"Hi-end" CD player - worth it?

The mechanism that supports the disc and spins the disc is the mechanism - The laser assembly is that reads the disc is separate

Example CDM Pro 2LF - as a part if you want to buy it will run around $400-$500US







The typical mechanism Information on the CD pro family of Transports Product History | Enco Systems

And description Philips CDM12 / CD-Pro / CD-Pro2 / CD-ProM / CD-Pro2LF - DutchAudioClassics.nl

This is the Sony KSS 213 a very popular (typical) mechanism and also no longer made $15 found in $2,000+ players


They all generally come with the laser assembly.

I would add that the Pro-2 is a professional transport and thus had ratings of longevity

From a poster on another forum:

RELIABILITY SPECIFICATIONS
Lifetime: 750 hours B1
7500 hours B10
MTBF: >30000 hours
(100% duty cycle)
Sledge movements: 500k cycles (full stroke)
AQL: 0.65% major
1.50% minor

B10 means the number of hours this transport will run before 10% will break down. Another interesting stat is AQL. I looked it up and it works something like this. When a batch of transports are produced, a random sample will be taken. Let's say that in a run, 2000 units are produced and that 125 units are tested. 1.5% would indicate that if 5 units had minor flaws, then the whole batch would be deemed a defective batch. 0.65 would indicate that 2 units with major flaws would deem the batch defective. Now I don't know how to stacks up to the competition, but 7500hours for at least 90% of the units is not bad. That would be listening for 4 hours a day for 5 years."

 

I looked through the biggest dealers' offerings - no-one has the RS. I'm sure you could get one, if you really tried. I think amazon has it.

 

I have seen it in the Audio Advisor catalog before. AA continues to carry the Pro-Ject line and may continue to carry this CD transport. As AA sends out a new catalog monthly or every 6 weeks, the catalog only lists it strong selling products and this CD transport may still be on AA website, I just have not checked there yet ...

 

Update: Paid today, expected delivery - end of July, straight from the builder in Tokyo.

 

Yup, just checked - AA has it, for $1,200.00. For that much, I'd go with the Woo unit - it's made in Brooklyn, I could always bring it in for service myself. With PJ - anything goes wrong and it has to go to Sumiko, in California, for service. It's expensive, and takes a long time. I'm dealing with them now for one of my PJ phono's - I'm not too pleased.

Edit: $1,299.00 - not 1,200.00

AA has a demo Woo unit for $888 now - a pretty good deal.

 

Count me in as someone else who will be very interested in your impressions. Their integrated amp looks interesting as well.

 

Appreciated.

Esoteric SACD transport mechanisms were favored in rather pricey SACD players (Playback Designs MPS-5 and I believe dCS) up until a few years ago when they stopped selling to other manufacturers. I'm not sure if Esoteric bought the laser assembly and disc spinning mechanism to construct their final product. I have been told that, while the reputation for these transports was pretty much the gold standard, the final product was based on DVD.

I gather that Sound United's Marantz has their own transport mechanism which is being sold wholesale. Again, I wouldn't know if they design and manufacture their own laser assembly or disc spinning mechanism. I was under the impression the little or no plastic was used and that CD use was the intent, rather than DVD.

*Off-topic, but hopefully OP doesn't mind.

 

Fire away - it's all on topic.

 

I believe separates would be your best bet, I too have owned many Sony single box players, the 9000 , XA-7ES, which was a beautiful, heavy CD player, the great SCD-1, and their last player, the 5400. I sold all the Sony stuff, as they are so terribly poor about being able to repair their highest end products, especially the SCD-1, or any of the products mentioned. I ended up with a transport/DAC combination by PS Audio, the Direct Stream Memory Player and Direct Stream DAC. This combination was so transformative, I ended up selling $6,500.00 worth of vinyl equipment to make this digital leap. Not saying I won't dive back into the vinyl game, but for now it's crisp, crystal clean digital.

 

He isn't looking for a hi-end unit for a secondary system. Simply a thoughtfully designed, hi-fi or entry level hi-end CD player (no SACD, no computer).

PS Audio is very popular and I have no doubt that their DAC is nice. Transport section is well regarded as well. Two boxes aren't necessarily the primary determining factor though. No one cares to discuss it, but Andreas Koch is responsible for putting PS Audio's engineer on the FPGA path. Oh well. Some guys are too nice. Not taking away from PS Audio, but the Playback Designs MPS-5 is a single box player which has around 30 firmware updates over the last 10 years and external USB development (plus some upgraded internal hardware).

No hype. No discussion forum. Little marketing. And likely some regret.

 

IIRC, Woo is made in Queens, a Brooklyn guy can show some support to a small biz in another NYC borough.

As long as you do not require the Woo to play anything other than regular audio CD's, you should be fine.

