Transport for a dCS Delius - HELP

I am actually considering selling my proceed cdd soon so your discussion caught my eye. I currently have a delius/purcell combo and am using the proceed with it with great results. I've had the sony sacd players, and the marantz SA-1 and can tell you that both worked well with the digital output(cd). But I have to say that the cdd is better. It's basically the levinson 37 in a cheaper box and less sophisticated power supply. Mine was rebuilt by the guy that had it before me as most have been. They replaced the transport machanism and lazer rack making it almost new. Proceed is really great at service. They just had some bad parts for a while. You will find that almost all of the cdd's on the market have been rebuilt and are working fine. They have a true balanced digital output as opposed to most that use an op-amp to create the other half of a balanced signal. Even cec uses op-amps for theirs. I am considering selling mine for 850. I was going to try for a emm labs or a wadia.to see if I could get some improvement. In my opinion the sony SCD777ES or scd-1 are really great transports but you will spent a lot for the priviledge of listening to a few classical discs on SACD. I have decided to stick with the delius purcell with redbook cd's until music I like comes out on SACD which may never happen.

I recently *bought* a Proceed CDD so your discussion caught my eye. I agree with much of Sm2727. Mine was recently upgraded with the latest software and a whole new drive ass'y, now also used in the 37 and 390S. The CDD does share much of its circuit design and functionality with the 37 as they were designed in parallel. Nevertheless, it still has a few operational quirks you'd never find in a cheap Philips or Sony. But even though it's $2K cheaper than the 37, I don't feel it's worth 2500 1996 dollars compared to many of the better current cd players that sound at least as good when used as transports. I did compare my CDD with a 37 using my DAC in a megabuck store system and couldn't tell any difference after 1hr+, so my unit is sonically fine.

The last few months I've compared my CDD to a bunch of players to try and justify its price, although no Really Good units (ie Wadia, SCD1, CEC). But stock $1K Denon 2900 and Yamaha DVD-S2300MkII universal multi-channel AV players sound just as good as transports:-O However the CDD and other decent CD-specific players are clearly better than sub-$1K dvd-based universal players in transport duty.

My BelCanto DAC2 seems to level the playing field and minimize transport sonics signatures, as it's insensitive to jitter by reclocking the input. You're right to point out there's more to the sound of a transport than the jitter, which your dCS also probably deals with well. Bass extension, image density and soundstage depth are the differences I heard, though generally pretty subtle.

Don't expect wonders with SACD at the $1K price point: the cdd/dac2 overall sounded better playing the (identical) cd versions of SACDs played through the analog outs of these 2 universal players. I wouldn't expect you'd get much out of the Philips 963 in comparison either. I'd also like to find a 2ch audio-only sacd/cd transport/player, but seems the marantz sa14 and the older sonys are about it now at a reasonable price.

The CDD has greater CD functionality, and with cones and a power cord does come out on top of all I've listened to by a hair, but I would advise you try the Sony 777 and its ilk before the CDD.

Happy hunting...

Thank you all for your great feedback!

I actually went ahead and ordered a Philips 963 and the much talked about BlackGate power supply cap to mod the unit... At $320 for the player and $20 for the cap, I couldn't pass it up. It will make for an interesting experiment with the dCS and could always move in to my video system when not in use in the 2-channel system. From what I've read, most like the upsampling in the 96k setting, but it'll be interesting to hear what the Delius does with it.

Now, some indvidual responses:

Ndjedinak, your comments on the CEC were what turned me on to them. While I haven't heard one personally, the idea of a belt drive transport sure is interesting... I'd guess it has the "analog" sound that the air bearing Forsell does.

Sm2727, if you decide that you want to sell your CDD at some point, feel free to drop me a line! While the Verdi is ultimately what I'd like to pair up with the Delius, your CDD might be interesting if since it has had a rebuild. If the price and condition are right, I'm sure it would make a great upgrade over my PCD3 since the PCD3 is only RCA out.

Sdecker, from what I've read, the dCS is very resistant to jitter, so it will most likely respond like your DAC2 does do different transports. While the Delius won't be able to decode SACD from the 963 (from what I understand), I'm really excited to hear what the upsampling does since I don't have a Purcell.

Again, thank you all for your great input! It sure is nice having an outlet to discuss these issues...

Gtb75- the $20.BG cap will help lower the power supply noise a bit, but if you plan to use the Philips as a transport, you should also replace the cheap
caps in the digital circuit path with N or NX series BGs.
A Bybee Purifier in series with digital output would also make a nice improvement.

The 963 is a great little player for the money but as a transport its nothing special. I have one (with the BG in the ps) and recently swapped in my Sony DVP-S7000 as a transport - not even close. The Sony extracts so much more detail its not funny. But again I reiterate that the Philips is a great player for the buck.