Quad 3CDT CD Transport

THE ART OF EXTRACTION

Built for listeners who value purity at the source, 3CDT strips CD playback back to its essentials. No conversion stages. No unnecessary circuitry. Just a transport engineered for accuracy, stability, and elegance — delivering the cleanest possible foundation for your music to shine. 

PURE SIGNAL, PERFECT SYNERGY

3CDT is a dedicated CD transport featuring a precision disc mechanism, advanced dual-processor servo control, a temperature-controlled ultra-low-jitter master clock, and isolated low-noise power pathways. With coaxial and optical outputs, it partners seamlessly with Quad 3 for a complete, high-fidelity CD playback system. 

RIGHT ON TIME

Jitter—tiny timing errors—can blur attacks and weaken rhythmic drive. 3CDT’s ultra-stable master clock keeps timing rock-solid, so transients hit cleaner and instruments separate more clearly. The result is music that locks into place: taut, focused, and emotionally gripping.

CD’S FULL OF LIFE

Subtle read errors can smear timing and soften detail, but 3CDT’s precision transport locks onto the disc with exceptional stability. Its high-accuracy mechanism extracts data cleanly and corrects errors instantly, delivering sharper transients, richer texture, and a more lifelike musical performance.

BACK TO BLACK

Shared power circuits can leak noise into the signal path, softening detail and masking nuance. 3CDT isolates every critical stage with dedicated low-noise regulators, blackening the background so the texture of instruments—and the space around them—emerge with vivid, three-dimensional realism.

EVERLASTING STYLE

Some designs define an era; others outlast them. 3CDT carries the same restrained lines and deliberate proportions as Quad 3, creating a system that feels instantly familiar yet unmistakably modern. A system for listeners that favour a more enduring style.

FOR THE MUSIC YOU ALREADY OWN

Buying music you can’t play is the quiet frustration of the digital age: CDs, CD-Rs, old data discs full of WAVs and FLACs that your player simply refuses. 3CDT reads them all, letting your entire disc collection simply work and sing. 

ENDURANCE ENGINEERING

Long listening sessions expose weaknesses in lesser transports: slipping mechanisms, tracking hiccups, rising noise as components heat up. But 3CDT’s dual-processor control keeps disc rotation, laser tracking, and data retrieval stable hour after hour, maintaining flawless playback for those marathon listening sessions. 

ONE REMOTE TO RULE THEM ALL

No hunting, no juggling, no untidy jumble of remotes — not with Quad. 3CDT pairs with Quad 3 through a unified controller to deliver seamless, system-wide command. One remote. One system. One elegant centre of control for your listening.

DIGITAL DONE RIGHT

Coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs make system matching effortless, whether you’re feeding a reference DAC or completing the Quad 3 stack. Clean, stable, and universally compatible, 3CDT delivers a pure digital signal to whatever comes next.

SPECIFICATIONS

Digital Outputs  1 x Coaxial, 1 x Optical

Frequency Response      -0.01dB (20Hz–20kHz, ref 1kHz)

Sampling Rate   44.1kHz

Digital Output Amplitude             500 +/-50mVpp

Output Impedance          75Ω

Supported Formats         CD, CD-R, CD-RW, WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, APE

Included Accessories      Remote Control

Dimensions (H x W x D) 101 x 300 x 300mm

Weight 5.37kg

Colour Choice    Silver