Bill, we're talking about the relative value of the DAC vs. the transport. Apparently you can't hear well enough to realize that a DAC is a very important component in the digital chain.
Do you dispute my finding? Have you run an Oppo's digital-out signal through a dCS or Emm DAC? (I know that you're very unlikely to have done it with the PD). If so, wasn't the improvement large and dramatic, or did you hear next to nothing? I DO concede that preference for the Emm vs. the PD is a personal sound preference, but I know several people, including myself that prefer the PD sound to the Emm sound. Both are very good, IME.
To a degree, Emm has supported this finding by using relatively inexpensive transports in their combo players. Of course, they use way better quality than Oppo, but not as high a quality as the Esoteric or the proprietery high-end transports. Despite this, their CD/SACD players are highly respected.
Still, IMHO, a good transport can add a significant performance increment to a good DAC, but the DAC is relatively more important by several orders of magnitude. (When I speak of the DAC I'm referring to the whole DAC/Clocking sampling/timing scheme, not just the DAC in isolation). Analog I/O is also very important to the end result. The very best players put all these elements together.
Dave
