Cheap CD Player as Transport?

J

Jaques Liverot

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I've recently bought a DAC, and was considering the purchase of a modestly-priced CD-player (e.g. a Marantz CD5001 for £79.99 in the Richers sale) to tide me over while I consider the transport situation more seriously (or wait for one to come up on Ebay!).

Has anyone got any experience of using a cheap CD-player as a transport? And more specifically:

1. How did/would it compare to a similarly-priced DVD-player?

2. Any recommendations for make and model? Presumably transport performance doesn't always correlate with sound quality.

I'm currently using a budget DVD-player, but it's driving me mad - it's fiddly to use and you need to switch the television on to program it!
 
can i suggest an arcam FMj cd23 which is built like a tank and available for about £450. I use with a dac 64
 
haha! Good old Zerogain!

Someone asks about a cheap transport and uses an £80 player as an example. The reply is..... how about a £450 beast! :)

Jaques, have you a DVD player you could perhaps just hook up to the DAC whilst waiting to decide and save for something else?
Or how about using your computer? This may even be a long term solution you may wish to look into MOre.

All the best.

MO
 
Fwiw, i had a Beresford dac (£100 ish) until recently, and it performed very well with a £100 (when new) Tosh 330, It was so close to the sound of my (then) £1000 ish cdp, to be a little undaunting! I also hear that the ultra cheap Yamada dvdp works well too.
 
I used Exposure 2010 as a transport - decent power supply, BNC output, reliable mech. - overall not bad at all. Way better than a DVD and not much difference to a dedicated transport. And you can buy it cheap.
 
Jaques, don't expect any bells and whistles from the bottom end of the Marantz range......unless you breath on it that is!

Maybe your DAC will give it a bit of a shove.



;)
 
I recently compared a DAC coupled with an ancient Tosh 210 (?) DVD, worth about 2p, with a £2k+ CD player. All listeners agreed the 2p Tosh sounded better than the £2k+ CDP; all of which which leads me to conclude that the transport is none too crucial (or at least, not for the DAC under test).

That said, the DVD player control interface is cumbersome and slow so I'd choose a CD player as transport.

and just for the crack: in the above comparison the Tosh/DAC combo was using a £5 Maplin interconnect to the amp, the owner of the £2k CDP refitted his £600 Nordurst interconnects... before finally admitting defeat. That dog DVD and Maplin interconnects were still better!
 
In my second system I use an old Technics MASH something something. Full size single draw player that cost about £80 years ago from Tempo. Its optical out sounds fine in to my DAC. My proper transport with Flea clock sounds better but only a smidgen. Transport differences are quite minimal IME, the DAC is most important.

The old Cambridge Audio DiscMagic transport is superb and can be had for a very affordable price if one crops up on eBay.
 
im using a cyrus dad3 as a transport via optical.. and i can tell no difference between it and the newer CDXT as a transport. Using my pioneer DVD player also worked well via coaxial digital.
 
The Answer!

Well, I was fed up with the DVD-player (fiddly buttons, and the remote control has stopped working) and decided that £79.99 was cheap enough to just give it a go, so I've answered some of the questions myself.

There is clearly a difference between the sound produced from the DAC when fed with the Marantz CD5001 and with the old Mitsubishi DVD player - the bass has been been completely transformed; it's much deeper, more powerful and textured. Why should that be? Both CD and DVD players fed the same input with the same cable - I'd have thought, given the number of samples per wavelength, that the bass would be the area least affected.

There's possibly less detail in the upper frequencies than with the DVD-player, but that could just be an illusion because the bass is so much more prominent.
 
I never got around to buying a "proper" transport as I got distracted - I had a Michell Orbe for my 40th birthday and have been listening mostly to vinyl since then.

But then... my mother returned an old Arcam Alpha CD that I'd given her about 9 years ago when I bought the Arcam DV88 - which then failed and led to the DAC purchase.

Out of curiosity, I compared it with the Marantz CD5001 as a digital source for my Stello DAC. The Arcam is much better - deeper, more textured base, a blacker background, and a much smoother, less metallic sound, more akin to vinyl. I'm quite surprised, given that it's near 20 years old.

I'm now wondering whether a more expensive transport (or, indeed, something like a Linn DS and a NAS) would be the way to go for further improvement.
 
johnandchris said:
Pioneer stable platter, poss 700 series!!!! You can pick these up for next to nothing and they are superb.
Click to expand...

Must agree here. I've just bought myself a PD-705S for a few sterling. Made in Japan, built like a bloody tank, with a detailed and smooth sound to die for. Love the put-it-upside feature too :cool: ! Top recommendation.

Regards,

Vincula
 
I have use a gDVD/CD player as transport with a good DAC?
Someone that I really respect told me that the cheapest way to get a high-end audio player is to buy a DVD/CD player - good one - say Panasonic/Technics for $ 500. This way you get the latest possible in transport technology. Use the digital out connection on the DVD/CD player and feed it into a DAC such as Bel Canto, Theta, Electrocompaniet etc. I am very intrigued. Any thoughts?? Has anyone tried this. Which components did you try and how is it working?? Thanks in advance.
 

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