Silly Question...does a transport have a "sound" ?

Oh man does this thread ever have the potential for member polarization! I read claims that Tranxport X has "analog" qualities or that Transport Y benefits greatly from power cord upgrades. These products should be the absolute easiest to test electronically.

As to what sonic results come from mis-timing, etc., should be unimportant. Cliaming this transport is more analog than another is silly at best....they either extract the data from the disk, clock it and assemble it into a datastream correctly or they don't. With the low frequency sampling rate here, there is so much time to do all this, including error correction to a point where transports should make virtually little to no difference. I guess the key is how well this is done. But this is cheap to do.

I read over and over here that transports make a huge difference. Do they or is it more the problems caused by the digital cabling between them and the DAC?

I have done countless comparisons of transports and DACs and time and time again, the difference between DACs is huge with the Manley Reference DAC from the late 90s continuing to be my favorite performer. Each DAC I have tried has had very immediate sonic differences. But my experience with transports is not at all the same: from the Pioneer PD65, Muse Model 8, Theta Data II, even the Pioneer CLD-92 laserdisc player as a transport, the differences are subtle at best. Swapping digital cables made a greater difference which caught me by surprise. So I suspect this is the weak link in the digital chain where susceptibility to errors is the greatest.

I have wanted to try a Spectral 3000, CEC TL-1X, Accuphase DP-90, etc., but these are expensive beasts that my experience here tells me could be better spent to upgrade my Maggie 3.5s to 20.1s, biamp the Maggies, upgrade phono stage or preamp, etc. There are just clearly other links in the system that bring huge improvements compared to the transport link. Maybe the Muse and Pioneer units are truly excellent compared to the competition.

So before you spend a lot, try some out and do not be surprised at not hearing much difference.

John

I've had numerous high-end transports, often side by side. Using the same digital cable, power cable, etc., the differences were often quite audible.

For instance, to my ears the Levinson #37 was a clear winner over the more expensive 31.5- surprising.

It's more than just "Ones and Zeros" (which actually should be stated as "On and Off") in my experience.

Having heard with my own ears the very audible differences between transports, I'll be interested in the responses you get!

Using a musicbank Nakamichi CD Player 2 was convenient but as a transport with a Theta Pro Prime IIa DAC cymbals sounded separate from the rest of the music program, as if there was a gap between them and the rest of the music. Substituting a Theta Data Basic II resolved the glitch and made the whole stream sound coherent. So yes, transports do impact the sound.

The biggest worry with transports is reliability. On that score, buying new is a big advantage. Considering a $2,000 unit will need repair within 10 years or less, and be all but worthless if it's not maintained, that's $200 per year to listen to CD's!

Nowadays the industry seems focused on DVD/CD hybrids, not only as a selling point, but doubtless because the makers of CD-only mechanisms no longer support them. How many manufacturers still offer a CD-only dedicated transport at the $2,500 or less price point?