+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: CEC Belt drive CD transports are they that much better?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Jan 2014

    Location: Northants

    Posts: 276
    I'm Martin.

    Default CEC Belt drive CD transports are they that much better?

    A few weeks back I gave an old Marantz CD65II a new lease of life as a CD Transport.

    I first tried the CD65II in stock form taking the digital output via the RCA socket and it was quite uninspiring.

    After reading some of Mr Lampizators musings on improving the SPDIF digital output I took a look at the SPDIF output on the scope and the waveform did not look good.

    After some experiments with a small Lundahl digital signal transformer which was only marginally better I decided to try removing the transformer completely and take the SPDIF digital signal direct from the digital filter chip in the player and feed it via a small blocking capacitor and some miniature 75 ohm coax to a BNC socket on the rear panel.

    The result was very pleasing, the waveform now looked perfect on the scope. I decided I would improve the internal clock as well and fitted a TCXO now jitter clock module from Valab in Tiawan.

    The result was quite a revelation feeding the SPDIF input into my Devialet 440. I have never had a better sound from CD, in fact I’d say it’s got the edge over my ripped CDs played over Ethernet from Roon.

    I’m now considering if there is anything to be gained from improving the CD source even further by using a dedicated transport such as the CEC belt drive offerings.

    Would anyone who has a CEC transport care to comment on their experience with one of these, are they markedly better than using a CD player as a transport?


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  2. #2
    Join Date: Mar 2010

    Location: Sheffield

    Posts: 2,898
    I'm Simon.

    Default

    Any before and after scope shots?
    Kuzma Stabi/S 12", (LP12-bastard) DC motor and optical tacho psu, Benz LP, Paradise (phonostage). MB-Pro, Brooklyn dac and psu, Bruno Putzeys balanced pre, mod86p dual mono amps, Yamaha NS1000m

  3. #3
    Join Date: Jan 2014

    Location: Northants

    Posts: 276
    I'm Martin.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by sq225917 View Post
    Any before and after scope shots?
    No.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  4. #4
    montesquieu Guest

    Default

    I've been curious about the CEC transports as well would have loved to try one here, I was thinking about getting a dealer demo but then I realised that the UK list price is about two and a half times what you can get a new one for shipped from Japan (about £1100 landed from Japan with taxes vs £2600 - not including a decent step-down transformer, say £60). So I didn't follow through to organise ... I doubt I would pay the UK asking for one, so not fair to use the dealer's services.

    Actually, the price differential put me off getting one altogether - either you go grey market route and take a risk (what happens if some fault emerges) or you go dealer route and 1) feel ripped off or 2) get utterly hammered on resale.

    So I'm sticking with my Audio Note CDT2/II which is far from shabby, through a Mutec MC3+USB reclocker/USB interface that also gives me access via a spare Macbook to use streaming services or file-based replay.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Mar 2012

    Location: Ireland

    Posts: 29
    I'm colum.

    Default

    I noted this post regarding CEC Transports from another forum recently,

    The CEC transports sound good but if you drop the heavy puck when inserting or removing it you damage the spindle etc... So I have moved on to something less fragile which also sounds good.

    FYI

+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •