Silly Question...does a transport have a "sound" ?
Klg, All may not be as you imagine. As an example, consider the following article. http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/eac/eac.html Regards, |
Assuming the mechanism is reading the data off the CD with reasonable accuracy (i.e., not enough errors to overwhelm the error-correction function), there is no physical mechanism by which transports could sound different. As Kjg says, if they do, one of them is broken. As for "jitter signatures," there is no jitter in a transport. None. Jitter only occurs at a conversion point, which means it happens in the DAC. Any decently designed DAC (and in the high end, you can't assume anything) will reclock the incoming bit stream, so timing errors in the transport are irrelevant. |
Anybody with knowledge and experience with good ears, and especially those with test equipment will tell you that the transport will effect what you hear. Those with limited knowledge, lack listening skills, have only a basic understanding of theory with no test equipment will tell you what they think. Obviously, their response is based on their limited understanding and lack of experience with the subject, not on actual observations. Sean > |
Bits may be bits but once you admit that their sequence requires very precise timing you may have to swallow the sad fact that no clock is perfect. This means clocking, moving and reclocking digital signals is imperfect too. Dig deep to consider that no two of anything electrical are exactly alike. Listeners who fork over long green for the best products pay for the intensive testing, culling, segregating and matching of minute parts. Does this low tolerance for acceptable errors manifest better sound? Only you can decide that. In a world where speaker wire, its configuration, insulation, termination and even its placement are subject to intense inquiry and decision, some find that everything matters. |
Hmmm..... "Those with limited knowledge, lack listening skills, have only a basic understanding of theory with no test equipment will tell you what they think." I guess the above statement clearly applies to me. What knowledge do I need to have to interchange transports in my system and hear or not hear a difference? I can do this with ARC, BAT and Aesthetix phono stages and hear dramatic differences immediately. I can do the same with Manley, Electrocompaniet and Muse DACs and hear as significant a difference. And the same goes for line stages, power amps, tonearm cables and interconnects between the line stage and amp....and even the "controversial power cord" on my phono stage and line stage.....immediate and dramatic differences. "Obviously, their response is based on their limited understanding and lack of experience with the subject, not on actual observations." So my ears and mind are biased that I will not hear a difference with transports and yet I do with power cords in my system? Come on Sean, give some of us a little more credit than this. In my quest to optimize my analog and digital sources, I have put much effort to try many products and my comments above indicated my listening observations. Whether or not I have an ascilloscope, logic analyzer, FFT spectrum analyzer, etc., will not affect whether or not I hear a difference. I replied here with my own experiences and suggested to the member here who posted this question to listen himself and not be surprised at hearing very little if at all any changes.....and I stand by that recommendation. In all honesty, I have yet to hear a superfi transport in the $5k+ range and I made this point clear in the closing of my posting. So perhaps this higher priced level where the big differences begin. So rather than bash people here on their "incompetence", a posting on your own specific knowledge and experiences here with the differences between some transports you have tried would have brought more value to this thread. John |
