What makes a good transport?

Ok, first off, thanks for all the informative replies.

Second - i've taken absolutely no notice of anybody and gone bargain basement shopping

Was passing Richers today and got myself a Marantz CD5400 £120 Brand New. (In black of course )

For the last couple of days i have been using a £200 Philips DVD player - and frankly, at best it was ok.

Well, the marantz, honestly eats this for breakfast. Please contain your laughter now chaps, but honestly this 5400 is a veritable bargain. I've hooked it straight up to the DAC20 and its singing like i would never have believed beforehand. Through my newly purchased Beyer DT990Pro's this little system now (through headphone socket of NADC370 ) sounds better than my old system and its incarnations have ever sounded.

Some dodgy magazine has probably said this before, but i think this is the best way to describe it - it sounds better than it has any right to.

So ok, you think now that i have probably lost the plot - but i challenge you to come round, listen to this and not be impressed. This is bargain music at its best - it jingalings and does absolutely nothing to be offensive. Even aspects where you would consider to fall down on are highly impressive. Details levels are excellent, dynamics likewise - vocals trash the DVD player (nasty sibilance on that one) - it all sounds so good. It PRAT's like a freefalling gerbil. Ok, so you think i'm getting carried away. Maybe so - but i'm amazed it can sound so good for so little cash. The main thing is though that it makes glorious music :MILD:

Anyway, thats saved me quite a few quid, as i will definitely be keeping this now as a transport. Plus for the money - its solidly built, has a host of features - bargain money. Of course there is better - but good or bad - this little combo now exceeds my expectations, which at the end of the day i suppose is all that is necessary.

I may trial a few headphone amps/cans in the future to see how they measure up, 'cos i suppose i won't be able to stop tinkering forever, but its all just spot on for the while.

Went into Smiths latter to to read WHF , to see what they thought of it - and they quite like it - unfortunately i'm inclined to agree.

Ok, i think i have now put enough nails in my coffin - firmly relegated to the chat zone now

Thanks for the responses though - it was a genuine enquiry. But i think i would now rather save the cash, as this does enough for me.

Birkett - cheers mate - i'll send a PM when i have chance, but its a definite thumbs up - downsides are mainly ergonomic - crap cord and not the most comfortable over a long period - but otherwise spot on.


cheers


P.S. thanks for the offer Mike - been away from PC for a while - only just seen it, but too late now. I would have been slightly concerned about the age as well. But thanks anyway.

 

Good work trooper!

Don't marantz and philips use the same transport mech? I guess next up will be re-clocking, balanced connections, damping, then a few caps in there too

 

Well all except one

 

No worries - glad you got something. It would have been a bit of a PITA to drag the old Marantz over to the UK anyway.

Michael.

 

The only tweaking its gonna get for a while, is parking its ass on a seismic sink. Maybe when the warantee runs out

I suppose 'toys' aren't particulalry well thought of, a bit like tone controls, but nevertheless this marantz has a nifty little toy feature, whereby it swallows the tray if it is left open for more than about 15 seconds. Quite cool - i was a bit perturbed the first time though when it ate a cd after i turned my back on it for a while.....

 

To be honest if it does nothing to offend, in other words is very polite, I won't be interested one bit.

 

I didn't mean it that way - it's actually very involving and 'musical' - what i meant was, that it achieves that without any 'nasties'. i.e. it does nothing bad, all considered.

 

Is having connections on the transport for a 'Clock Link" where the transport can be slaved to the DAC's internal clock?

As in the CA Discmagic?

 

Only a hand full of manufacturers have it right so far,I would venture to say, and then as well as a clocK link, a ram buffer and PLL ala' teac, the new Dax Discrete has it's own along the lines of Wadia's ST&T word clock return, The tag one is humm ok, the DCS works Best implenemtation I've heard is the MSB Platinum & MSB link, pretty fooking good
A lot of good gear doesn't run a word bit data extracted signal, all depends on if you believe that less jitter is better at that is a debate worthy of do fish talk?, can dino actually not get excitied over a piece of polished antquaited freqency modulation picker upper, mana being the meaning of the universe, can wm ever buy anything with butchering it?,can graham n ever do music under 112 Db?, will sideshow bob, ever like 'normal music' questions like these will remain un-answered for an eon or 2 I feel

 

shame you bought the marantz a vdrs 10 just came up on ebay which is certainly well built and has a good digital output SIALTB

 

But Tony! This has now been proven beyond all doubt to be true! And it's a trend that shall continue to grow I feel!