Looking for a good CD transport

I feel your pain I looked for a transport in this price range for close to a year.   Yours is a very difficult task simply because dedicated transports (ie no analog outs) are aimed at the uber Audiophile crowd and hence very expensive.  Pacific Valve used to sell a transport in your range that was pretty well thought of but it is now sold out.  Unfortunately I think you are going to have to spend close to $1000 to get what you want.  I spent $900 on my Lite Audio transport.  The Audio GD transport will run you $1200 and neither of them fit the form factor you seem to want.  (I have heard both of these and they are simply spectacular transports). 

 

You may want to look at some used Pioneer (stable platter versions) and Sony CD players.  The Pioneer PD-65 and some the Sony SCD versions are known to be good transports.  You can usually get them for under $500 on audiogon.  Also, I was recently looking at this http://www.stereomojo.com/Virtue%20Audio%20PianoM1%20Cd%20Player/VirtueAudioPianoCDPlayer.htm.  It may be a nice option.

I'm in the same boat because I'm thinking my transport will be the weak link once my Ref 9 arrives. Color me skeptical that the CD7 Final will sound better than my pc/ps3 from it's optical out. If it is a noticeable improvement I would love to jump on board, but the whole jitter thing is something I haven't even dipped my toes into yet. And as far as I know, the DSP vrsion 5 in the Ref 9 is supposed to make that a moot point anyway.

 

-Daniel

Edited by BournePerfect - 11/20/10 at 11:30pm

According to many respected members on these forums who own REF series DACs (Prickely_Pete, IPodPJ and others), the DSP-1 isn´t really that good at reducing the need for a good transport. The reviews I´ve seen (not many out there though) seem to agree on that - for example check Ravenda´s blogs REF5 review where he compares it to a Wyred4Sound DAC. He also says that the REF5 is still, despite the DSP-1, picky about the transport used.

 

I just sold my Little Dot CDP_1 transport and currently have a CD7-FV being shipped. With some luck I should have it next week, then I´ll be able to post some concrete impressions on how much a CD transport change can do. From what I´ve read, it should be a very major upgrade, especially when used with Audio-gd ACSS gear as it uses a technology similar to it for the SPDIF output (great synergy, as it has been created to compliment the REF series perfectly).

These are some of the cheapest CD transports I know of..

 

Stello CDT100 http://www.aprilmusic.com/main/sub02_02_01.html

CEC TL51X http://www.cec-web.co.jp/products/cdplayer/tl51x/tl51x_e.html

When I ordered my CD7-FV my final two choices were the Stello CDT100 and the CD7... I really love the look of the Stello, and it seems very solid. Unfortunately the Stello prices are high here in Finland, and as the dollar has weakened it´s becoming cheaper and cheaper to order products paid with dollars... In the end the two products were pretty much in the same price bracket. The difference (the Stello picture is from the 6Moons review):

 

 

Against:

 

 

Needless to say I felt there was a better value in the Audio-gd product, not to mention perfect synergy with my REF7 :)

Many would argue that the Teac VRDS is the best CD transport ever built. I have never personally owned a Teac CD player but one unit to look at would be a Tascam CD-200 with the newly designed Teac CD-5020A transport. I have no personal experience with this unit but they aren't terribly expensive and may be one of the better transport bargains out there.

I've had a Pacific Valve CDM-12 transport for about a year, it's built like a tank and has performed flawlessly. I read in a previous post it's out of stock, I'd email them and ask when it will be available.

 

http://www.pacificvalve.us/VanguardCDM12.html 

 

 

I had a Cambridge Audio CD player several years ago and it sounded great when it worked. I had it repaired under warranty the first time it broke and I gave it to a friend when it broke the second time. I replaced it with an inexpensive Marantz CD5001. This unit makes strange noises at times when I hit one of the command buttons but it still works. I can't say that I can recommend it's build quality though. I noticed that the professional Tascam CD-200 CD players are available from some places for $239 shipped. Its suppose to have a high quality Teac CD-5020A transport. This seems like a bargain assuming the unit actually reliably works. Inexpensive CD players are throw away items and sometimes the expensive ones are too.

I was looking into that too when I was doing my transport research. Looks fantastic and really good value. 

Unit on top ^

Shanling PCD300A (Or PCD3000A, same unit) around $280. Coaxial digital and analog outputs including a decent headphone amplifier and remote control, half width form factor. Great little transport that has gotten rave reviews. I've owned mine for 2 years. Uses a Phillips mechanism.
Edited by Maxvla - 11/26/10 at 12:19am

Can someone owning the PCD3000A elaborate on load and navigation speed on this unit? I have Little Dot on my list, but have an issue with how slow it loads toc and sluggish feel when pressing buttons.

Loading and navigation is normal. I don't experience any lag with it. The joystick controller on the unit is neat and the remote works well. The only problem I've had is it not recognizing discs but only after the unit has been unpowered for months. In that case it simply needs to be left on and idling for an hour or two then it should be good to go. I've experienced this with other cd players as well so the Shanling is not unique in this behaviour.
Edited by Maxvla - 12/4/10 at 8:31am

Thank you Maxvla. Hmm.... looks like Shanling has ended this player. At least I'm not able to find it on they're web site.