Please take a moment to read through my Silver Discs entry. The topic discusses how a reviewer thinks CDs used to suck, but now they’re finally REALLY GOOD. He says it took 40 years to get good.
Nope. He missed the boat. He was lost at sea for 40 years.
He was evaluating the medium with poorly built, lousy sounding players. Would it be fair to judge the state of playing records by listening through a rickety Crosley turntable?
CDs have NOT sounded bad for 40 years. We have had excellent CD players from darn near the outset of the medium in the 80s. It’s fair to say the very first Sonys and Hitachis had their limitations. But I promise they were a lot better than the first turntables.
CD Players improved very quickly. We had respectable NADs early on. The Kyoceras were quite a bit better yet. Ken Ishiwata of Marantz brought out the $400 ground breaking CD63SE. California Audio Labs had the Tercet ($850) & Aria ($1500) players, both of which were very strong for their day- still in the 80s.
The category soon got better with some affordable transport/DAC combos.
*Rotel’s RDD980 transport and RDP980 DAC ran only $1300 for the pair.
*California Audio Labs’ Delta transport and Sigma DAC ran only $1650 for the pair.
*PS Audio’s Lamda transport and UltraLink 2 DAC ran only $4k for the pair and were actually outstanding!
We sold bazillions of the above and our customers loved ‘em.
We learned through the evolution of players that the CD was indeed a marvelous invention that kept yielding superior results as the gear got better. I’m sorry the reviewer missed the ride for four decades. It still grates at me that he was among the naysayers perpetuating the inaccurate myth that CDs are lousy. Reviewers are influential even when they’re flat out wrong.
In 2024 the reviewer had a $14k British DAC that he loved for streaming. That’s fine. What was his CD transport? A $249 Onkyo off Amazon. Again, as recently as this calendar year, he thought CDs weren’t very good.
Hmm. What might be the problem? If he was running a rumbly direct drive turntable with nice arm and cartridge… I doubt if it would have taken 40 years for the light bulb to turn on. Maybe it’s time to try a solidly built belt drive table…
This changed when Teac provided him a $2700 CD TRANSPORT, which he fed into his uber expensive DAC. Now, in 2024, with a $16,700 CD playing duo, he has recognized that CDs sound amazing. He deduces, it took 40 years to get here.
I shake my head. At first as I was reading his travails, I was getting angry. You… a reviewer, who is supposed to be an advocate for your reader, are missing the broad side of the barn.
You’re whizzing on CD performance for decades, perpetuating the myth that CDs are no good because they’re digital. AND… you’re doing so while LOVING the MoFi One Step records, that are pressed from a digital master! I guaranty he didn’t know THAT while loving the One Step vinyl.
Now that I’m past the preface, and (almost) done being angry at the bogus opinion of the reviewer, let’s get on to the business at hand. The sound of CDs can be absolutely fabulous. The result you get is OF COURSE tied to the minutia of the equipment you buy to play them.
I’m sure you know the sound of records is tied to your choice in a table, arm, cart and all the set up nuances that can make or break the chain of excellence.
The same is true of playing CDs, except, THANKFULLY, you don’t have to have the hands of a Swiss watchmaker or mechanic to get state of the art results from your CD playing system.
You can simply buy a wonderful CD player like the Atoll brand made in France. They have a nice array of models starting at $900.
Ultimately, this entry is aimed at a slightly different target.
There are many of you who already have a DAC you really enjoy. It might be built into your preamp or integrated amp. It might be a stand alone DAC. There are thousands of designs and choices out there, and for this discussion I’m going to assume you have a DAC you’ve chosen carefully and want to use. YOU… don’t need a CD player. But you SHOULD consider a solidly built CD TRANSPORT.
Atoll Transport Mechanisms
Atoll of France makes two outstanding CD Transports. They’re built like the proverbial brick outhouse. These transports use a Teac drive that shares much of the DNA of the $2700 unit the reviewer appreciated. Remember? That Teac… is the MISSING LINK that won him over to the CD format after 40 years.
Both Atoll transports are built on heavy aluminum chassis. They use double sided boards with a nickel / gold finish. They both use Teac drives that track well and are quite responsive, instead of operating sluggishly. Great tracking is important as it asks for less error correction within your DAC electronics. Atoll has its own secret sauce for reducing vibration even further from the stock Teac mechanism. The base has beefed up support and the top of the drive has a specific damping compound to reduce resonance. Both transports have multiple transformers and linear power supplies. They use high amounts of filter capacitance to deliver a richer, warmer sound than a flimsy player. Both transports make jitter all but immeasurable.
Both are made in France with a 3 year warranty.
If you are the owner of a DAC you love with your streamer, please consider unlocking the treasures of the CD format once and for all, as the reviewer finally did, by running a solid TRANSPORT. All you have to do is buy an Atoll CD transport and run it into your DAC. They’re not that expensive. And yep, they’re even better than his Chinese $249 Onkyo off Amazon.
Transport Models
DR100 Signature, $1200
Dual transformers, 14,141uF Caps, 1 OPT out, 1 Coax out
DR200 Signature, $2000
Duel transformers, 22,100uF Caps, 1 OPT out, 1 Coax out, 1 XLR out
