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CD Transport, does it make much of a difference?

john & Jake said:
Hi, your original question is a perfectly valid one and please read my reply in post 19.
The question you asked should be asked but the answer must be yes all DAC outputs are different and will sound different, not yes they are, oh no they're not and so on into infinity.:)
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Fair point :D
 
rog said:
Anyway, any other bargain "dark-age" players to look out for?
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Just one thing to bear in mind when buying one of "the greats from yesteryear"...

Many of the decent transports of that era made use of the Phillips CDM-9 Pro transport mechanism which has been out of production for years and spares have become incredibly scarce - to the point of non-availability.

So, be very careful and check which mechanism forms the basis of any transport you are offered and, if it's the CDM-9 Pro (or, for that matter, any other long-discontinued device), steer clear of it.

My Theta Data Basic II is one of these CDM-9 Pro-based transports and I was given some advance warning by a mate and went out and - while they still available - bought a spare CDM-9 Pro mechanism which is carefully stored under lock and key (just in case anyone here gets any ideas...)

The finest mechanisms available today are the VRDS Neo devices from TEAC's Esoteric division who design and build their own mechanisms to "battleship standards" - but, as with anything that is properly engineered and sold in low volumes, they are hellishly expensive and tend to be found only in really high-end transports/players such as Esoteric's own and those from dCS.

Maybe one day when the Lotto gods smile in my direction....
 
john & Jake said:
Hi
:)Used CDM9 transports seem to be available from China via Ebay.
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CDM-9 or CDM-9 Pro?

The difference lies in the laser optics - the CDM-9 used plastic lenses while the CDM-9 Pro used glass lenses.

If they're the Pro versions, I would appreciate any links you may have.
 
rog said:
Aye to be fair that's true it does include the DAC.

Yup, have just replaced the drawer load mechanism on the 52 which is a known weakness so there are failures but I don't see any other problems with these being highlighted so far, maybe some players are more prone to major failures?

Exactly and indeed you did but without a smiley in there the comments were ambiguous which, as I pointed out, some potential customers might read in a different way. I'm long enough in the tooth on forums, if not this one, not to loose any sleep about comments one way or the other but this forum can be a trice irritating sometimes when the 1% of willy waving, 'I've found the righteous path and all must follow and I'll argue the toss until they do' types get going and I guess I was showing some irritation at the fact there's another thread criticising the fact I started this one. Don't get me wrong though; a. many/most people here are fantastic, more knowledgeable than me and incredibly helpful, and b. in the greater scheme of things I don't ultimately care what the 1% say :p

Anyway, any other bargain "dark-age" players to look out for? :cool:

P.S. I often overuse smileys :rolleyes: ;)
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Sorry - I have a Smiley allergy: I come out in hives (where's a smiley when you need one) if I type one. I get prickly heat pressing the colon.

It's something of a badge of honour that we've never knowingly sold a CD player, so excuse my evangelical approach to the joys of unbundled media. I'm not deaf to the pleasures of a really good CD player, though - and as I implied, I honestly think the Meridian 500 is such a bargain that I bought one just on the off-chance that I get an odd urge to spin something.

To be fair, that's not quite true: for some time, the Meridian was our benchmark against which to measure the performance of other digital transports (including docks and streamers). It took some surpassing, actually.

Dealer sold this one for £350 recently:
http://www.hifi-forsale.co.uk/morei...cd_transport&p=cdplayer&prod_id=2228&offset=5
 
I intended to feed my Naim dac from a Cyrus SE2 transport and a Logitech Transporter.
I borrowed the transport and power supply and the combination did sound very good.
However, I then spotted an Esoteric X-03 SE for sale here and bought it,thinking the VRDS transport would sound even better into the Naim dac.
This was wrong in that the dac in the Esoteric sounded much better than the Naim.
I then spotted an Esoteric X-01 d2 on ebay and part exchanged the X-03.
It then went even stranger in that the X-01 doesn't sound as good as the (half the price) X-O3 in my system and now I can't tell the difference between the Esoteric's multibit dac and the Naim.
Mind you,I only set it up last week so haven't had much time to try it.
 
item said:
To be fair, that's not quite true: for some time, the Meridian was our benchmark against which to measure the performance of other digital transports (including docks and streamers). It took some surpassing, actually.

