Are Transports dead?

[DaveyF]

Seems that the market for stand alone transports is dying and maybe dead. Same may go for the all-in-one CD player. Are these devices passé? Who here only uses a hard drive on a computer or an Ipad/tablet as their only digital source?

 

[JonFo]

I think Oppo will continue to do great business selling their universal disc transports.

Even though I rip each CD or DVD-A as soon as it arrives, I also spin rental DVD / BluRays as well as my SACD collection.

Lately, I've been using the transport as much or more than the media server sourced content. And even use the Oppo as the DLNA renderer for the stored media just because it's convenient.

After 40 years in the computing field, I still want physical options as a backup, or for the leading edge of formats. Trusting streaming or HD alone is either a quality challenge or risky.

For instance, new UHD BluRays will soon appear, and that will be a physical medium only at first.

 

[Joe Whip]

I still use a Sony ES SACD player as a transport for playing CD's and of course SACDs that I have. I must admit that I have ripped most of my favorite CDs to a SSD and listen to them via my Mac book. Haven't used the transport in quite a while now.

 

[RogerD]

I still use my Sony ES and I will probably pick up another one,as they don't build em like this anymore and for 200 to 300 dollars,you can't go wrong.

 

[Joe Whip]

Always good to have a back up. I may have to do that myself.

 

[FrantzM]

Lots of nostalgia here in these posts.. I don't use a transport anymore, I am not in the minority. They are a dying species

 

[microstrip]

Perhaps they are dying species, but iMHO and many others, they are still the best sounding players for the redbook species, although at price. YMMV.

And in WBF we should not be shameful of showing nostalgia for the best ...

 

[Ronm1]

I still use mine everyday!!

 

[BlueFox]

From an overall perspective, yes. However, like record players, there will always be a small percentage in use. The funny part will be in a decade or so when some will start burning CDs and start proclaiming the resurgence of CDs.

 

[Al M.]

Seems that the market for stand alone transports is dying and maybe dead. Same may go for the all-in-one CD player. Are these devices passé? Who here only uses a hard drive on a computer or an Ipad/tablet as their only digital source?

If they thought the market for standalone transports or all-in-one CD players were dead, Simaudio Moon would not have come to market recently with a new Neo series of transport and player. I am happy they did; it was timely for the demise of my 20-year old Wadia 8 transport (trouble finding tracks). The Neo 260 DT transport sounds great and costs only $ 2K. I am the proud owner of one and still use it as the sole source for my music, feeding a Berkeley Alpha DAC 2. CD is where all the music is that I listen to; 98 % of it is solely available on CD and not on hi-rez (well, in my opinion CD is high-resolution).

I like the physical feel of CDs and don't see a reason to burn them to file; the great internal clock of my Berkeley DAC theoretically takes care of jitter according to its designers' claims, and practically as well, as tested. Jitter removal from the transport source is the only explanation why my Wadia 8 and the new transport sounded not just similar, but precisely identical on the Berkeley DAC as verified by comparing over several days.

 

[mep]

Al-I thought you were going to buy a table.

 

[rockitman]

I use a memory buffered transport that plays CDs and hi Rez DVD-r discs. Transports are not dead.

 

[mep]

Transports might not be "dead," but they are on life support. I would venture a guess and say the number of people who own transports vice CD/SACD players is way less than the number of people who own turntables. I think they are a niche in an already niche market. I have several CD/SACD players and I use one as a door stop and another one as a weight to keep my newspapers from blowing away when I take the trash out.

 

[amirm]

They are dead and funeral date has been set for next year this time .

 

[LL21]

Perhaps they are dying species, but iMHO and many others, they are still the best sounding players for the redbook species, although at price. YMMV.

And in WBF we should not be shameful of showing nostalgia for the best ...

I still use mine everyday!!

I understand the trends. I also enjoy the way my music sounds, more than any other way i have heard it so far, and I get to buy CDs for cheap.

 

[Al M.]

They are dead and funeral date has been set for next year this time .

Not everyone is beholden to 'file fundamentalism'. Don't shoot me for that term, I am just quoting this review:

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/neodio_origine.htm

 

[mauidan]

I use a memory buffered transport that plays CDs and hi Rez DVD-r discs. Transports are not dead.

Same here.

Now that PS Audio has the DirectStream DAC, it would be nice if they updated the PWT to also play SACDs.

 

[Al M.]

O.k., if I got the numbers right, 8 posters here state that they are using transports, and 5 posters -- a clear minority -- don't. So on which authority can the claim be made by some here that transports are dead or dying? Or am I missing something here?

 

[audioguy]

They may not be dead (yet) but once you get used to the conveninece of a server and access via iPad (and, I might add, the sound qualiy), there is no going back. I have a Universal Transport (Oppo) but it's primary use is Blurays (and the 3 or 4 multichanell SACDs I have) as I have no intention of burning them. And for what it's worth, my server replaced a dCS stack.

 

[rblnr]

They may not be dead (yet) but once you get used to the conveninece of a server and access via iPad (and, I might add, the sound qualiy), there is no going back. I have a Universal Transport (Oppo) but it's primary use is Blurays (and the 3 or 4 multichanell SACDs I have) as I have no intention of burning them. And for what it's worth, my server replaced a dCS stack.

Yes on the convenience and of course they are because physical media is dying. And this is no loss to SQ or anything else.