[Thomasr]

I do all my listening via music streaming (Deezer) these days and have no complaints about sound quality. That said, I still own a large collection of CDs and would be curious to hear whether they take my listening experience up a notch. Problem is, I have no CD player ... or any other kind of rotating media player anymore (or at least not one that still works).

I thought about grabbing a cheap CD transport and plugging into my DAC via coax or optical, but it seems the words "cheap" and "CD transport" don't go together. Everything costs high 3-figures and into 4 figures.

Why? It's a CD player minus the DAC section. A cheap DVD player with coaxial-out costs fifty bucks or less. A bare DVD-RW drive for a computer costs 25 bucks. How does a CD transport cost a thousand? What am I missing?

 

[jimbop54]

Do a Google search for inexpensive CD transport”. Plenty of good options out there.

 

[hsg120]

https://tascam.com/us/product/cd-200bt/top

$450 and includes digital outputs

 

[medon]

... I still own a large collection of CDs and would be curious to hear whether they take my listening experience up a notch....

If you don't want to spend a lot of money for this try-out you could also rip some CDs first, and use your existing transport into the DAC.
One thing is for sure: You will absolutely hear a difference to Deezer streaming! Why? Because all streaming platforms have differently mastered version compared to the CD album versions released in the 80s/90s.
Of course there are exceptions.

 

[]eep]

...
I thought about grabbing a cheap CD transport and plugging into my DAC via coax or optical, but it seems the words "cheap" and "CD transport" don't go together. Everything costs high 3-figures and into 4 figures.

Why? It's a CD player minus the DAC section. A cheap DVD player with coaxial-out costs fifty bucks or less. A bare DVD-RW drive for a computer costs 25 bucks. How does a CD transport cost a thousand? What am I missing?

There is a misconception (or 2) in your question. A cd-player is not just an optical drive. And a cd-transport for audio is different from a DVD-RW drive because the demands are very different.
1 A simple USB DVD-RW needs a computer driver telling it what to do.
2 A DVD-RW is expected to write at 8x DVD speed (or 52x cd) and with the flimsy build it will make a lot of noise. So will a dvd-player (because the optical drive is basically a DVD rom optical drive)
3 a DVD-RW doesn't do gapless play. This is really annoying when a continuous mix or concept album gets interrupted by 2s pauses.

A dedicated CD player has a sturdy case that reduces vibration.
A drive that plays only single speed without making noise, with a lot sturdier engineering.
A proper power supply that doesn't pollute the signal.
An interface for driving the transport, maybe even with a remote, that plays gapless as a standard.
A chip to convert iis to sp/dif (coax or toslink), or to the internal dac and output stage if it's not just a transport.
A good CD player that is built to last avoids crappy tray or slot loading mechanisms that are prone to breaking down or damaging the cd if it gets stuck.

Those are some reasons why you can't make a silent gapless cd drive for audio for beer money.

And if you had done your research on this forum you would have known that. There's even a dedicated thread to 'cheap cd-players'!
There are no longer cd-players being mass produced like usb drives are. But there is a renewed interest in properly engineered cd-drives and transports since the good old Philips or Teac drives have been out of production for a long time. Pro-ject made a new one from scratch (expensive!) Shanling has a name in cd-players. But they cost from 300-700 for the cheaper models. (300-400 models are just 'ok', my shanling didn't sound as great over sp/dif as other sources).

And just in is the SMSL cd-player PL200. It isn't in your price range but it has an incredible build quality, ticks all the boxes, a newly developed drive just for cd's and a really top notch AKM4499ex dac that rivals their own $1000 dac. You can even used it as a dac via the USB-c input.

FYI I have a Rose streamer now that can rip cd's from a $20 drive so even as I'm tempted by this SMSL, I really have no use for it.
If you have a computer (I don't anymore) I suggest ripping all your cd's and feed that to your dac. Or find a quiet solution like the Rose or Eversolo streamer where you can store all your files on an SSD.

 

[megabigeye]

I do all my listening via music streaming (Deezer) these days and have no complaints about sound quality. That said, I still own a large collection of CDs and would be curious to hear whether they take my listening experience up a notch. Problem is, I have no CD player ... or any other kind of rotating media player anymore (or at least not one that still works).

I thought about grabbing a cheap CD transport and plugging into my DAC via coax or optical, but it seems the words "cheap" and "CD transport" don't go together. Everything costs high 3-figures and into 4 figures.

Why? It's a CD player minus the DAC section. A cheap DVD player with coaxial-out costs fifty bucks or less. A bare DVD-RW drive for a computer costs 25 bucks. How does a CD transport cost a thousand? What am I missing?

For years I used an inexpensive (maybe $75? I can't remember) Sony Blu-ray player with whatever DAC, and it always sounded precisely like whatever DAC it was plugged into. The only drawbacks were that the fan would come on after a while, and it was slow to load and read.

I always laugh and scratch my head when I see a "CD transport" that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's only half a CD player!

