Cd transport worth it?

TALON1973

TALON1973

TALON1973

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llanelli , south wales
I'm using my Panasonic ub900 4k player for cd duties atm.

Using coaxial to my sennheiser hdvd800 headphone amplifier.

I'm just wondering if I used a dedicated cd transport, I'd get an improvement?

Looking at the
Audiolab 6000CDT
 
The answer is simple: Go demo them at the store where you'll be buying - because you wouldn't buy high-end audio products without proving to yourself with a dem that they're worth the price, right?

The standard answer is that most video disc players make poor to lousy CD players/transports. I'm sure you're aware of the problem: jitter and the pollution of the audio circuits by digital noise from the often undefeatable video circuits. Acting as a CD transport only mitigates most of the interference from the video processing circuits, but not all. However, this advice goes for standard run-of-the-mill DVD/BD/UHD players. Things change when designers get a bee in their bonnet about pursuing audio excellence. We've seen (and heard) what happens when ARCAM, Linn, Marantz, Denon, Oppo, Theta, Meridian etc etc get serious about making a universal disc player.

The unresolved questions are how close Panasonic got with the UB900, and whether you can (a) hear those differences and , (b) it makes a big enough difference for you to feel the upgrade is worthwhile. I would hope that with a £1200+ headphone preamp and 'phone worthy of such an amount spent on driving them that there is no question about the system's ability to expose front-end differences. So, the only real question left is whether you feel it's worth the expense. It's demo time :)
 
One of my concerns is the fact its a slot loader. They tend to wear out quicker.

I rarely demo anything. The hd800 I heard about for 20 mins 5 years ago. My local Audio-t are pretty good. I've been using them 15+ years. I'll have to check if they can get one in.
 
If you're not keen on demo'ing (and that baffles me, but each to their own) then get hold of a S/H ARCAM CD player, or find one of their better audiphile DVD players. Spend £100, live with it a while, sell it for £100 if it makes no difference.
 
AES/EBU is just 110ohm digital over 3 pin XLR. You can buy neutrik transformers that convert it to 75 ohms coaxial (as BNC) which can be plugged straight into a S/PDIF input and works as expected. Technically the Channel Status and other subcode data is formatted differently between AES and S/PDIF, but very little equipment bothers to send or read the full subcode data set anyway, so it is rarely a problem. I use an old Tascam CD-RW901 which has the full set of outputs and inputs. I've always chosen to use TOSLINK wherever possible as, even though the connection is a bit crap in terms of build quality, it's the most noiseless way of interconnecting devices as it completely avoids ground loops which fully balanced XLR's cannot always escape.

Regarding a cd transport, isn't the OP treating the panasonic player as a transport already as he is offloading the D/A conversion to a separate DAC?
 
True bud cd transport have no video section or analogue section to be a noisy internals.

Whether you would hear difference between a £1000 cd transport and a squeezebox with stock PSU I dunno. Also with ripped audio using cd audio extractor which could be more accurate than cd player or dvd pickup
 
hornetstinger said:
Or how about using cd transport with superior connection ie BNC, XLR or aeu/bu or whathrt its called
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I'm not sure how you see BNC at the player-end benefiting the system when the coax input on the headphone pre-amp is RCA phono.

Analogue stereo XLR would mean letting the CD player be the DAC too, and that kind of defeats the object of the £1200+ headphone amp with built-in DAC.

AES/EBU is the balanced-audio XLR version digital coax.

With anything involving balanced audio, implementation in design can be more significant than the connection method itself. In simpler terms, balanced audio done badly i.e. for fashion's sake, can end up sounding worse than properly engineered analogue unbalanced stereo or digital coax S/Pdif.
 
lucid said:
If you're not keen on demo'ing (and that baffles me, but each to their own) then get hold of a S/H ARCAM CD player, or find one of their better audiphile DVD players. Spend £100, live with it a while, sell it for £100 if it makes no difference.
Click to expand...


I literally just sold my arcam bdp300 blu ray player to help fund my hd800 purchase. My ub900 was lying around spare.
 
I think this area is a bit of a minefield, as I don't think there's a straightforward answer. The impression I've been given over the years is that the brand/price of a unit is nothing like a guarantee that it will improve things.

Personally, I took a punt on a Meridian 500 transport a number of years ago, and once it had been clock modded (flea), sounded really good.
 
I thought that there were a number of DVD/Bluray players which were highly regarded as CD transports? As @Mr_Sukebe has suggested, price is not always the main factor governing whether a unit will function well as a CD transport. Jitter is a problem, but you really need to look into demoing equipment, as you're beginning to really explore the law of diminishing returns with this one!
 
The audiolab 6000cdt does appeal to me. As much as I’ve got equipment that’s pretty high end ( but far from the very best ) . I don’t really want to be forking out £1000 on a transport.

I’m trying to work out if an outlay of about £500 on one will be of benefit over my ub900 doing the duties?
 
TALON1973 said:
The audiolab 6000cdt does appeal to me. As much as I’ve got equipment that’s pretty high end ( but far from the very best ) . I don’t really want to be forking out £1000 on a transport.

I’m trying to work out if an outlay of about £500 on one will be of benefit over my ub900 doing the duties?
Click to expand...

To which the answer is to demo it. Simples, really.
 
seems a pity you cannnot objectively measure performance of your existing drive .. rip a digital copy and compare with EAC checksums,
(edit eg. if there is jitter you would get wrong/repeated data)

also long term reliability is what you could be paying for with a new drive ... the philips cdm194(is it?) swing arm mech, I have in a meridian has shown that.
 
TALON1973 said:
Not that easy to do. I don’t drive. So carrying my equipment is not an option lol. Unless the shop will let me take one home. And that’s assuming my local audio-t ( which in another city ) has it in stock.
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If it meant enough to you, you'd find a way.

What we're talking about here isn't a 20kg power amp or a 12" sub; it's a pair of headphones and a headphone amp. In fact, it's not even that. If the store have to order in the transport then they could order in the headphone pre-amp at the same time, so all you're doing is going to the store wearing your headphones. That's hardly the height of inconvenience, is it?

If you've got money to burn then just buy the damned transport and get on with it. Seems stupid though to have given a bunch of your money to the "good dealer" in the past and yet work so bloody hard to avoid availing yourself of the services they're actually set up to provide.
 
lucid said:
If it meant enough to you, you'd find a way.

What we're talking about here isn't a 20kg power amp or a 12" sub; it's a pair of headphones and a headphone amp. In fact, it's not even that. If the store have to order in the transport then they could order in the headphone pre-amp at the same time, so all you're doing is going to the store wearing your headphones. That's hardly the height of inconvenience, is it?

If you've got money to burn then just buy the damned transport and get on with it. Seems stupid though to have given a bunch of your money to the "good dealer" in the past and yet work so bloody hard to avoid availing yourself of the services they're actually set up to provide.
Click to expand...


I give them my business when I can.... at last check with them ( about 3 years ago ) I’d spent £15000 in that shop . And you haven’t factored in the ub900 for carrying as well

There is also the Cambridge audio cxc
 
Bung a mate £30 + lunch to drive you.

Where the hell did the Cambridge Audio CXC come from? First time you've mentioned it in this thread. We're not mind readers, you know.
 
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