[philodox]

I think I will be sticking with my NEC CDR for quite a while, but thought I would open up this discussion to see if anyone has any suggestions... plus its a good place to post nice pics of transports.

I plan on using some sort of DAC, either the DIO [which I have] or the AOS DAC for as far as I can see down my ugrade path right now

I have seen the Oracle turntables mentioned here before and LOVE their look, but the CD 2000 is $8000 and the CD1000 is $3000... does anyone know of any similarly stylish transports that arent so expensive?

In case you havent seen them, here is links to the CD2000 and the CD1000.

 

[davidmiya]

Most of the design is probably just eye-candy. Other transports can get the job done with a nice clean casing. This, of course, would reduce the cost. As for a "nice looking" transport, Bluenote makes all kinda of cool stuff. Though, I doubt their stuff sounds any better than stuff by Wadia or Krell. I heard that the Shigaraki transport sounds pretty sweet. You should probably ask eric343 about that one. If you want a super-cheap transport, go ahead an buy a Sony ES-series player or mod a Pioneer DVD player.

edit: DAC upgrades should ALWAYS come before transport upgrades IMO. If you want a really good DAC, try something like the dCs Elgar.

 

[eyeteeth]

I often read that particular CD players have a "proven Philips or Sony transport" such as my Arcam. I've taken this to mean the transport is of true transport quality for use with a DAC. Unlike a lesser reliable CDP?

 

[Canman]

Quote:

Originally posted by eyeteeth I often read that particular CD players have a "proven Philips or Sony transport" such as my Arcam. I've taken this to mean the transport is of true transport quality for use with a DAC. Unlike a lesser reliable CDP?

Well not exactly. It just means they sourced the part from Sony or Phillips, just like most other cd player manufacturers.

There are only a few companies that actually manufacturer transports and even less that will manafacturer transports for other companies.

 

[Zoomie]

Unfortunately, I have never heard the NEC, but I am very happy with my ModWright Pioneer transport. You can find used players starting around $100 and then even with all the mods possible, you are well under $1K - probably around $600-$800 after shipping and everything. I suppose that it will always look like a Pioneer DVD player, however.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

The Phillips SACD 1000 can be had for about $600. Add the transport mods to it for another $600 and you have a machine that the folks at Meitner use for their $10,000+ DAC that is so incredible.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Here's a link to a Meitner on sale over at Agon:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....onv&1083638071

Sorry, it is $12,000, not $10K.