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Confused About Relative Sonic Impact of DAC VS. Transport

I've borrowed a Heed DT Transport to use in place of my Jollida JD100 CDP and am confused by what I'm hearing. 
My DAC is R2R ladder/non-oversampling Aqua La Voce. With Jolida in system, the sound is on the warm side of neutral without verging into tube-like, euphonics. With the Heed transport, all I seem to notice are the liabilities of every CD I play. 

If the Heed is more efficient at reading data from the CD than the Jolida, does this mean I am hearing the effect of the DAC more clearly, or am I hearing the effect of more information from the disc?

At first, I enjoyed the increased resolution, but with further listening, the sound, overall, strikes me as "thin" (as though lacking lower mids) and the highs verge on fatiguing. 

Switching out footers has some effect, as does tweaking my Schitt Loki EQ, but I'm still not very happy.

Excuse my French, but WTF is going on, here ?

BTW, John Darko, when reviewing the Aqua, recommended it as a particularly good choice for harsh-sounding CDs. 





stuartk
stuartk OP
2,436 posts
 
bigkidz1: I agree. Trying things out is the only way. Anyone who says transports don't affect tone is sorely mistaken, in my opinion. The SQ difference between the Moon and the Heed in this regard was huge-- nearly as stark as the difference between COS and Metrum DACs I demo'd a while back. 

I decided to go with The Cable Company to demo IC's and it's turned out to be a very positive experience-- so much so that I'd heartily recommend them to anyone shopping for cables.  I've ordered Acoustic Zen Silver Reference. Plenty of resolution without fatiguing highs, terrific PRaT and most important of all (to me) -- compelling emotional engagement of the sort that makes me not want to leave the listening chair. I've heard folks  enthuse about "rediscovering their music collection" and now I can relate to that. Thanks to the Silver Reference and the Moon, my system's made a big jump in terms of getting out of the way of the music. 


stuartk OP
2,436 posts
 
junzhang10: thanks but I'm old fashioned-- I grew up with and prefer physical media. I use my PC for researching and buying CDs and audio gear; I have no interest in bringing the computer experience into my listening environment. 
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Since I have at my disposal someone with a degree in computers, maybe I shouldn't get in this conversation because since he's optimized my computer for CD playback I no longer think in ancient terms of transport and DAC, only experiment with DAC's.

As Melm stated,  
melm332 posts
05-03-2019 3:57pm
The best transport is no transport. Rip your disks and let your DAC play at its best.

Ages ago I had a "Theta" transport which was big as a tank, expensive, and functioned quite well, but I think Melms solution is just as good and a lot cheaper. Anyway, that's the way I'm going with an external hard drive that for all practical purposes will not run out of space.

While I admit I'm one of those fossil audiophiles who don't know squat about computers, it sure is a blessing to have someone close who does, and it might behoove you to do likewise.

Advice is a funny thing; "Wise men don't need it, and most people won't heed it".
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Although the question is ancient, I forgot to answer it to the best of my ability. When I purchased the Theta transport, the difference was massive; they make a huge difference, but the increased resolution seems to be a bad thing in your case.
stuartk OP
2,436 posts
 
orpheus10: I've considered acquiring one of the Inous servers but even though, at 600 CDs, my music collection is a modest one, the prospect of having to burn them isn't appealing. I may reach a point where placing and removing a physical disc into/from an optical drive is beyond my physical capacities, but I hope that won't be for a very long time. Before that happens, my brain may very well lose the ability to operate a tablet or whatever other interface could be used to control a server-based system!  For my tastes, increased resolution can quickly become "too much of a good thing", but I recognize that for others, it's the holy grail.  
Each to his/her own. There's no shortage of gear out there ! 
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