

Your hybrid SACD may be multi channel? If so, this player can not read multi channel SACD's...

The copper coated chassis does look BOSS.



link to service manual, thanks @Dino

https://elektrotanya.com/sony_dvp-s9000es.pdf/download.html

 

Just saw this at Emotiva. I'm guessing the BasX line is new?

Wonder how this would function purely as a transport: https://emotiva.com/products/sources/cd-100

 

Probably just fine for the task. I like my CD player but I'm thinking of switching over to a DAP with coax out for transport purposes. I'm not sure why I've never considered it seriously before but it just makes more sense to me at the moment. I'll probably buy music on CD for archival purposes and they are still the cheapest source of music you can actually own.