2. digital
  3. 148124-17004

Which transport with my Jay's Audio DAC?

Advice needed.
I currently have a Nuprime CDT 8 feeding a Jay's Audio DAC. The CDT 8 oversamples the  PCM signal incoming to the DAC, and does DSD.
I have followed the discussions of the Jay's Audio CDT2- Mk2 with interest, since it looks to be a transport superior to the Nuprime. However, it does not provide PCM oversampling or DSD; and I think that the Jay's DAC cannot oversample a signal on its own. [Can any DAC?]
The question, then, is which combination is likely to be the better: 1. The Nuprime transport and the Jay's Audio DAC or 2. The Jay's Audio transport and the Jay's Audio DAC? Does the presumed superiority of the Jay's Audio transport more than compensate for the OS-ing capacity of the Nuprime DAC? 
Or perhaps any question of preferring an OS-ing to a NOS-ing transport is simply a matter of taste, and not any sort of objective criterion for making a choice like this?
Any insights will be appreciated.

128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xzimmerma
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
I am a bit suspicious about the Nuprime CDT approach to oversamples the PCM signal incoming to the DAC and I am not sure if it’s not harm the sound, I prefer the native approach of the Jay Audio CDT2 to transfer the signal as is and let your DAC to do its job without any artificial manipulation of the Nuprime transport.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,836 posts
 
Agreed. It’s like having two clocks and having to work around one of them. The transport should work along the K.I.S.S. approach and do it’s level best to transport, intact, the signal to the DAC and let it do it’s thing.

All the best,
Nonoise
zimmerma's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
zimmerma OP
102 posts
 
Interesting suggestion, itzhak1969.
Let me see if I have this right. You prefer the combination of a CD transport with no OS capability whatsoever, which feeds in turn any strictly NOS DAC.
Fine.
Does that mean that your objection is not just to the Nuprime OS capable transport, but to any transport that sends an OS signal to an OS-capable DAC?
Fine,  I guess.... though I am not sure that it answers the question I raised in the OP, which at least leaves open the possibility that OS-ing is not in itself the unmitigated folly that you now suggest.
Every taste is a taste, I suppose 
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
OS doesn’t meant that it improve the sound .bits are bits what’s matter is the original sampling the music was recorded if in the first place the studio made poor low resolution recording no oversampling DAC/transport in the world will made things better. If I were you I would certainly prefer Jay DAC and Jay transport over Jay DAC and Nuprime transport.
zimmerma's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
zimmerma OP
102 posts
 
You may be correct, itzhak1969, about the superiority of the the Jay's/Jay's combination over the Nuprime/Jay's. I do wish that someone had actually heard them both, but that is a lot to ask.

As for your general point that "bits are bits," so that OS renders no improvement upon an already adequately recorded 44.1K CD, I hope that you acknowledge that that view is currently the subject of much controversy. Many commentators insist that 2 times OS-ing over a 48K signal yields real sonic improvements.

I do not know what to think.
More to discover