BTW, the price on the Pro-Ject CD transport has gone up. I could swear that it was under $1000 when I last saw it in the AA catalog.

 

IIRC, MusicDirect sells this PS Audio CD transport ...

 

So that $2500 Marantz reference SACD/CD player actually has a metal CD tray like the good old day? My first CD player, a second-generation Marantz, had a metal CD tray and the unit weighed well over 20 lbs ...

 

It's all very nice, PS Audio and all, but I have ordered the Sparkler already. The "less is more" philosophy is what makes it attractive to me, first and foremost, plus the non-oversampling DAC. I think the NOS DAC will nicely complement my overall retro-leaning bedroom system, with a tube amp and full range speakers.

Thank you all for participating.

 

In praise of the Philips TDA1541/A/S1/S2 chips.

 

I've tried ordering the "current mode" version, and was informed that I need to have a "current mode" amplifier, as well. Went with the "voltage mode", in the end.

 

With the OP's indulgence -
There are several versions of the proprietary Esoteric drive - as you go up the line, the drives get better ( and also heavier ) until you arrive at the one used in the top-shelf units ( which is the VRDS-NEO "VMK-3.5-20S" ). From what I've read, the concept behind designing and building these little engineering marvels is mechanical vs. electronic error correction / prevention. Esoteric stopped supplyiing their drives to other manufacturers when Sony stopped making the chip Esoteric used which made them capable of SACD playback. You'll notice that dCS for example has gotten out of the SACD playback business. Esoteric never made the higher-end drives available to others and my understanding is that the drives are built by TEAC/Esoteric. I'm sure the lasers are outsourced. While there have been Esoteric universal players capable of DVD playback, I've never heard that the drives in any of the units purpose-built for dedicated CD-SACD playback have drives based on DVD. Other manufacturers such as Bryston refuse to use DVD drives in their CD players despite low cost and ready availability compared to dedicated CD drives as they feel this compromises CD playback quality.

D.D.

 

I've also gone the route of shutting down the oversampling and much prefer the outcome. Looking forward to reading about your experience moving forward when your unit arrives.

D.D.

 

Reporting.

The Sparkler S-507 CD player is here. Pictured below in my rack. I haven't played it too much as of yet, due to my cat's illness and eventual demise (not much mood for music then). But I've got a new cat now, and music is back on the menu.

I've given a spin to a few CD's on the Sparkler, and the short story is - it's certainly different. If I had to sort of characterize the sound, I'd say that it is akin to the difference in sound between the "British" type speaker (the Wharfedale Diamond 10.7'S, in my case) and my Zu Audio DW full range single drivers.

The non-oversampling DAC certainly is a lot "cleaner" and more detailed, however, just like the Zu speakers, I feel it's best with acoustic music, jazz and classical. Something with more oomph, like rock, may benefit more from a traditional oversampling DAC and warmer speakers.

All in all, I'm very pleased - the player is a perfect complement to the other components of my bedroom system (sort of vintage), geared mostly towards Jazz, and matches perfectly to my tube amp and full rage speakers. Also I should note that this player produces sound that most closely resembles vinyl, compared to all other CD players I have ever heard. It's no vinyl, of course, but the closest thing to it.

The System:



From top to bottom, it now consists of:

Denon DP-60L / Jelco SA-750E (10") / Denon DL-110 / Pro-Ject Tube Box DS (at 50 dB MM gain);

Sparkler CD player (left), Sparkler power supply (center bottom), Hagerman Piccolo2 head amp (+20 dB) (center top),
Hagerman Cornet3 (right) (+44 dB MM); Harman/Kardon TU-911 tuner;

AR "The Turntable" (ES-1) / Audioquest PT-6 (9") / Zu Denon DL-103 Grade 1;

ART PS 4x4 power conditioner, Cary Audio SL-100 preamp (SS);

PrimaLuna ProLogue Four power amp (EL-34's), Bottlhead Crack w/Speedball headphone amp;

Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekend MkII, Sennheiser HD-650's and HD-600's;

APC LE-1200 voltage regulator

Closeup:



Sparkler CD player (left), Sparkler power supply (center bottom), Hagerman Piccolo2 head amp (+20 dB) (center top),
Hagerman Cornet3 (right) (+44 dB MM); Harman/Kardon TU-911 tuner;

I feel the bedroom system has now arrived home, and needs no further upgrades for the foreseeable future.

I just wish my cat was here with me...

 

This new phone of mine takes damn good pictures, I might add...

 

Beautiful system
And Tinker sends his respects

 

Here is a hi-end cat ...

 

OP: System looks great. Sorry to hear about your cat.

 

Chord Dave DAC coupled with the Chord Blu2 is a amazing top end CD player.

 

Surely you get hum with phono stage and head amp (unshielded) next to the PS. Speakers are far too close together. Ironing board must be some kind of acoustic treatment?