In the spirit of posting another meaningless opinion on the internet 
, I am now convinced after listening exclusively to CD for awhile now, that an optical disc is a better - perhaps significantly so - medium for music than any hard drive known to man, purpose built or not.
I’ve been burning albums to JVC Taiyo Yuden high quality made in Japan CDRs. Sounds amazing.
What amp are you using with the 30n?
A pair of M700s. Preamp is the SGCD. Speakers are Magnepan .7 with a Hsu sub. All electronics except the sub are powered by a Stellar P3.
Thanks. It’s funny, when I first started looking for a new CD player I checked out the 30n. Then I began reading about Jays Audio CDT-MK3 which looks to be very impressive and is the same price. There is no way I could afford anything more expensive.
Srajan does a thorough comparison to USB networked playback and cd playback in his 6moons review of the Jay’s Audio CDT2 Mk. II transport. It is definitely worth the time to read IMO. Or you can just skip to the last page to get the summary conclusions (like we all often do with audio magazine reviews 
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I imagine the Jay’s is fantastic. Steve Guttenberg gushes about them.
What I prefer about the Marantz is the ability to play high res files off of DVD data discs. I have 375 DSD albums, and a pile of locally stored high res pcm albums. The ability to burn DVD discs and play them tips the Marantz into the lead for my needs. And it’s Roon tested meaning it works with Roon over usb.
And I have the matching Model 30 integrated.
I’m hoping to purchase one later this month, or beginning of July. Need to first sell my Border Patrol SE-i Dac. Have been too busy to make the ad!
But for straight CD, the Jay’s looks amazing.
In my case I wanted a more satisfactory SACD player than the one I had, and I knew I’d never be able to afford the PST. Make no mistake, the 30n works a treat on CDs (at least those with good recording DNA to begin with), but if all I had were CDs, I’d have probably just stuck with my NuPrime transport.
Got lucky today and a guy bought my Sonus Fabers here locally. Therefore, just bought a Music Direct open box of the SACD 30n. Was a better deal than Underwood in this particular case. And with Music Direct, get the full 60 day trial. I’m curious to hear how the DVD data discs sound with DSD and high res files.
The waters parted and I had a 4 hour listening session last night with the SACD 30n. It’s the best I’ve heard music reproduced in my 20 year audiophile career. Particularly with SACDs and CDs.
I did direct A/B comparisons between DSD played through a M1 Mac Mini, Roon/HQP/ microrendu 1.4 and optical disc of the same recording. The computer rig sounded great until I played the disc. An obvious different level.
The data discs don’t play gapless. There’s a one second gap between tracks. No way around it.
More DVD discs arrive today. Will experiment to confirm flac and alac do not have the audible loud burst between tracks that aiff has.
Otherwise, the SACD 30n is pretty bad ass.
Thanks for the update! Are you using a separate DAC?
I’m using the internal Marantz dac 
I do still enjoy the A! Tjeob for variety.
I know exactly what you mean. Although I listen to the DS DAC regularly I like to switch to the Oppo 105D sometimes. I know it’s fashionable to pooh-pooh the SABRE 9018 chipset but I still find it’s sound crisp, clear and clean.
To follow up, the SACD 30n plays CD-R & DVD-r data discs normally using FLAC, ALAC or DSD. Only AIFF caused the loud burst between tracks. This is a relief as now I get to keep the Marantz 