Cambridge CXC or Audiolab6000cdt

[MartinS]

Currently I am using a Quad Artera Play to do two things, volume control and spin the occasional CD. It does both of these fine, however it's a tad over kill, a Cambridge CXNv2 which already exists can take over volume reponsibilities, which leaves a need for a CDT. Both the Cambridge CXC and the Audiolab6000cdt will work, they are within £20 of each other so cost isn't an issue, the Cambridge has the advantage that both it and the CXN use the same remote, the apparent advantage of the Audiolab is the slot loading rather than a tray which strikes me as mechanically better. Other than those things has anyone a view about sound quality bearing in mind that both would be using the CXN DAC.
Regards
Martin

[Gazjam]

Have the Audiolab, not heard the CXC.

Superb sound quality,
For CD playback, beats out my heavily modded Oppo 203 outputting i2s into the same Dac as the 6000CDT over coaxial.
Audiolabs a “memory player”, meaning it plays from its ram buffer, so jitter less of an issue, and is known to play scratched CDs that other players can’t.

Looked into both when buying a CD transport, and on American sites like Audiogon the Audiolab seemed the preferred choice.
Can’t go wrong with the 6000CDT.

From experience:
player is silent, slot loader is solid, doesn’t scratch your discs and is silky smooth.
Solid bit of kit, heavier than you’d expect, sounds, looks and feels more expensive than it is.
Future classic IMO

here’s a great review of it, in fact the one that convinced me to pull the trigger.


And a great thread on it if your the reading type. https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...nsport.860164/

[MartinS]

Gary
Thanks for your thoughts and the pointer to the other thread which makes interesting reading. It seems honours are about even although the only major downside to the Audiolab would appear to be the danger of scratching discs which I think should only occur of something is faulty or misaligned. Anyway I've decided to go with it, for the amount of CD's I play it will be more than adequate and I didn't want to spend any more time prevaricating essentially over a choice of two.
Regards
Martin

[worrasf]

the apparent advantage of the Audiolab is the slot loading rather than a tray which strikes me as mechanically better.

My two penneth. If the choice is down to this and not SQ then personally I'd steer clear of slot loaders. I have had nothing but trouble with my Cyrus CD XT SE players Discs constantly get stuck and wont eject. Eventually Cyrus swapped my CD XT SE for the SE2, it was better but still needed to go back once and even now the occasional disc wont eject without a load of faff. In contrast I've never had a glitch with my Panasonic stable platter although the Cyrus sounds marginally better. I accept the Audiolab may not suffer from this but IME slot loaders are not necessarily better.

Steve

[MartinS]

Steve
I have been using a slot loading Quad Artera for the last three years without any issues. I can all too readily remember the 3 or 4 failed tray Cd players I have owned over the last twenty years or so. I suspect there probably isn't much statistically to separate them, personal experience and predjudice being the greatest variable. If it all goes horribly wrong then I will have made the wrong choice which is better I think than terminal fence sitting.
Regards
Martin

[Landloper]

My two penneth. If the choice is down to this and not SQ then personally I'd steer clear of slot loaders. I have had nothing but trouble with my Cyrus CD XT SE players Discs constantly get stuck and wont eject. Eventually Cyrus swapped my CD XT SE for the SE2, it was better but still needed to go back once and even now the occasional disc wont eject without a load of faff. In contrast I've never had a glitch with my Panasonic stable platter although the Cyrus sounds marginally better. I accept the Audiolab may not suffer from this but IME slot loaders are not necessarily better.

Steve

Same here, Stephen, again a Cyrus product, but mine was a world of pain called the CD8Se2. Ever since then I've avoided slot loaders. That said, I have a 10 year old Mac book that is slot-load for optical discs and it is still going strong. I use a Cambridge CXC and have no complaints. Quiet as anything and does its job well. Nothing againt the Audiolab 6000 as I've never had or heard one. I don't suppose I'd be able to tell the difference between Cambridge or the Audiolab transports in action if I was blindfolded.

[Macca]

I also have the Audiolab and am happy to recommend it.

I don't think that a slot loader is intrinsically better or worse, but if you look at the internals you can see the slot loading mech could easily be disconnected, removed and replaced if it ever went bad. Not always so easy with a draw mech.

My only gripe is that when you press the button to remove the disc the display reads 'Open' and not 'Eject'. Not really a deal breaker though

[Gazjam]

Send it back!!!

[JohnNB]

I had the same dilemma over the CXC and the Audiolab 6000 as Martin, but my problem was also that neither play SACDs. I therefore opted for the Marantz. I'm on my 3rd version now and have been pleased with all of them. They're the only cdps, in my experience, that have been solid, unfussy performers with any format, and, so far, totally dependable with excellent SQ. I've got a nice dac though and would like to try a cd transport but can't find anything within the price range that plays all formats. Any suggestions?

John

[Macca]

DCS Vivaldi will output native DSD from a SACD but they are a bit pricey.