[warnerwh]

The reason I ask is I'd like to see what all is involved and how well it's made.  The one thing I dont' like about cd or dvd players is the mechanical part. They just seem cheesy to me. It' looks like it's all plastic and couldn't last very long.  

Once while buying a DVD player, well actually it took 3 before one worked right, I talked to the manager at Good Guys. He told me they get more dvd players back than everything else in the store combined.

Transports that costs thousands of dollars that use these same cheesy parts from Sony etc just seem to me to be overpriced no matter what they have inside.

If someone would be good enough to help me understand them I'd appreciate it. If I had a cheapo cd player I wasn't using I'd take it apart myself.

Thanks

[Levi]

This CD Player uses a Sony transport.  It looks cheesy but it works!

View with powersupplies and Anagram Technologies Upsampling DAC.

[JoshK]

As I see it, you have a couple of choices.

1) build a cd player around a cd rom drive (pc)  or use your pc as the transport
2) live with cheap crap phillips/sony drive
3) build/buy a cd player/transport with the Phillips Pro2 transport
4) buy cheap pioneer player as they tend to have at least half way decent drive mechanisms despite being cheap.

[Hogg]

Like Levi I also own a Talk Thunder 3.1b.  I had to dismantle the transport to replace the laser pickup.  It was not too difficult.  I actually had to perform the disassembly twice because the replacement laser pickup was soldered (shorted) to avoid electrostatic discharge damage.
  Yes, the mechanisms are plastic and fairly cheap.  There are better mechanisms as Josh mentioned.  I prefer what Naim and others have done.  A drawer is manually opened and the disc is secured with a weight or magnet.  I believe Sony, Rega and others use this as well.
   I have an old manual in .pdf format for a Sony transport.  If you send me a PM with an e-maill address, I'll be happy to send it.

                                                                     Jim

[warnerwh]

Thank you guys for the info. It appears the best option is to run it til it dies and buy another.  The luck of the draw I guess. I've owned two Marantz players, one lasted a few years and the 8260 didn't work well out of the box so I will stay away from modern Marantz gear.

Building a transport is over my head.  It would be nice to see someone design a well made unit with metal gears and bearing surfaces instead of plastic. Something that would last twenty years without problem. It doesn't seem like it should cost that much to do in quantity.

[Levi]

Esoteric makes one exactly what you are looking for.  Be prepared to pay $6,000 for a used one.

Thank you guys for the info. It appears the best option is to run it til it dies and buy another.  The luck of the draw I guess. I've owned two Marantz players, one lasted a few years and the 8260 didn't work well out of the box so I will stay away from modern Marantz gear.

Building a transport is over my head.  It would be nice to see someone design a well made unit with metal gears and bearing surfaces instead of plastic. Something that would last twenty years without problem. It doesn't seem like it should cost that much to do in quantity.

[diy_freak]

Esoteric makes one exactly what you are looking for.  Be prepared to pay $6,000 for a used one.

Or you could try to find a second hand Teac VRDS10 cdp or similar to get the highest quality for about 1/10th of that kind of money. 'Those were the days that men were real men, women were real women and well built, solid, hefty looking transport mechanisms were real...'

You can still buy replcement laser units for them in case you find one with too much mileage on it, so that's not a problem.