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Is a CD Transport the Best Digital Source?

So I’ve gone back and forth between CD players/transports, Blu-Ray/DVD players, computers, phones, and more for my digital source, but I always seem to end up going back to CD for the best sound I can get out of my system. I find that I enjoy mixing it up and enjoy the sound of each source, but when it comes down to what is the absolute best in my system, I just keep going back to a CD player or CD transport.

For awhile I though my laptop streaming digital to a DAC was my best source until I went back to a CD transport and realized that everything was “crisper,” especially the bass. The bass and midbass seem like they are more in unison, hit harder and hit quicker (less mush). 

Does anyone find this to be the case and why is this? Is it just an economics problem, e.g. dollar for dollar a dedicated CD player has more of its costs sunk into music playing compared to a computer which is also built for running an OS, playing video, etc.?

Bonus question: Why does bass get better with better gear? It seems to me that bass would be the easiest to reproduce for a DAC. It’s this big, slow wave that is massively oversampled for what is needed. I would think any improvements would be up in the treble where you are near the Nyquist frequency and have to deal with phase-effects of low pass filters, etc. 
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jim204
881 posts
 
@garrard    I'm way ahead of you there as my Gryphon also was a very high quality top loading device and I even used it as a transport through my PS Audio Direct Stream senior DAC and again no contest and one of my friends supplied his own, Jays Audio CDt 2 Mark 2 and again my friend even admitted mines was better.
falconquest's avatar
falconquest
1,108 posts
 
I have struggled with this same question. I won't muddy things up by mentioning any specific brands of equipment but here is my take. I like the concept of a good quality CD transport because of the level of control you have over the process. First, you have the ability to select different issues of the same recording. I usually reference the Steve Hoffman forums for feedback on the best source material. I then search for those recordings and try to find new unopened CD's if possible. Then you can control the DAC. Using a transport allows you to switch out various DACs to tailor the sound to your liking. With streaming audio, you have no control over the source material. I think streaming audio is very good but I consider it a secondary source for those recordings I really don't care to own. I also use a DVD player for audio but since the unit costs far less than my CD transport I consider this a good source for music with video but certainly not my reference player. This is my subjective look at it, right or wrong.
dougsat
374 posts
 
Question for the OP
 - when you played music from your PC were your streaming or playing a wav or flac file that is an equivalent resolution as a CD?
dgarretson
2,601 posts
 

@jim204 Interesting that the JCAT USB card made a major improvement for you.  I have a JCAT NET Femto ethernet card on order for installation in a QNAP i5 NAS that hosts Roon core in conjunction with SOtM EN-to-USB endpoints.  I'll try powering the JCAT externally with either a SOtM or Chinese Zerozone PS.  If that goes well, I may try comparing a JCAT USB card in the QNAP to the SOtM pieces-- which in my system are souped up with a Hynes SR7 linear power supply and clock links to a 10mhz master clock that also synchronizes the Esoteric DAC.

So far my computer audio set-up equals or surpasses my Esoteric K-01X transport.  The performance of computer audio implementations vary widely-- which is reflected in the wide variation of responses on this topic.

falconquest's avatar
falconquest
1,108 posts
 
Gee, and I just load a CD and enjoy the music!
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