Transport for a battery-powered Scott Nixon DAC?

gary · « **on:** 27 Jan 2005, 02:18 pm »

I'm just wondering if anybody else who's trying to build an a/c independant system around the tripath chip has any luck finding a good battery-powered transport. I'll have Vinnie's Clari-T and the Scott Nixon amp running of 12V SLA's, and the last piece of the puzzle will be the transport.

So far, this Sony seems to be the best looking battery-powered cd player with spdif out that I've come across. I think I'm going to go for it, and compare it to my Philips 963SA once the rest of my system gets here.

Anybody else come across any better options?

Gary

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Jan 2005, 03:26 pm »

Quote from: gary

I'm just wondering if anybody else who's trying to build an a/c independant system around the tripath chip has any luck finding a good battery-powered transport. I'll have Vinnie's Clari-T and the Scott Nixon amp running of 12V SLA's, and the last piece of the puzzle will be the transport.

So far, this Sony seems to be the best looking battery-powe ...

Hi Gary,

Are you sure that Sony portable has a digital output? If it does, are you sure it is coaxial (not optical)?

FWIW, a while back I've used a simple CD-ROM (not a CD-RW) powered by a 12V SLA battery (plus a 5V regulator for the +5V input) and used its digital output to feed an ack dAck. After putting it on a simple homemade vibration platform and peforming a few electronic mods to the CD-ROM circuit board, I found it to make a very nice sounding transport! I forgot the brand (maybe Epos for $30?), but it was very silent and was able to read badly scratched CDs without a problem. Of course, I did not have a display or remote, but it sure sounded great into the Ack dAck!

Regards,

Vinnie

gary · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 Jan 2005, 03:40 pm »

Quote from: Vinnie R.

Hi Gary,

Are you sure that Sony portable has a digital output? If it does, are you sure it is coaxial (not optical)?

FWIW, a while back I've used a simple CD-ROM (not a CD-RW) powered by a 12V SLA battery (plus a 5V regulator for the +5V input) and used its digital output to feed an ack dAck. After putting it on a simple homemade vibration platform and peforming a few electronic mods to the CD-ROM circuit board, I found it to make a very nice sounding transport! I forgot the brand (maybe Epos fo ...

Good call... it was a toslink output. So much for that one.

Gary

Dmason · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 Jan 2005, 03:41 pm »

I've thought for awhile that the answer may lie with the CD-ROM drive. Their mechanisms tend to be pretty strong, and there is not a lot of ancillary circuitry to deal with. The NEC Multispin I pulled out of eBay was very good for what it was, but I already knew what a GOOD tranport did for the presentation, with digital sources. It adds a smoothness, a liquidity factor that is worth figuring out, because that essence will only be magnified by the ClariT sound.

scottnixon · « **Reply #4 on:** 27 Jan 2005, 03:48 pm »

An easy out is to find an 'NEC 3Xp Plus' external scsi drive. It's a top load external cdrom that runs off of a 12vdc wallwart. It's an older model and shows up on ebay frequently for around the $10 range. Has a s/pdif out, small lcd display and sounds pretty good. You'd have to mod the power inlet strip out the scsi connectors and use a big SLA... (7ah min)