CD / SACD players and transports — Audio Note CDT Three

The CDT Three is a disc transport with a lid on top, made by Audio Note (UK) of Hove to meet the company's Level 3 criteria and is housed in a half-width chassis. As a transport it has no converter and no analogue outputs, so it must feed an external DAC or an amplifier with a suitable digital input. Audio Note presents it as a step on from the CDT Two within its range of dedicated transports, and buyers choose between fascias in black acrylic and anodised aluminium.

Key specs that matter

Two digital outputs are fitted, both transformer coupled - a 75 ohm S/PDIF output on RCA and a 110 ohm AES/EBU output on balanced XLR. The drive is a Philips CD Pro2LF mechanism, custom modified in-house, with a 3 beam semiconductor laser at 780 nm. Including its connectors the case measures 300 mm wide, 142 mm high and 428 mm deep, and it weighs 7.5 kg. It runs from 100 to 120 V or 220 to 240 V mains at 50 or 60 Hz with a maximum draw of 35 W, and it is fused with three 500 mA slow-blow fuses on 230 V supplies or three 1 A fuses on 115 V supplies.

Engineering and use context

Three independent mains transformers feed the supply, which lets different sections of the transport draw from their own windings instead of sharing one. Inside, the digital signal travels on Audio Note AN-Vx silver cable to a silver-wired output transformer built on a thin laminated core. Coupling through a transformer gives galvanic isolation, so no direct ground connection links this box to the converter downstream. Audio Note fits its own tantalum resistors and custom electrolytic capacitors. To load a disc, the user slides open a door on the top panel, places the CD on the spindle and fixes it with the supplied clamp, and the clamp and disc should be removed before the unit is moved. Buttons on the front cover play and pause, stop, track skip and display, and the display can be dimmed or switched off. The remote adds search, repeat, random play, numbered track selection, three time display modes and a program memory of up to 32 tracks, and it takes two AA batteries that are not supplied. Mains enters through an IEC socket with the power switch just above it on the rear panel. About 200 hours of use are needed before the internal parts have fully bedded in.

Pairing

Any converter that accepts S/PDIF over RCA or AES/EBU over XLR will work. Audio Note's own stand-alone DACs are the obvious partners, with AN-Vx as a suitable digital interconnect.

Alternatives

The Audio Note CDT Four is the Level 4 transport with a choke coupled supply, a full 445 mm width and a weight of 13 kg.