 

[Thomasr]

a cd-transport for audio is different from a DVD-RW drive

I'm aware of the differences (though I will note those differences haven't stopped people from coming up with DIY Transport solutions based on computer DVD drives) but my comment was more about the fact that if company X can sell an external DVD writer for $50 or a DVD player for $50, then surely they could produce a solid CD Transport for $100.

I can't help but think this is a case of the marketing department saying "oh wait, this is for audiophiles? Show me that price sheet again..."

I suggest ripping all your cd's and feed that to your dac

Ironically, I did rip (almost all) my entire CD collection a couple decades back ... to 256kb MP3. At the time I didn't see the value of going lossless.

if you had done your research on this forum you would have known that

Harsh.

FWIW I did spend a fair bit of time searching before creating my post, but HF has several decades worth of content to navigate and I guess I didn't find the thread(s) that could have answered my query ... or in some cases the stuff I did find referenced gear from 2000-something.

Ultimately, asking questions is a (valid) form of forum research. However I do appreciate the depth of the reply you gave despite your apparent frustration.

 

[iFi audio]

I have always enjoyed my Audiolab 6000, it made me realize the differences between CD players and Transports, Perhaps you may find one on the used market being the 7000 is out and has USB.

I have also heard many great things about the Little Dot CD Transport, I do have one friend who loves his and only paid around 200 US for it on sale at that A place.

Cheers!!

PS This post was edited to correct a mistake on the USB being an output, it appears to be in only for file reading. My apologies

 

[medon]

...
Harsh.
...

... just a little, ehem. Maybe the holidays were a little stressing.
Anyway, I just found two videos on YT which show how CD drives work... quite delicate stuff.

and


... after seeing these, I realize that a good CD transport needs to convert the pits on the metallic disc into a jitter-free digital data stream, not getting too confused over scratches, vibrations and other stuff...

Most digital listeners know about the influence of jitter and noise on digital signals and how bad signals can lead DACs to sound bad - so there you go.

 

[Thomasr]

For years I used an inexpensive (maybe $75? I can't remember) Sony Blu-ray player with whatever DAC, and it always sounded precisely like whatever DAC it was plugged into.

I have a Sony BD player that is currently only capable of making "ka-chunk" noises and being a "source not recognized" to the TV it's plugged into.

Maybe I'll hit up the local thrift store and look for something with coaxial output.

 

[medon]

...Perhaps you may find one on the used market being the 7000 is out and has USB out....

Are you certain about the Audiolab 7000's USB _out_? The website says is can read USB media to playback MP3 and the like, so yes there is an USB _input_.

 

[iFi audio]

Are you certain about the Audiolab 7000's USB _out_? The website says is can read USB media to playback MP3 and the like, so yes there is an USB _input_.

No, I certainly may be incorrect, I may not have read far enough into it.

Thanks for correcting me!

Cheers!!

 

[megabigeye]

I have a Sony BD player that is currently only capable of making "ka-chunk" noises and being a "source not recognized" to the TV it's plugged into.

Maybe I'll hit up the local thrift store and look for something with coaxial output.

My Sony has been working for some dozen years or more. I only have it put away because I don't have space for CDs (but I do for LPs? Maybe there's some logic hidden there somewhere?) I think it's a BDP-S570.

 

[medon]

... there's the Shiit Audio Urd CD transport that can do USB out... not cheap, though.

 

[]eep]

I have a Sony BD player that is currently only capable of making "ka-chunk" noises and being a "source not recognized" to the TV it's plugged into.

Maybe I'll hit up the local thrift store and look for something with coaxial output.

Yes, well, I'm dutch. So let me be your Dutch uncle ok?

I usually spend a lot of time answering questions. And I answered the same questions several times on this forum. So yes, that is frustrating. But I'm never too lazy to help someone properly.

Maybe you didn't understand what I said, but there is a big difference between robot factory mass produced computer optical drives/BD drives, and a niche product that is of much higher sturdier, and heavier construction.

Those early cd-players, the optical drives, were of much, much higher quality. In those days they were state of the art and high end. Built like a tank. The only trouble was, the data processing wasn't nearly as far as today. In the early days of digital, computers were the size of a room. So there's been a huge, huge amount of progress in processing, but the optical drives have only progressed in red to blue and single speed to a vibrating wobbling 52 speed.

It's not that engineers couldn't make proper cd-drives, it's just that it's considered a niche market. If you make 50 highly engineered drives they cost a lot of money. Make a million flimsy, stripped to the bone parts and you don't mind discarding 10% loss in QC you can get them for a few $. You set up a factory with robots and you can get however many you want. It doesn't matter if they break after 6 months. Simply buy a new one.


My advice on thrift store models: don't put your hopes up. I have several of those as I used to work there. None of them are good. Lots of reading problems, skipping or refusing to read at all. And if they do the output over coax isn't that great. Yes, jitter. The older models that were any good are all gone or broken or are sold for serious prices. The later models are all problematic. They weren't made to last. Maybe in a big city you can find more upscale models but all I saw was 90% broken and 10% after checking and cleaning still no good. Not to mention they are big, light and ugly.

Just like if you are looking for a turntable, the good ones are all snapped up. With the current renewed interest in cd's it's hard to find any decent ones. But the good thing is: where there is demand, supply will develop.