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Do Transports Matter???

I borrowed an outboard D/A from a friend to try in my system. My intent was to hook the analog outs on my CDP to one input on my preamp and the analog outs of the DAC to another input so I could a/b my player with and without the DAC. However something is wrong with the digital out on my player because I couldn't lock a siginal with the DAC. So I grabbed my pioneer DVD Player and hooked it up as a transport. Everything sounds awesome, made a big difference in my system(won't go into details). The outboard also puts the DVD players onboard DAC to shame(well duh). But this of course also made me wonder if using a different transport(my cdp if it worked)would make any difference?? In reality the DVD player is reading the CD and sending 0s and 1s to the DAC where its reclocked anyway. I know that sometimes little things make a difference, even though on paper they shouldn't. Being this is my first expirence with an outboard DAC, I am just curious if what you use as a transport makes any difference
brianvoelz
elgordo
530 posts
 
There was another person with a red beard a few years back...Vincent Van Gogh. He wasn't an audiophile though - didn't have the ear for it.
mejames
986 posts
 
Redbeard, maybe this site isn't for you. People here have learned to believe what they are hearing and even if its not possible to measure a change doesn't mean a sonic improvement hasn't occurred.
pbb
1,140 posts
 
Redbeard, your an audiophile after my own heart. Long ago, on this site, I infuriated a few folks by suggesting that since what the speaker is moving is the air in the room, it should be fragrant to sound better. I even suggested that French perfume was the only thing for products from that country, such as JM Lab Utopias and the like, but that, having Bryston and Canadian speakers from a large manufacturer because of my limited means, that a pine scented air-freshener was best in my case. Insofar as the paint on the walls, obviously the colour of the paint does have psychoacoustic consequences. The texture is very important also, the best being an eggshell finish. You may have a tough row to hoe with this crowd though if you only bring science, technical know-how or plain common sense to the table. Good luck.
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tok20000's avatar
tok20000
608 posts
 
I find it funny when people proclaim that science is the only thing that really tells us anything about anything. They think that science is black and white, and that it can be bundled and bound in a nice little book or on a webpage.

One of my undergrad degrees is in the History of Science, and I have come to the conclusion that science is pretty darn subjective in more ways than many folks realize. For starters, measurements are only as accurate as 1/2 of the unit they are measured in. This in itself is a subjective call by a scientist making a measurement. The way data is analyzed is AMAZINGLY subjective. Look at how many scientific studies CONTRADICT each other. Many times it is all in the data analysis. Heck folks, scientist have even figured out (not too long ago) that the earth's grativitational field is NOT UNIFORM. What does this mean??? Well it means that something that might weigh on a scale 2000 pounds in the USA may weigh 2001 pounds somewhere else in the world. This to me is pretty strange... especially since I was taught that on earth at equal distances from the center of the earth the pull of gravity is constant. Go figure.

Science is constantly proving what we think we knew because of 'science' is well... not right or slightly wrong.... or totally off base. (I could go on and on on this subject... so many things that science only gives us a 'likely story on').

So I kinda give a little chuckle, when someone brings science into audio. Music itself is art. Why would someone want to pick apart or analyze music/musical reproduction using science as the ONLY yardstick. When it is what we HEAR that only matters. I have heard vast sonic differences in AC cords on components. Can I explain why? Nope. DO I really want to know why? Heck, yeah, but so far I have only heard what I would call 'likely stories' to explain what I have observed.

There are also many many things science has not ven began to expain. Maybe in the near future someone will write a paper on AC cords and why they make a sonic difference?

KF
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