CD Transport - budget in the order of £1500

It is not ridiculous to suggest that using a cheap transport would sound any different to your existing transport, or that your existing transport would not be perfectly good when used as a transport alone. What is ridiculous is the assertion that 'hifi' can only be good if it's expensive or that something is not 'hifi' because it's cheap.

It's your money and your decision to spend it however you like, but in this instance you need not spend much at all to achieve your aim, unless your aim is to spend £1500 or so.

Yes, it is up to me and I don't doubt that many are overpriced and not significantly better than some of the cheap CD players.  The thing is, it's not one of those I want, which is why I asked the question in the first place hoping that I might find some guidance towards the really good ones.

To say that the Mission TRANSPORT is to blame for the sound you don't like I also think is misguided. 

You do know that dvd is higher quality than cd don't you?

I am pleased with it.  I bought it second hand in the early '90s without an arm and had an Acos Lustre GST-1 that I already had fitted to it.  I got the G1042 about 4 years ago and the Inspire makeover was last year.  New arm, stiffened plinth, reveneered, acrylic platter instead of the original glass and Achrimat instead of the original fell mat.  I think it is still the only Manticore Mantra that has been "Inspired".

 if you want a top grade transport cyrus will convert your cd8se to a xtse 2 or whatever they call it these days for a few quid. now i guess if you think thats value for money and you have plans to improve the rest of your set up its gonna be hard to beat. add a psxr if your not using one already and its a top notch transport. 

This is indeed one of the options I am considering.  In fact it's probably as far as I've got so far, so I could reask the question as "what would better the XT SE 2" for the same money or thereabouts"?

What do you think makes a good transport? What is it in this £1500 transport that you are looking for that a cheaper one would not give. People have given you perfectly good options that would not cost the earth and would provide you with all that is required as far as the sound goes. They won't have the Kudos of having another expensive box on the shelf though.

If you want to spend the amount that you mention, pick any CD player at or around the price and ones that you like the look of, because there really are no other variables apart from build quality, but even that can be had for a lot less. Your soon to be added DAC will be the leveller.

I didn't say that.  It was the Cyrus amp I didn't like.  Nothing to do with CT transport or Mission

The REALLY good ones can get all the digital data off the disc and present it to your dac without changing any of that data.  Which is pretty much all of them, regardless of price.  Buy one you like the look of, because appearance is the only difference when using them purely as a transport into a competent dac.

Maybe you should this: http://www.drhifi.net.au/Hi-Fi/Digital%20Is%20Digital/1.htm

If I were you I would be auditioning some active speakers before spending anymore money on your system, it maybe not for you, but the last guy who changed his Naim system for one can't believe how incredible it is and far cheaper than his old system.

Not an expert, but the transport will come down to a timing issue and a reduction in jitter. Generally, the more you pay, then the better the timing and the better the sound. Just because it is digital, it does not follow that they will all be the same. As an easy example, digital photos are a series of 1s and 0s but they don't all look the same. far from it.

A long while ago, a friend of mine was called into the bank to see the manager. He had a couple of million in there and the manager wanted to give him advise on where to invest. My friend left him with the immortal words 'those that earn it decide what to do with it'. You are in the same position. If you want a better quality transport, then get one.

H, he hasn't got a Mission transport, it's a Cyrus.  Mission-Cyrus as a corporate entity ceased to be years ago.  Cyrus is a distinct standalone company now, Mission is part of IAG.  

What is Jitter? How is it audible? What does it sound like? What level of jitter is audible? How much jitter do modern disc players give out? Are DACs susceptible to jitter? Can they mitigate the jitter or eliminate it altogether?

Just a few of the questions that you might need the answer to, to qualify jitter being an issue or not as the case may be. Personally, I think not.

What is 'timing' in the context of a digital transport anyway?

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice. It's way more complex and the scale of machine code being picked up is gigantic, for example, it may miss some data.

you have two routes though with better fidelity that you are discussing with CD's. get a dedicated transport such as Cyrus or Wadia, or get a great CD player because sometimes having the Dac near the source has a better effect.

I would suggest buying second hand as CD is not in fashion making amazing bargains. I have a chord QBD 76 dac and the music from my plinius is different when I use it as a transport and prefer the CD player doing all the Dac duties because it is so good and harmonised. You can get a Chord Blue under £2k on auction sites (the cd transport for the Chord dac). But you can pick up a. plinius CD player for your budget, and I don't think you will better that sound with another dac. 

That is a terrible example.