Cheap Cd players that make half decent transports?

Well, due to finding out that my cyrus CD7Q doesnt actually work, without the Q module installed (which its supposed to)

I now find myself needing something else transport wise.

Have literally no funds to do this, so needs to be pretty damn cheap.

So whats worth having?

Marantz CD6000?
Pioneer DV-717 (oldie but goldie)
pioneer stable platters?
SONY's with the fixed pickup systems?


etc etc

recommendations welcome, offers for sale, even better

 

I've used a cd5000 series unit for a while ....and heard several stable platters .....

the 6000 are very similar to the 5000 ...so might be worth a look ....the 5000 is not as good a transport as the quad 99cdp2 but you would not expect it to be ....

as to the others ...try and get a listen in your own system to compare .....

the more expenive the sony the better they are ....so if you can pick up a second hand bargain...

you can improve the performance of any of the transports by playing with the suport structure and or interface between the player and support....thats before you think about any other tweaks

 

You'll be amazed how good a laserdisc player fares as a transport.
A few years ago,i did a a-b comparison between a Pioneer ld player and a Audiolab cd transport.The Pioneer beat the Audiolab in almost all areas.If you can get a secondhand ld player,give it a try.

 

i think the same goes for the pioneer DV-717 dvd player of around 1997, its supposed to make an excellent transprort.

The problem with those is, that they are very hard to find.... usually you get them for about £50 or so... apart from one moron on ebay, who's put the word audiophile in his listing, and has a buy it now price of £250!!!

 

Pioneer stable platters have a good reputation.

 

Hey Shrink - slight diversion, but are you sure the Cyrus doesn't work without the Q module? With the 7Q you have to swap a couple of leads or jumpers or something over as well as removing the module. The instructions used to be around on CyrusUnofficial with handy pics.

Anyhoo if not, I've been using a Pioneer stable platter for a few years now and am very happy with it. Cost almost nothing off e-bay, sounded good straight away but even (much) better once Colin at Chevin Audio got his hands on it.

 

Keep an eye open for an original Cambidge Audio Discmagic. It really is good. I'm using one right now to fill in. It sounds just as good as the Cyrus but looks more ugly, lol. It has two separate transformers, 9 regulated lines and lots of copper shielding! Good stuff.

 

yeah the discmagic appeals, very very rare though.

Hamilton, i followed the procedure perfectly for Q dac removal, its just fried

looks like the voltage regulator chip on the main PCB is gone.

As for stable platter mechanisms, its a bit hit and miss with them. Some are excellent and some are very poor. as theres more to a CD transport than simply having a nice drawer setup. Theres the way the digital signal is handled and output from the player.

In this regard some pioneer spinners are better than others.

would LOVE to find a PDR-04 recorder, which is a very nice digital spinner indeed, but also rare as rocking horse poo.

 

Rega Planet mark1 makes a decent transport - its one of the few players I've played with that has a decent re-latched and transformer-isolated SPDIF output (these are good things). Oh , and uses a sony laser mech that's not difficult to find if you need one later.

 

The Planet Rob had didn't seem to like the Behringer for some reason it kept turning on the clipping LEDs and sounded pants. An odd incompatibility that has put me of Rega players as transports.

Also be careful with the stable platters, they have a tenancy for the laser glass to simply fall out during transport.

 

Pioneer stable platters are great transports IMHO. Cheaper now than ever before on ebay!

 

thanks guys.. i just bit the bullet and bought a Cyrus CDXT dedicated transport.

 

Old Exposure 2010 was surprisingly good in my system. It had very well made digital output with BNC connection and was much better as a transport than a CDP.
Newer 2010s has their own disk spinner so might be good as well.