"Budget" CD Transport for USB DAC ?

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PeteC
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#1 "Budget" CD Transport for USB DAC ?

Post by PeteC »

Hi Folks,

not been here for ages - had a career change, then retired, moved to the North Yorks countryside, set up a workshop and started building guitars in my spare time !

So been away from all things Hifi and valve for a while - apart from building some more guitar amps and joining another band last year.

So, I'm now in the process of setting up my hifi in the new home, and have been putting stuff together.

I am mainly using Spotify via Volumio throughout the house - but need a good but budget CD transport to use with my (rather crappy Breeze audio) USB DAC in the living room.
My only other CD payer ( an old Sony ) died in the house move last year, but I have an awful lot of CDs I would like to listen to in the living room.

I am using a 6EM7 / EL34 SE amp I built many years ago into some TQWP speakers with Foster drivers I've had for yonks.They are definitely broken in!

So........Whats a good CD Transport to look out for second hand ?

cheers all,
Pete

PS - I look forward to reading and catching up on everyones amazing projects too.
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pre65
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#2 Re: "Budget" CD Transport for USB DAC ?

Post by pre65 »

Hi Pete, good to see you are still about.

The Cambridge CXC transport seems good value, but mine has developed a fault, and after it has warmed up it skips a bit. :(

Other than that, some years ago I picked up a Denon DVD3910 for next to nothing, as it would not play DVDs. It plays CDs well, through the RCA outputs or SPdif and DAC.

Some say the older "battleship build" DVD players make good transports.

I did tinker with a Playstation 1 many years ago, as I like the top loader design, but it was nothing special. Also a CD transport I made using a CD rom reader with a switcher PSU and Chinese (Ebay) controller, that was not bad.
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Ant
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#3 Re: "Budget" CD Transport for USB DAC ?

Post by Ant »

I like the old philips cd players for transport duties. A philips cd373 is a good option, the mech is the cdm 2, it has the proper cast alloy drawer mechanism rather than the plastic drawer mech of the cdm 2/10 and glass optics so they are pretty bulletproof.
Also has the tda1541 in it if you want to use the normal output instead of the coax, changing the op amps on the outputs is abit of fun too
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PeteC
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#4 Re: "Budget" CD Transport for USB DAC ?

Post by PeteC »

thanks for the info fellas
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steve s
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#5 Re: "Budget" CD Transport for USB DAC ?

Post by steve s »

Nice to see your still at it pete. I'm by chance using an old technics sl p900, the built in dac is as good as my stand alone dacs and it a variable output, so no pre required
I bought a second for just in case as I was so supprised how good it was.

Both of mine needed a little tlc but only simple stuff
The tube manual is quite like a telephone book. The number of it perfect. It is useful to make it possible to speak with a girl. But we can't see her beautiful face from the telephone number
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