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How have you surpassed the Meridian transport with a streamer or computer? I'm keen to know. I surpassed a Meridian by using an SACD transport specially modified by Audio Synthesis for twin ASL link. However I can't get anything close from my humble computer sources; Macbook Pro through HiFace Evo or Squeezebox Touch.

Is there any way of making the Macbook Pro or Air a decent source into a Dac that is attuned to SPDIF or specialised ST optical links?
 
Purite Audio said:
Sorry Elephant what exactly are you comparing?
Keith.
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I use an Audio Synthesis DAX Discrete with a modified Marantz SACD player as transport. Audio SYnthesis used to a do a special 'Transcend' modifed transports for use with twin ST optical. I've found this is even better than the Meridian transport I was previously using.

As I said above, I've tried Macbook pro via HiFace Evo and Squeezebox into spdif. I haven't done extensive comparisons between those two (they don't really seem much different as far as I've listened), but against the specialised cd tranports they don't really come close.
 
item said:
Sorry - I have a Smiley allergy: I come out in hives (where's a smiley when you need one) if I type one. I get prickly heat pressing the colon.

It's something of a badge of honour that we've never knowingly sold a CD player, so excuse my evangelical approach to the joys of unbundled media. I'm not deaf to the pleasures of a really good CD player, though - and as I implied, I honestly think the Meridian 500 is such a bargain that I bought one just on the off-chance that I get an odd urge to spin something.

To be fair, that's not quite true: for some time, the Meridian was our benchmark against which to measure the performance of other digital transports (including docks and streamers). It took some surpassing, actually.

Dealer sold this one for £350 recently:
http://www.hifi-forsale.co.uk/morei...cd_transport&p=cdplayer&prod_id=2228&offset=5
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Don't buy a Mk1, they transport mechanisms break and M don't have any spares. The Mk2 & 3 (with the AES/EBU connection) are a lot stronger by all accounts.

I have a Mk2 and it was a real improvement over using the 506 as transport.

A 206 is OK but the swing-arm design limits playable CD length to 65 minutes and some CDs they will not play.
 
They should be identical through the same dac, I can only imagine the s/pdif input on the Audio Synthesis is poorly implemented.
Keith
 
Yebbut toslink is much, much slower than a coax connection; hence noisier / significantly poorer clock recovery performance compared with a wired SPDIF connection using the same data.

Toslink has a bandwidth under 5Mhz due to using a cheapo LED optoisolator to send /recover it when SPDIF runs at 2.8Mhz = just not enough bandwidth when the dac depends on the deconvolved clock.
 
Purite Audio said:
They should be identical through the same dac, I can only imagine the s/pdif input on the Audio Synthesis is poorly implemented.
Keith
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Keith,

I'm surprised to find myself discovering that numerous connections on a couple of dacs I've been playing with are "poorly implemented".

Asynchronous USB in particular on the Stereophile Class A + M51 will consistently drop out every 20 mins or so when connected to a Mac Mini.

The PS3 via HDMI is a revelation.
 
Purite Audio said:
They should be identical through the same dac, I can only imagine the s/pdif input on the Audio Synthesis is poorly implemented.
Keith
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Come on, now. The spdif inputs on AS dacs are superbly implemented; surely you know that? It was the ST link we were talking about; and that is what AS specialised in. Read the section on the Discrete on the AS website.
 
martin clark said:
Yebbut toslink is much, much slower than a coax connection; hence noisier / significantly poorer clock recovery performance compared with a wired SPDIF connection using the same data.

Toslink has a bandwidth under 5Mhz due to using a cheapo LED optoisolator to send /recover it when SPDIF runs at 2.8Mhz = just not enough bandwidth when the dac depends on the deconvolved clock.
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If this is in relation to my discussion with Keith, this is not toslink, it is ST glass optical. The DAX Discrete does have toslink, but only for convenience on secondary sources, because its designer regarded it as inherently inferior.
 
Purite Audio said:
Elephant , I can't think why otherwise there would be any difference between transports.
Keith.
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Try some experimenting. Perhaps you've not used a good cd transport for a while.

Or else my computer transport and streamer are just mediocre. Which is why I asked a question to item in the first place, asking in all sincerity how I can improve them.

I don't really understand why you are making this a priori point about transports when you yourself have said in other threads that the Squeezebox is a mediocre transport. This is not the first time I've pointed out this inconsistency in your point of view on transports.
 
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