After reading this thread and your post I promptly made one of these signs until I get in the habit of grounding before changing the volume or whatever.
Great idea! I have just made it a habit to ground myself on a light switch plate screw every time before touching any gear. ESD may have been what caused the issues with my CD11.
Anything that marks discs in unacceptable. Buy a Cambridge CXC instead. If you want something with a clearly better transport mechanism, look at Jay's Audio.
I bought a Jay’s cdt 2 mk3 last week, I never knew what a good transport could do, absolutely incredible, if you play a lot of cd’s, it won’t disappoint.
If I had $2500 to spend on a transport I'd definitely buy one but that's a lot money, especially to a retired person. I'll have to stick with my non-scratcher Audiolab.
There's nothing wrong with spending $2500 on a transport, I don't want sound like I'm knocking anyone for doing so. I'm sure it's a fantastic piece of equipment. If I find $2500 under a couch cushion today then I'm all in.
I have been considering upgrading my CD transport from Cambridge CXU for a while, however I found out that ripping a CD and then playing it from an USB stick directly into the Cambridge CXU (and by coax into my DAC) sounds better than playing the CD. This eliminates any optical CD reading errors. The USB stick was 10€!
I'm confused. Are you using a non-optical method to rip your CDs? Of course there aren't optical CD reading errors when you're playing your music from a USB stick, but how did the data get loaded into the stick to begin with if not by an optical (with possible errors) ripping of the CD?
You got me there! That is what you get if you reply when you are in a hurry. . What I did is to use downloaded .wav files to play from an usb stick and then compare it to a burned CD! I was planning to use an error correcting program for reading and storing a CD, but I have not done it yet. Edit: in this thread (post #34) the dBpoweramp program is suggested as an accurate rip program. Best way in terms of SQ to play a 44.1kHz/16 bit file? Apologies for my incorrect earlier statement.
Never did with mine, it's apparently got a "read-ahead" buffer system to avoid disc reading issues. It played everything. It was the random little scuffs appearing on discs that was the deal-breaker. If they had designed this transport with a tray, they would have had a classic on their hands and I would have kept it and been very happy. My first experience with a slot loader too, outside of a car stereo ...... a bummer.
Well I discovered it wasn't finicky with discs or malfunctioning. It was the surge protector/line conditioner I was using not happy with the electric fireplace on the same line. When the heater would click on, I guess it drew enough power to make the conditioner do something for a split second. Somehow. No idea why!? But I took the protection unit out (a Belkin) and plugged everything directly to the wall and no more issues.
Hi, I'm crossposting this from a general CD thread so it's available to those looking up this player specifically: --- Received the Audiolab 6000CDT today. I connected it up and, as promised, did some loading and unloading tests with an unimportant CD to see if there were scratches. Unfortunately I can report that the unit definitely scratches CDs. I'd say one in three, maybe even one in two insertions, which were all identical in terms of how I tried to load the disc, led to a mark. None of the marks were the sort of gashes that render a disc unplayable, but they were all objectively scratches that weren't there before, and in different places and patterns too. The disc is now quite significantly marked, in about 10-to-15 load-ins. The loading isn't actually very smooth. One big problem is that sometimes it will try to take the disc before you've put it in far enough, and this left the biggest mark. Obviously there's an element of user error in that one, but it won't give up once it tries to take a disc, it'll just keep wanting to grab it, and it's not that hard to trigger that problem. Also, on ejecting the disc, the pulling it out of the machine isn't all that smooth either. It's hard to see how the issues are user error, though, because there's no way to really put it in at a wonky angle or too forcefully. I think instead it's the way it grabs the disc, which can feel a little bit aggressive, and the way it feeds it in from there. I took before and after photos of the CD and actually took a video of the whole process. I also tried a CD-R to ensure it wasn't that given CD, and that also marked on the first attempt. Here's a before and after of the commercial CD I used for the 10 or so load-ins: So obviously I'm returning it. I now have to decide whether to take the Marantz CD6007 to use as a transport, or just get my money back and hold off on a CD player for a while. I'm quite set on a better CD player now, though, so it'll probably put CD listening on hold if I decide not to buy one for the moment. And if anyone from Audiolab is reading this somewhat damning post, consider making a 6000CDT with a tray. It'd be an emphatic market leader because a lot of people clearly want this player but can't abide the slot loader.
Must say the buffer is useful for playing the CDs that it previously scratched . Might be an issue on another CD transport.
I recently bought a 6000A amp and really, really wanted the matching CD transport for the visual, aesthetic appeal. Posts like yours and many like it, however, led me away from the beautiful 6000CDT to the clunky looking TASCAM CD-200BT with TEAC drive. Result? A significant downgrade in terms of looks, but a really rugged (for 2022) drive that has worked flawlessly and couldn't scratch a disc if it tried. Regrets? Sort of, since I wanted my kit to be more beautiful, but I have no complaints at all about the function, safety, and sound.
I'm 3 months into my 6000cdt and have none of the problems as above. I thought I had problems with it cutting out but turned out to be something else. It seems well built and sounds fantastic.
