Mcintosh MCD1000

The MCD1000 Transport has one unbalanced coaxial (RCA), one Toslink optical, and one balanced XLR output. The unit uses an Optical Three-Beam Laser Pickup, Two-Dimensional Parallel Objective Lens Drive System, and GaAlGaAs Semiconductor Laser. Error Correction is Cross Interleaved Reed-Solomon. The green LED front panel can display disc time, total remaining time, track time, and remaining track time. Two mini phone jacks are provided for remote control data in/out. Thick machined aluminum top and side panels are used. The CD Transport MCD1000 is exactly what the name states: a CD drive. Built according to the company's long-standing tradition, it is extremely solid and designed to remain an attractive proposition for years to come, outlasting many changes in fashion. Its front is made of glass. Unlike cheaper units, the front is split into three parts, with the middle section containing the disc tray and display protruding. The tray has no special cover at the front, so the tray itself is directly visible; it is made from cast aluminum and beautifully finished. The display is small and contains a track calendar, and I really do not understand why a readable, large display could not be installed, like the one in the partnering DAC. The backlight above the buttons is green (classic), and the light is supplied via optical fiber, so that the front panel does not get hot and the varnish remains intact. The sides of the panel are locked in aluminum rails. Since the late 1990s, these have increased in size; the company started with flat elements, but now they are almost square in cross-section. The top cover is also special: it is a thick aluminum sheet placed on top of a glass cover.

There is a window cut into the aluminum layer, and through it we can see a block diagram painted on the glass below, which looks somewhat similar to Nagra. Closer to the front, there is a large aluminum McIntosh logo placed on a gold-plated plate, which provides a nice contrast to the otherwise black enclosure. The side panels are made from thick aluminum plates. On the back, we see a variety of digital outputs: balanced electrical AES/EBU (XLR), two unbalanced electrical S/PDIF (RCA), and two optical S/PDIF (TOSLINK). As we can learn from the manual, the signal fed to the outputs conforms to the one on the disc: 16/44.1.