Goodwill find! Audio Alchemy Digital Drive System III
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| Posted on June 19, 2025 at 15:00:20 | ||
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Posts: 14384
Location: East Coast Joined: October 4, 2001 |
I know you are thinking a lot of things that I thought when I saw this thing on the shelf of my local Goodwill and looked it up on my phone. It is ancient. It is really just a Sony player in a fancy box. It probably won't be any better sounding than the CD player I'm using as CD transport (Marantz CD5000). However, it did seen to work when I put a disk in it to test, and the store said I could return it if it didn't work at home. I was $50 poorer and out the door with my AA DDS III. I got it home and did find a problem. There was nothing coming out of the digital port to my DAC (S.M.S.L. SU-1), but the analog RCA's worked fine. It is tracking disks very solidly. I plan to keep it because I suspect, since the analog works, that the problem is continuity for the digital coax out, and I hope that is an easy fix. I've read that the ribbon cable is often at fault. Worst case scenario is I've got a $50 working CD player as a backup and Goodwill has a $50 donation. Here is why I am posting (besides wanting any input on the non-working coax out). I wanted to see what you inmates know about this unit. It is a Sony on the inside but it uses the Sony Stable Platter from a Sony CDM14 mechanism, which is supposed to be good. Do I have an very interesting looking museum piece or will this make a good transport? I suspect that it is good enough for the S.M.S.L. SU-1, but that might not be my last DAC. Is it worth paying for a repair if I can't get it working myself? TIA! Dave
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