Great CD transport for cheap, if not great CD player too..

[nat8808]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300990654825

TASCAM CD601 broadcast deck. £99 with 10 hrs left and no bids.

Not as fancy as the CD701 with it's VRDS (like wot I have) but the CD601 still uses the same laser mech with Kss-151 laser and has AES/EBU output, balanced and single ended outputs (not sure which dac chips it uses). And great wired remotes you can get for them too. No S/Pdif output though so not for everyone..

 

[Guest]

:^ Just the biz

 

[nat8808]

So.... what do you think of it? (assuming the purchase went through ok). :nerves:

Hate to have recommended something only for it to be terrible...

 

[Voice_Coil]

i almost grabbed that for the laser.

I had the 701 too, poxy thing, if you ever need to replace that long belt....good luck !

 

[nat8808]

I had the 701 too, poxy thing, if you ever need to replace that long belt....good luck !

Hmm... I translate "Poxy" as meaning it is fragile, flimsy and frustrating to use because it's not up to the job?

I have the 701 and other than the utilitarian steel casing, it's pretty damn solid with its VRDS mech. In fact was the basis for sought-after transports such as the Wadia 2000 and Esoteric P2/P2s.

When I picked up a RC601 remote from the parcel force depot in Camden, I ended up having a long conversation with an ex-recording studio designer/installer to big the players and ex-live sound engineer (a completely coincidental meeting - he was also picking something up, now running an industrial battery re-conditioning company??) and the 701 was the only player they could find that would stand up to the rigours of CD playback on stage, entirely skip-free even when balanced on top of big bass amp stacks.

Perhaps your view of it is coloured by a personally frustrating experience of fixing one, although most belts in CD players could be considered difficult to replace without a certain amount of Zen calmness. Hence many get sold on cheaply as "for repair/spares" (and people like me buy them!).

 

[nat8808]

P.S.

If you're looking to plunder a machine for a secondhand 151 laser, I'd go with the CD401 instead - much cheaper! I'm sure there are other cheaper players too to plunder. So a good choice not to go for this one.

A rough cosmetic one could be as cheap as £20.

 

[Voice_Coil]

I'm actually using the wt2000 myself, and the laser is from the 401 , the 701 paved the way. I did have to repair the tascam hence the use of the word "poxy" lol

 

[nat8808]

I see ! In comparison then it probably is poxy..

Is the mechanism, the draw etc the same though in the Wadia as the 701; levelling adjustment, draw speed settings and things?

I thought I'd also move to a Wadia 2000 or similar because of the heavy case build but I think I'd miss the over-the-top RC601 controls with the jog dial, pitch, time position entry etc not to mention the industrial big segment LED display. Just looking for a BU1 RAM buffer card to see if it will do any buffering via digital out and improve the sound but hard to find.