Transport recommendations

Chaps,

I'm looking for your views regarding CD transports.
Sometime in the next week or so I should have a NOS DAC arriving from Derek, which I'm hoping will give a more analogue sound than I presently have.
Assuming I get on with it (not guaranteed), I've read that the DAC responds well to better transports.

I'm cautious about older units such as the Meridian 200, VRDS and Pioneer stable platter because of concerns regarding reliability and the potential for not being able to get replacement parts if required. I've owned a VRDS-7 which died on me and have read many stories about stable platter units dieing in transport.

So what I'm trying to find is a transport under 5 years old, under £500 that will be worth the effort over a cheapo Sony CD unit from RS.
About the only transport I know of that might fit the bill would be something like a Meridan 500 series unit.

Any thoughts?

 

Well I bought a cheapo sony xb930e qs and its quite abit better than I imagined. Ive used the nos DAC with a merdian 507 and it sounded dam fine but I cant honestly say it was better than the sony/dac combo (which I'll be trichording in the near future). I also have a 6000ki which cant match the sony. I believe the exposure has a decent transport and parts should be available for quite a while. Interestingly, it did seem to work very well with a quad 66 which surprised me given that quad cd's generally have quite a high jitter figure.

 

see if you can find a c.e.c. tl51 (?) it's their little top loading belt drive transport / cd player. if you're lucky you may be able to find one for your budget. basicly this is the same / similar transport as used in expensive burmesters and audiomeccas.
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtltran&1116659760 - this is new and nearly in budget
audio note do a small transport (cdt zero / cdt one) which should be in budget and their dacs are similar in philosophy to derek's nos.
47 labs flatfish, although may be out of budget unless you're very lucky on audiogon or audio markt.
theta transports are reputed to be good but again expensive.
copland use the vrds and may be in budget. - look nice too.
then there are a number of cdp's / transports from china - have a look: http://www.cattylink.com/ - various shanling, jolida and my favorite 'da vinci' you'll get hammered on shipping but prices are so cheap it doesn;t matter.
cheers


julian

 

Look for a used Tag McLaren CDR20 or CDT20, the former is a CD Player rather than a Transport, however, used as a Transport it is excellent.

You should be able to pick a used one up for £350 or so now as alot of Tag McLaren users have recently purchased the Tag DVD32FLR which they will use as a CD Transport aswell as a DVD Transport, as they have been selling these off very cheaply over the past month or so.

Although Tag McLaren Audio no longer exists, International Audio Group is providing service and warranty work for the Tag brand.

 

The Meridian 500 is often found on ebay or hififorsale so should be relatively easy to pick up.

 

Thats what I use, and Im very happy with it. Top quality IMO.

Havent tried it with a NOS dac though.

 

Tweekable too

 

When you get it try it with your Sony and give yourself time to get used to the sound before you go investigating alternatives. You might be surprised at how good it sounds. I'm sure that if I gave the NOS some decent time to burn in rather than going back to the DAC64 I'd get used to it. Must banish the 64 to the cupboard for a few weeks...

Might also be worth holding off buying another transport until you hear whether Derek's proposed power supply for the NOS improves it a lot. You might be better off spending the money on a better power supply than a different transport. I think I got a mail the other day saying the "better" power supply would be £150.

Paul

 

£150 sounds alot considering how easy it is to make your own.

One point of caution with sony cdp's, most are optical output only, the derek unit is coaxial.

 

Have to agree with julian, if you can find a CEC TL 5100 you will not be disappointed.

I bought one recently of E-bay (in Oz) for A$450.00, it is a great piece of kit.

Ken