That's an almost unbelievable price!
I get the skepticism and was of the same mind as well until I gave it a try. The only analogy I can give would be separates versus an integrated. There really does need to be difference and yet there is one (though it is subtle).I also have 2 different DAC’s connected to my 6000CDT and again these DAC’s have slightly different sounds. I prefer one DAC over the other when listening to certain types of music which is a flexability that a transport gives over a CD player.
Hope I could help. The way I look at using 2 different DACs with my 6000CDT is like switching cartridges on a turntable. Sometimes you just want a different sound but it is one that you still enjoy.
Any CD player that has digital outputs has that same flexibility. Can be used as a player or a transport.
Thus my analogy of an integrated versus separates. Yes a CD player can be used as a transport but that was not the intent of the designer.
Of course it was the intent of the designers. Why else would they put digital outputs on the player? Transports are marketed as being better at extracting more detail from the CD. This has always been debated and is pretty much muted with higher end CD players that use higher rotational speeds and upgraded lasers to extract more detail. Pretty much the same things that a transport is supposed to do. I've owned a few transports and have not heard any difference between them and my current SACD/CD player used as a transport. Maybe it's because I don't dabble in lower end CD players.
At a higher price point you are probably right however that is not the price point we are talking about here and the nature of the question I was answering. As you say you don’t dabble in lower end CD players so to say that they work just fine as a transport as your more expensive CD player is a little bit of an apples and oranges position. I do think that at any price point the difference between a transport/DAC combo versus a CD player at comparable level is going yield subtle results and not be for everybody. Part of the reason I added one to my system was to take the load off my higher end SACD player which I now use only for SACD/Hi-res play.
There are plenty of lower end CD players that also have digital outputs. CD transports were/are a marketing experiment that has convinced some consumers that they can collect and transfer digital data better than a conventional CD player. Some manufacturers felt the need to somehow prop up the transport concept instead of just marketing them as what they are, a CD player without an internal DAC. They take out all of the DAC and filter circuitry, claim that the mechanical transport is somehow an upgrade, and sometimes charge as much or more for it than a full-fledged CD player. In my opinion, a decent CD player with digital outputs has the same system flexibility as a CD transport. The claims that you'll get better sound from a transport connected to a DAC than a similar CD player connected to the same DAC are just objective opinions that have yet to be proven to me. Audiolab's 6000CDT (CD Transport) uses the exact same mechanical transport system as their 8300CDQ (CD Player). So, at least they're consistent and don't make any questionable claims about the superiority of a transport over a player.
