Cd transport worth it?

Soldato
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As has been said, the only way to be sure, is to take your panny along to a hifi shop and demo.

When I went down this same route with my panny, the demoing lead me to an Innuos Zen Mk3, completely replacing my need to use/keep cds at all. 3 months on and I'm still glad of the move, my entire cd library is instantly accessible, more so than a cupboard full of cds ever was.
 
Associate
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Cardiff
Talon1973>Are you talking about audio excellence in Swansea? I know it called audio T nowadays but still I still know them as that. When I have the itch to demo something I have carried allsorts to use in a demo. Generally I find Audio T okayish. They are not as 2 channel orientated as they use to be but they are good enough to allow you to home demo.

The reason I don't use them anymore as they have a very limited of maufacturers they like to push. Stuff like Naim, Chord, wilson benesch etc.

As for the CD transport query. From my experience alone I use to have a ton of cd transports and dacs in my house that I use to listen to. But ultimately I found I couldn't tell the difference and by that I mean I use to have MF tri-vista, Mark Levinson, DCS stack, Chord dacs. Now there is a difference between using a Playstation 2 and Cyrus 7 as a transport that I felt I could hear. But I am pretty sure I would not be able to tell the difference in regards to which transport is being used higher up. Dacs I could because they had varying sonic attributes to distinguished itself from the other.
 
Soldato
OP
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llanelli , south wales
Talon1973>Are you talking about audio excellence in Swansea? I know it called audio T nowadays but still I still know them as that. When I have the itch to demo something I have carried allsorts to use in a demo. Generally I find Audio T okayish. They are not as 2 channel orientated as they use to be but they are good enough to allow you to home demo.

The reason I don't use them anymore as they have a very limited of maufacturers they like to push. Stuff like Naim, Chord, wilson benesch etc.

That's the place. The do tend to push certain brands, but stocking everyone isn't really possible. They do know their stuff. And I've had them personally deliver and setup certain equipment for me in the past.
 
Man of Honour
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That's the place. The do tend to push certain brands, but stocking everyone isn't really possible. They do know their stuff. And I've had them personally deliver and setup certain equipment for me in the past.

These are things that a proper dealer is supposed to do.
 
Associate
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That's the place. The do tend to push certain brands, but stocking everyone isn't really possible. They do know their stuff. And I've had them personally deliver and setup certain equipment for me in the past.

I have been to the Swansea once or twice but I use to frequent the Cardiff Branch more as it not as cramped in there. A little more choice but still pushing the limited Manufacturer. Which is totally fine if you are into British audio.

But the very very best dealers in my experience are willing to go outside of the "Made in U.K, Buy U.K" they will still have some of the range just not a whole shop worth and willing to put other Brands which are Non-UK based in their stores. The Burmesters, the Meitners, the Vitus,The Wilson (not to be confused with Wilson Benesch) and so on.

But seeming we are in South Wales we have a very limited choice of Audio specialists and even they have a very specific Manufacturer list. So if you the typeof person who wanted to do a shortlist demo of very specific gear from certain manufacturers then unless you are willing to travel outside Wales or have a friend who has the exact component then it becomes frustratingly difficult. Sure Richer sounds can fill in some of the gaps. But that caters for a certain market. If your requirements are outside of the Richer Sounds market the first place that springs to mind is Birmingham as the closest I guess.

As much as I could never ever see myself moving from Wales, it burns my buttcheeks that on the 2 ch Audio front we are F'ed. Even in places like Scotland they have 3 or 4 places that spring to mind which can cater for all budgets. They have places which have focal utopia, sonus faber stradivari. All they have in Scotland is Haggis and fried mars bars. :)

Having said that I have been known to travel and actually venture outside :p For My Cd player I flew to New York. It was for sale and back then flights to NY were cheap. So it was a case of A)Go to NY for 250? iirc and this was when the pound was really strong against the Dollar Like £1 got you like $2 or B)Get a train to London which is what about £120 ish??? ( I don't know what the train prices to London are) for a demo and I do believe at that time it was an extra £3k for the Cd player on top of the US price.

So in that respect I agree with Lucid comment. You will find a way.
 
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