Are all red book cd transports created equal?

Right. Except there aren't any. There are no bits on a CD. What you think are bits are really pits and land. Low and high. The pits and land are different lengths, the length corresponding to a word or string of bits. So a pit or land does not correspond to a 1 or a 0 it corresponds to a whole string of 1's and 0's. Since the length of the pit or land is what determines the string then timing matters which means when you really get right down to it its analog not digital. 

Bad analog, at that. So of course they will sound inferior. But that was not your question. You asked, will the old unit sound "as" inferior. In other words, is one digital less crappy than another, or are they all equally crappy? Unfortunately here the news is even worse. The only way to know is try and hear for yourself. Just to let you know in advance, this is bound to be unpleasant. But as Mike says you play the cards you're dealt.

If the old pioneer is working properly and you go through the same dac it should work fine.  I think the weak link of that player was the slow write speed. 

millercarbon

There are no bits on a CD. What you think are bits are really pits and land ... Since the length of the pit or land is what determines the string then timing matters which means when you really get right down to it its analog not digital.

This is especially convoluted pretzel logic. A CD is not analog. It contains a non-continuous, discrete string of data that is not an "analog" of any signal, but a mathematical representation of a signal. That’s what digital is. The timing issue - for the purpose of resolving data - is functionally perfect. Timing data is included in the data string and any error is trivial compared to even the best analog. That’s why you can install even a complex computer OS from a digital disc without issue. The data is absolutely the same every time.

I’m not saying digital is perfect, by the way, and getting digital data from disc to DAC and out to analog is not a trivial task when fidelity is the goal. But CD is not analog. Not even close.

The only way to know is try and hear for yourself.

I agree there. That is always, always, always the case.

steve59
In theory bits are bits right?

There are differences, read error correction is not the same and can vary quite considerably between CD transports, and an error is replaced (guessed) by what came before it, a 1 or 0 and it only gets it right 50% of the time.
As well as the amount of jitter out of that spidf output, which I had a jitter counter to read it and they are very different.

Better transports have less read errors, and better jitter on their outputs.
If you want another good cheap CD transport, get a Cambridge Audio CXC very good, not the best, but you have to pay big bucks for those and not that much better.

Cheers George