CD Transports - Primare
CDs are still widely regarded as the best audiophile medium to enjoy your music, and a wide range of CD playing solutions exist, ranging from one box CD players to multi-disc players and SACD players. We also offer a range of separate DACs and CD transports which can offer superior performance and are considered the optimum way of enjoying CD playback.
Simpy put, CD Transports place into a single box the transport unit of a CD player, eradicating the DAC. Why? By splitting these modules, akin to a separate power amplifier and pre amplifier, the CD Transport can deliver greater presentation than a one box unit as it is designed for a single purpose and does not share mechanisms or have separate power supplies, etc. We provide free UK next day delivery on all of our in stock products, so you can have your kit ready to use in no time at all!
Primare was formed in 1985 to make hi-fi components that symbolised a radical shift in how music systems were perceived, long before 'lifestyle' designs were popular. Primare have proven that excellent sounding hi-fi can also be engineered with style and the latest range is their best yet.
This ethos has been at the core of everything Primare has released, and since engineer Bjorn Holmqvist joined the team in the late 1990s, Primare has sought to be counted as one of the world’s most progressive and desirable high-end hi-fi companies. Primare offer a range of excellent amplifiers, CD players and
DACs.
In recent years, Primare products have enshrined the brand’s uncomplicated Scandinavian design ethos. Individually or combined within matching systems under the command of a single intuitive handset, they continue to prove that great hi-fi design can inspire lovers of fidelity and aesthetics in equal measure. Primare make hi-fi for living as well as for listening!
Unlike CD players housed in a single box, dedicated CD transports take the CD reading mechanism and house it separately in one box, taking the pure digital information from the disc, and requiring an external DAC to then convert this information back into analogue and a form which can be fed to an amplifier. You can only connect them directly to your amplifier if your amplifier has a digital input.
If digital information is just a series of 1s and 0s, then why is one CD transport different to another, and why are they priced differently? The answer is jitter. Jitter when reading digital media such as a compact disc can have undesired effects on the quality of the audio achieved – often manifested through clicks, skipping and poor audio quality. Ensuring you have a good quality CD transport, delivering a good quality signal and disc read therefore, can have a significant impact on the sound quality you experience. Some manufacturers offer improved CD clocks as upgrades for your existing equipment that can also affect and reduce the presence and effect of jitter on your music.
Premium CD Transports use several technologies and isolation methods to evade jitter wholly however possible. These units aim to play the CD as precisely as possible without any risk of interference of other circuitry such as a DAC, and top end models strive hard to separate the transport from the power supply, through anti-resonance systems and damping techniques which avert tremors from the power supply that would disrupt the transport’s laser’s ability to reading the disc. Many high end models are intended to elude the automated loading trays of some CD players. As these mechanisms require power to eject and insert discs, avoiding these can prevent the need for additional circuitry and power, thus further isolating the CD reading mechanism from resonance.
Most CD transports will offer both coaxial and optical digital outputs, giving you flexibility to use existing cables and to pair with a range of DACs or integrated amplifiers with different optical inputs.
