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CD Transport, does it make much of a difference?

R

rog

pfm Member
So, as the title says, does a CD transport make that much of a difference if you're feeding digital to a DAC?

I've read conflicting views on this, from the people who buy/use a cheapo bog standard DVD player to those who use bangs and whistles top of the line CD players so I'm wondering what the balance of opinion is.

So what do you think?
 
A CDP seems pointless to me. Just rip the CDs to a digital library.

A CD is only a plastic holder for a digital file.

JC
 
Yes - much to y surprise, a good CD transport will make a sigificant difference to digital reproduction.

However, IMHO most dedicated CD transports are extremely overpriced; and, it is entirely possible to match top CD transport capability with a well set up computer solution.

A good website to look at is lampizator.eu... well, certainly an interesting one!
 
It can't possibly make any difference, unless perhaps the manufacturer of your dac doesn't know how to design and implement s/pdif.
Keith.
 
Purite Audio said:
It can't possibly make any difference, unless perhaps the manufacturer of your dac doesn't know how to design and implement s/pdif.
Keith.
Click to expand...

I can assure you it can make a significant difference. I tried a Linn Karik and Musical Fidelity player in to both a Numerik and another DAC and was surprised at the significance of the difference, it was obvious and not subtle.

I'm happy to accept this may be through poor design or whatever and have no idea why this should be the case.
 
Purite Audio said:
It can't possibly make any difference, unless perhaps the manufacturer of your dac doesn't know how to design and implement s/pdif.
Keith.
Click to expand...

Come off it Keith, you said yourself that a Touch was a mediocre to OK transport.

They sure as hell make a difference with my DAX Discrete. Is it broken?
 
Cav said:
There is no reason why it should.
Click to expand...

I agree, in fact I posted it here several years ago because I could not work out why this should be the case and I like to understand things. No forthcoming explanation was available at that time.
 
Unfortunately, in my experience, transports seem to have distinctive signatures when trying to mix and match with a Dac - in the end a Mac Mini proved to be the most neutral.

If you want a CD player I have always thought single box players were the best (Resolution Opus 21, Nagra), and if you want a separate transport and Dac, units from the same manufacturer will usually give the best result.
 
I suspect these differences are of the kind that disappear under controlled, blind listening conditions. All sorts of things affect the sound if you think they're going to...
 
This is easy.

The best music reproduction I have ever heard in my setup is from my current CD transport, a CECTL0, and it is belt driven with a cheap motor and a cheap Sanyo laser. However, it sounds incredible and this is probably down to the design of the build. So yes, CD transports do make a difference (and sound different). It beats digital streaming and even vinyl.
 
Well the type of transport used makes a huge difference to the playability of discs. Then there's all the error correction and concealment that occurs in real-time before the spdif or DAC output. In my mind it's as obvious as a cartridge and phono stage analogy.

For example I have a CD that has played perfectly well on my CDI and any Philips CDM transport I care to play it on. This same disk will not play without skipping on any track on any linear tracker transports or CDROM drives and took 6 hours to extract with EAC. The ripped version sounds much less compressed than the original. So I guess ripping is the way to go, but do it properly.
 
rog said:
So, as the title says, does a CD transport make that much of a difference if you're feeding digital to a DAC?

I've read conflicting views on this, from the people who buy/use a cheapo bog standard DVD player to those who use bangs and whistles top of the line CD players so I'm wondering what the balance of opinion is.

So what do you think?
Click to expand...

If the transport is broken, the CD won't play. I guess that is not what you meant :)

Tim
 
From my point of view / experience transports do make a difference. I'm currently using a vintage Sony CDP-XB930 QS and I'm quite happy with it. Blows away my music dedicated headless PC that costs 8 times more (not including the USB-> SPDIF converter).
 
This isn't helping the OP much is it?......he should have started a poll:/

For what's worth, different transports I have tried through the same nDac or Dagmagic do give different levels of performance and/or presentation depending on your view of these things.

I do agree that some transports do seem overpriced for what they do physically (ie retreive digits)...but in the case of the naim CD5 XS I use it is substantially better than other drives I have tried which had digital outputs......as usual it is a case what you want and economics..........
 
peter_964rs said:
Yes - much to y surprise, a good CD transport will make a sigificant difference to digital reproduction.

However, IMHO most dedicated CD transports are extremely overpriced; and, it is entirely possible to match top CD transport capability with a well set up computer solution.

A good website to look at is lampizator.eu... well, certainly an interesting one!
Click to expand...

A massive difference, I have compared a few players, and dvd players , into a dac. Found varying degrees of life.

I have modded my £12 ebay philips player (transport ) as per the Lampizator site and had brilliant results.:)
 
I presume as transports process the disk real time they have to contend with data errors and some reliance on error correction averaging. Then also need to maintain a low signal to noise ratio so really many factors could affect the final output, right?
 
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