CD transport drive

Discussion in 'Hi-Fi and General Audio' started by GAZZ, Sep 18, 2003.

  1. GAZZ

    GAZZ

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    CD TRANSPORT DRIVES

    What is the best cd transport drive. I know of 4 types, Sony, Teac, Philips and pioneer. I know a lot of you like the Teac drive, there must be more to it than that. I believe the Sony drive is the most reliable. They all cannot sound the same, eg putting a Philips drive into an Arcam (Sony), this must alter the sound.

    So If you guys can rate the cd drives on sound, reliability and quality. I do not want this discussion to become a slanging match, about which is the best cd player as that is not the point of the exercise.

    GAZZ
     
    GAZZ, Sep 18, 2003
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  2. GAZZ

    amazingtrade Mad Madchestoh fan

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    I believe Sanyo also make transports and these are featured in some NAD machines.

    My Sony CD player is very reliable and smooth despite it being used for an average of 3-4 hours a day in the last 4 years. For this reason I will go with Sony but to be honest I've not had much experience with other transports.
     
    amazingtrade, Sep 18, 2003
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  3. GAZZ

    GAZZ

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    Thanks for the reply amazingtrade, looks like no one else is speaking.

    I'll try and get time to go to the hifi show in manchester, are you still going?

    GAZZ
     
    GAZZ, Sep 20, 2003
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  4. GAZZ

    michaelab desafinado

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    GAZZ - I doubt there's much to choose between the top Sony and Philips mechanisms. The Teac VRDS mech. is regarded by many as the best and it's certainly used my many of the top names (Wadia, Mark Levinson etc). Whether it really is, who knows. It's certainly a lot more bulky and it does have the famous disc clamping system.

    There's a Pioneer "stable platter" mech that's used in the Wadia 301 but I'm not sure how that compares to the Teac.

    Michael.
     
    michaelab, Sep 20, 2003
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  5. GAZZ

    voodoo OdD

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    Sorry I've taken so long to join in the discussion but anyhoo's...... :D

    My CDT2 uses what is regarded as a strange/non-standard combination of Phillips and Sony.

    A quote about the unit :

    "The drive itself is a Philips CD 12 Pro with a Sony digital front end – [Peter] Qvortrup and Audio Note's talented designer Andy Grove prefer the Sony."

    So I think it's more than just the actual transport but what it's implemented with and the quality of the outputs as well.
     
    voodoo, Sep 20, 2003
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  6. GAZZ

    amazingtrade Mad Madchestoh fan

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    I still plan to go, I am not sure which day yet, I will need to check my uni time table when I get it next week.


    I've not been to a show for a few years so it will be good to see whats out there, when I last went that was in London in 2001 (I was in London anyway).
     
    amazingtrade, Sep 20, 2003
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  7. GAZZ

    GAZZ

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    Apparently the Manchester Airport show is now next feb-march, Amazing trade.

    Thanks for your input, voodoo, michaelab. michaelab am i right what your saying is, sound wise its best to get the cheapest? but if i would like quality to last a long time i would buy the Teac?

    GAZZ
     
    GAZZ, Sep 20, 2003
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  8. GAZZ

    michaelab desafinado

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    GAZZ - I don't think I'm qualified to comment on the sound of the various transport mechs. I don't even know if they have different "house" sounds. I think it depends a great deal on the implementation. I don't even know if they vary that much in reliability terms.

    What are you aiming to do? I personally went for a Teac T1 because it's a standalone transport, has the "famous" VRDS mech and had plenty of scope (and space) for mods. It was also well thought of as a transport in it's time (middle to late 90s). I also picked one up for what I thought was a bargain price.

    I think if you were looking for a transport you could probably do as well with a Sony or a Philips based machine. Afterall, Sony and Philips did invent the CD so they should know what they're doing :)

    Michael.
     
    michaelab, Sep 20, 2003
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  9. GAZZ

    Rory satisfied

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    i personally hate with distain the philips cdm12 and vam1201 mechanisms. very very clunky, flimsy built mechanisms and unpredictable results with cdr/cdrws
    heard some bad reliability problemos with teac vrds mechanisms, but could just have been some dealer bullsh!t
    dislike the sony transports for the same reason as the philips...not great reliability- particularly heard of probs in the rega planet and arcam alpha series
    the sanyo transports- the wharfedale dvd player used that and my old Teac CDP3450se also did- the latter has just messed up on me and it won't read discs at all

    which leaves us with the Pioneer stable platter, which I have, and which is used on the expensive (and high end) Eikos and Trichord players. It makes a great deal of sense, there being a large surface area supporting the disc and i have had no probs with it whatsoever, and judging by the number of elderly examples on the 2nd hand market, seem to be generally pretty well made.
     
    Rory, Sep 20, 2003
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