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CD Transports

Since CD transports just spin the discs, would I be justified in spending a lot of money on one, or buy a reasonably priced one (both units being well respected), and put the extra money into a more expensive DAC?
daj2832
mooglie
101 posts
 
I couldn't recommend an Oppo 93 as a transport.  It has high jitter.  I had one and it took me some time to figure out it was the cause of my system not sounding as good as it should.  Replaced it with the Atoll and all is good now. 

Yeah, perhaps the DAC has more influence. Say 70% DAC to 30% transport? Hard to quantify, but as bigkidz says the transport can certainly be heard.

Compare the build quality of the $10 Sanyo assembly and the out of production $20 Philips to the $105  current production, audio CD only Teac. That Tascam 200 is probably a good, low cost option. 

When you move up in price you usually will get better, more robust power supplies and filtering, vibration control and dampening, better clocks and regulation circuits, SPDIF isolation, etc.  All things that will provide a more refined sound. Audiolab 6000CDT might be another lower cost option.


lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
@curiousjim , why order the ProJect DAC and then move to the BiFrost Multibit? They are two very different animals, which I would imagine, have very different sonics. The S2 uses a Sabre DAC chip and supports MQA. The Schiit is a NOS ladder dac using an Analog Devices dac chip, which produces an organic sonic signature.

Are you interested in MQA and DSD? I’m curious.

I assume you’ll be using the Oppo as a transport.



tweak1
3,680 posts
 
cavvy

+1
bearsound's avatar
bearsound
11 posts
 
I ran several CD players with my direct stream audio Dac and they all sounded the same so I decided to just use a cheap Denon for now. I’ll upgrade to a McIntosh later just for looks 
bigkidz
3,404 posts
 

To me it all comes down to how something sounds in your own system.  Specs, measurements do mean something but I doubt my old Audiomeca measures as good as the Cambridge but in direct comparison, the Meca walks allover the Cambridge for pure musical enjoyment and sound reproduction.  The Lampy does have comments on the Meca on his website where he was modifying CDPs for transports and in the stock form he really liked the Audiomeca and also a Krell in stock form.  I bet neither of them measure like the Cambridge.  Go figure.


Happy Listening.

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