Does the Transport make a significant difference?

Douglas - I don't understand what Shadorne is wrong about -he says exactly same thing as you. Am I missing something?

Kijanki, he said, "If the DAC is excellent at jitter rejection then it won't make a difference (one jitter immune input versus another should sound the same as it is all just bits)." Seems to me the conclusion he reached is: the transport doesn't matter since jitter elimination will nullify any advantage of a higher end transport.

I don't agree with that. In my article I point out that a jitter eliminating DAC (the Benchmark) can help raise the performance of the poor transport, but it will not make it the sonic equivalent of the finer transport. There are still fundamental sonic differences. The distinction between them becomes even more profound in higher end rigs, even if the same jitter nullifying DAC is used.

I'm not trying to get into an argument over it; I just shared that I tested the premise and found it not to be true, at least not universally.

Douglas - I asked since I have DAC1 with cheap DVD player and no way to compare. From what I found on the Benchmark forum DAC1's jitter bandwidth is in order of few Hz and rejection is reaching 100dB at frequencies of interest (kHz). I know that sidebands, in spite of being at about -80dB with 3nsp-p jitter (taken from Stereophile article), are very audible since not harmonically related to root frequency but 100dB rejection on the top of it should be enough. Some Benchmark users reported audible changes between common transports while the others could not detect any change at all. In addition they could not find the difference between toslink and coax (other than ground loops that Shadorne mentioned) where toslink should be much worse jitter wise. Benchmark claims that there is absolutely no difference as long as player is "bit transparent" and not all of them are. Some, for instance, have digital volume control or another form of processing. Benchmark also tried thousands of feet of cat5 cable to prove that cable induced jitter is rejected and confirmed that difference is not audible. I wonder how much of the claim is Benchmark's marketing and how much of the user observed difference with expensive transports is a placebo effect. Using DVD player is convenient since they are cheap, play other formats and have good tracking, but I'm always interested in improvement.

At the level of transparency of the Benchmark many people complain that it is too clean up to point of being sterile. My first impression after switching from Cambridge gear (not much experience with high end) was that instruments must be missing on recordings I know well. It takes a while to get used to it (in positive sense).

Also - John Siau mentioned on the Benchmark forum that DAC1 was designed to avoid being warm because warm sound (even harmonics) does nasty job on the piano sound with its complex harmonic structure (but great for voice or guitar) making it sound almost out of tune. He claims that the only way to get real piano sound is to use headphones because crossover does similar thing. I don't think I would be able to hear it anyway.

I agree with you doug cd transports do make a difference in the quality of sound that you can get out of a dac. Even if your dac does a good job at eliminating jitter. I have an ensemble transport and hi dac i hooked up mid-fi my pioneer elite blue ray digital out to hi-dac and their was a night and day difference in quality of sound. Doug i have bought the paradigm active 40v2 and nht xd system based on your reviews and love both just wanted to say thanks and keep writing reviews for us audiophiles. Jerry

He claims that the only way to get real piano sound is to use headphones because crossover does similar thing.

You can use active speakers to eliminate that issue, which John Siau should be aware of. One of his customers bought 7 Benchmark DAC1's for his studio and uses them with active type speakers.

FWIW: I agree with Doug that the sound of a given transport with built in DAC may be preferred to a jitter immune DAC (and vice versa) - but that is not what I meant. Sorry but I may not have ben clear enough.