 What if you build a CD transport with a power supply that wouldn't be a mismatch for a lamp? Use the CD Pro 2 LF mechanism and build it in an extremely heavy cabinet. Then you get the Jace Audio CDT-3 MK3. From here on I name the Jace Audio CDT-3 MK3 the CDT-3. There must be a serious high end culture in China, given the number of serious brands coming from there. Jace Audio was new to me and when I read about the construction of their CDT-3 CD transport I was rather intrigued. Being involved with file based audio for so long I almost forgot there still are a lot of people that prefer a CD player. Now the CDT-3 isn't a CD player but only a CD transport, meaning that it doesn't contain the digital to analog converter. It has several digital outputs that are to be connected to an external DAC. Let's see where it has its place in your stereo. It is to be connected to a DAC over either AS-EBU, SPDIF, TOSLINK or I2S. That DAC then is connected to your amplifier over a pair of RCA or XLR cables, depending on your gear. The amp then drives the loudspeakers. The CD player can be controlled from the front on the player or using the infrared remote control. The CDT-3 has a full aluminium housing that measures 450 x 380 x 150mm and weighs 22 kilos. So it is about 17-20mm wider than is usual with full width equipment. And it is extremely heavy. Later on we will see what causes the weight. The front holds the power button, an LED that indicates the power status, the pause button, the play button, the stop button and the previous and next skip buttons. The 3.12 inch OLED display shows the track and time information, plus functions like repeat and random that can be activated from the remote control. On the rear we see the main switch that needs not be operated unless the player is not in use for a longer time, since there is a power button on the front that puts the player in standby. Next to it the shorter IEC mains inlet. Then the digital outputs, starting with AES-EBU on XLR, SPDIF on BNC, SPDIF on RCA and two I2S outputs, one on RJ45 that uses transistor to transistor logic, a single ended connection and one on HDMI that uses the low voltage differential signal system that is less susceptible to common mode noise. The HDMI labelling here might mislead people thinking that it can be connected directly to the HDMI input of an AV receiver, but that is not the case. You need to connect this to a DAC that has an I2S input on HDMI connector. The HDMI cable was chosen for its wide bandwidth. And even if your DAC has the same I2S input on HDMI, it still might not work since there are several pinouts versions on the market. J's audio adheres to the PS Audio Pinout, a wise choice since it is the pinout scheme I see the most. To the left we see the reference clock output and input for interfacing with other digital equipment and or external clock. Let's go back to the small toggle switch I skipped. It engages four times oversampling. When the top is removed, the first thing we see is the renowned CD-PRO 2LF transport. This is a very expensive mechanism, even secondhand they cost several hundreds of dollars. Then we see a board that contains a discreet linear power supply, probably to power the CD mechanism. And there is a second one that powers the digital output board. On that board the four times upsampler. The ADS3 inputs are all transformer decoupled. Note the Mundov capacitors here. The digital board is connected to the clock over a high quality HF connection. The board itself holds the oven controlled crystal oscillator and is powered by a third discreet linear power supply. This all is mounted on a machined aluminium baseplate with the circled boards recessed to avoid crosstalk. Front sides and back are mounted so that this baseplate is halfway resting on three pillars. If you think that's impressive, wait for when I turn over the player. For when the bottom is removed we see five TALMA encapsulated transformers with 105VA combined output, a field of diode, an array of voltage regulators and a half a circle board full of capacitors. I know a lot of amps that contain less power supply components. One last remark, the three pillars that support the central mounting plate stick through holes in the bottom plate and are terminated with shock absorbing feet. My mother would have said, that's the way to make even bricks taste great. I don't know if it works in English but I think you get the picture. The CDT-3 is a top loading player. The CD is loaded by sliding the transport lid backwards, taken out the disc clamp, placing the CD label up on the spindle, replacing the disc clamp and closing the lid. Then the play button on the front can be pressed to start playing. If you want more options, you use the remote control. This again is a fine piece of work, machined from a solid block of aluminium. It weighs almost 300 grams and lets you select track numbers, repeat, random play, scan, set volume and more. The CDT-3 is a CD player that accepts Redbook CDs, the ones you know. CD recordables and CD write reads. The latter two need to be recorded and finalised on a CD recorder. HD-CD, SACD and DSD are not supported. Of course I did the listening test in my setup 1, where the Air Acoustics AX520 amplifier drives the PMC FAC12 signature loudspeakers on Isoacoustic Gaia 2 isolators. They are connected to the amp over AudioQuest Robinhood 0 loudspeaker cable. The Chord Dave DAC was connected to the amp over Grimm Audio SQM XLR cables. The CDT-3 was connected to the DAVE over Siltek ADS EBU cable. All is placed in the CREATECH TREN3 rack. The CDT-3 has the relaxed sound you might expect in this class. It has a very fine and deep bass with good texture. The highs are also of fine quality while there is a good deep stereo image with reasonable good focus. It is the lower mids that offer a bit less resolution for its class. When the upsampling is engaged, this improves to a certain degree. Overall it is a good sounding player that I rank halfway between my setup 1B and 1A. The Dutch MSRP is €5,595 including 21% VAT. The price in US dollars is €4,998 but that is excluding sales tax. Looking at the build quality, that price is fully acceptable. Another nice machine this is. Although some think that CD players always sound better than network players, getting good sound quality out of a CD player is rather complex. As the inventor of the CD encoding scheme, Case Immink once told me, the CD player works thanks to the imperfection of the system. He meant the optical storage. The rock solid build quality of the CDT-3 might be a good thing but for instance the green audio player isn't built like this and still outplays the CDT-3 and rightly so since it's about twice the price. It shows that hi-fi and ratio are not always bad fellows. And on that bombshell, I'll end this video. I'll be back next Friday at 5pm central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially, especially in these times. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com And whatever you do, enjoy the music.