Dare I ask if there is an expected release date for a Stellar CD Transport? I will be first in the queue for that bad boy!
No worries and welcome in to the head of the queue! We are hoping for end of 2022.
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Great stuff! Counting down the days already! 
That’s interesting news. When I raised that subject a year ago, I don’t recall the response being that positive - either that there simply weren’t plans for one, or (and this may be faulty memory on my part) it was said that the slender Stellar form factor wouldn’t accept a decent drive mechanism. Heck, Paul even mentioned in his video on the PST that the drive was a bit too large for that box, resulting in the protrusion in the bottom of the case.
Again, I may be misremembering the discussion. If it actually happens, it will be an exciting product, I’m sure.
It will be CD only though, with a cheaper (and probably smaller) transport. As I can’t afford a PST, I’m fine with red book only if it means I can get on the PS ladder
No, you’re correct, Craig. Stellar’s form factor won’t support that big drive nor will Stellar’s price category.
We will base the Stellar player around a DVD ROM drive as we did in the original PWT.
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Ah, thanks for the clarification. I should’ve taken the “CD” in @hiace_drifter 's first post at face value.
That said, if the same tech that improved redbook performance so much in the PST can be brought to the Stellar line, that will be an impressive device. Good luck!
A wise choice to replace the functionality of the PWT at a Stellar level price point. I have a ton of CDs and find my PWT as relevant today as any other component in my system. One thing to consider in its feature set is that it integrates with any PS server as an acccurate ripper.
Will this be able to play SACD’s?
Cygnus, as Paul states, DVD-ROM so no SACD. An SACD drive would cost considerably more than a DVD-ROM and would defeat the cost savings goal of the Stellar player.
I wonder how the Stellar player will compare performance wise to a PWT, and also price wise to current second hand PWT values. I would prefer the Stellar as should in theory last longer, so I hope it is at least as good SQ wise!
I recall you either bought or were eying the purchase of a Denon SACD player? Did it happen, what was the experience like?
Bought then sold (without using!). Decided to focus on redbook CD players. (Influenced in a large part by Paul’s opinion that the SACD player built in dacs aren’t great).
I think that’s probably behind Marantz’s decision to have Ken Ishiwata “reimagine” the conversion process on their SA-10 and develop a system that doesn’t utilize commercially available DAC chips. I certainly don’t understand the engineering, but you can read about it on the web, at Marantz’s site and any others that talk about the units in detail. The company calls the process as MMM (Marantz Music Mastering). Besides the SA-10, the KI-Ruby and the SACD-30n also use it. What I can confirm is that the 30n sounds very, very nice, albeit with a touch of what I’ve come to think of as the Marantz “house sound,” which is a little on the warm, lush side. But even though no one would call it cold and analytical, there’s still no loss of detail and musicality. It’s a very pleasing balance overall. I decided to forego mine for a PST because PSA’s sale last October gave me a chance to get a legitimate contender to SOTA status at a substantial discount, and gain the ability to listen to DSD data files to boot.
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