My undergraduate degree in engineering is from a while ago -- and it's been a while since I've practiced -- so, I'm speculating (and maybe you are as well?).
Your statement assumes that the disc readers in both transports are identical and are extracting the exact same information, in the first instance. Rega has proprietary control software, so I've read, that helps guide the laser more accurately than otherwise. So, there's one possible source of difference. There may be many others that both specialists involved in design and manufacturing these devices, as well as knowledgable enthusiasts may attest to.
What I can state is that I heard a more than subtle difference between the two transports using the same coax SPDIF cable. I didn't want to hear a difference and I was in fact hoping that my cheap blu-ray player would do just as well as my Saturn (freeing up the Saturn to be used in my speaker-based system).
Treb
Let me give a run-down of my understanding of certain aspects of digital data transfer.
The thing to remember is there's nothing special about digital audio data, it's still just data, the same as any other digital data, no difference.
The first thing to take on board is that under no circumstances whatsoever can the wrong data, or different data, be sent.
Whatever information that's on a disc or file is always what arrives at a DAC or Codec, assuming there's no excessive corruption that breaks the data stream. Different, or, wrong information can never be sent, and if for some reason too much corruption of that data stream takes place, it will break down and there'll be no sound, or in exceptionally rare circumstances, there will be sound dropouts, or pops and clics, etc. ie, clearly audible errors.
This is why in the extremely rare occasions when a HDMI cable is faulty - but you still get a picture - it'll be littered with white specs, or snow as it's sometimes called. The pixels are not getting the information they need and they default to a static white colour. They never go red, or blue, or any other colour, because they can't unless instructed to.
It's the same with audio, you simply cant get better sound by using a more expensive digital cable, as better means different, and you can't get different, as there are only one set of instructions. Some might argue that a lesser cable will lose data, or corrupt it, or not allow it to flow as well as it can through a high-end cable, or whatever. But if too much degradation on a digital stream takes place you get failure, and if not enough to cause failure takes place, you get everything as it should be, ie, after error correction you still have a bit-perfect data stream.
There simply is no grey area, there is no scenario where even 99.9999999% of the stream makes it's way to a DAC, it's all or nothing when the appropriate error correction is employed (which it is on virtually all devices now).
So how can one transport sound better than another?
How can one digital cable sound better than another?
How can one streamer stream better data than another?
How can one HDMI cable give a better picture than another?
You can't get better because you can't get different, and something has to be different for it to be better, and digital data transfer does not do different.
No doubt others will ignore this, and speak of the effects of jitter, noise, etc, but these things only become a problem if they cause a break-down of the data stream, which STILL doesn't mean anything is different, as you get total failure.
Less bass, more bass, better clarity, bigger soundstage etc, none of these things can ever be the result of the mode of digital data extraction or transport used. They are things that have no relationship with digital data, none whatsoever.
If I had a USB cable connecting a mouse to my PC, I could type the letter E on my keyboard for a million years, and assuming the keyboard didn't wear out or Pink Fish close down
, E is what you'd see on my post here. And if I changed to a different USB cable every day for those million years, you'd still see the letter E on here when I type it. You could never see the letter X, or any other letter as a result of the change of cable.
To claim differences between digital transports and cables is to believe that a different USB cable could turn an E into an X.
It cannot happen
