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

Metralla - Thanks for the reference - it’s a very good read. I already know about many of the issues involved with extracting information off of a CD, and have in fact chosen to jettison my transport entirely in lieu of a PC based system with music ripped using the software described in the article. There are other issues involved with this type of system, but that's fodder for a different discussion.

The point of a transport having a signature is still at the heart of this discussion. Regardless of how well a transport reads the information from a CD, any jitter produced will represent incorrect data to the DAC, which is responsible for creating the sound as best it can with the information it gets. Different DACs can respond differently in this regard and will likely sound different in each case. When one purchases a high-end transport, the only factor in the decision should be how well it will be able to read and transmit the information on the CD. Should two high-end transports produce different streams with the same CD? They can, but I would argue they shouldn't if they can provide the necessary technology to ensure a correct read. If one compares the results from multiple transports and finds that a set of them sound the same using the same disk and DAC, I’d argue that there's a good chance that those units are reading the disk information correctly (at least within the bounds that the listener cannot perceive any differences). Multiple transports that produce audible differences are clearly not reading or propagating the exact same information to the DAC, in which case I'd conclude that most (or all) of them are producing incorrect results and are not what I would consider ‘good’ transports.

While its clear that Sony and Philips made some poor choices when they finalized the Redbook format, the knowledge of what can be done to get the information from the disk is at least understood to some degree, and its certainly incumbent on the transport manufacturers to utilize what they know to produce the best possible device. When one pays large sums for just this purpose, I'd hope that they'd get what they paid for.

Anyway, folks hear many variations in their audio systems that can be attributable to a number of factors. However, when it comes to transports, the goal should be for all of them to read the disks accurately in spite of the mechanical limitations, and for the variations to be insignificant sonically. This was the point of my previous post.

Regarding the "no physical reason" argument, a short story:

Alfred Einstein liked his pipe. One time he digs into his pocket and displays a wooden kitchen match. He shows it around and asks everyone to describe it. The listeners note it has mass, molecular composition, color etc. Then A.E. breaks the match in two. What's different about it now? he asks... The moral: the same match, broken and unbroken, exists in time...

So OK, back to those pesky electrons, ignoring any physical reason for transports to sound different, hows about a temporal one?

Kjg & Pabelson-

I respect your opinions, but there's a lot more to what a transport does than you've described.

HOW the encoded data is retrieved and processed, protected from vibration and electrical anamoloies, etc. does indeed make a difference. Trust me, the various transports I've employed were not defective, and the differences between units was audible.

Of course, I also heard diffences in swapping out power cords on some transports- more voodoo in the minds of many I'm sure!

Jafox: Why am i expected to provide points of reference when those that present a "negative" aren't? Isn't this somewhat of a double standard or are you making this statement because it was i that made those comments and not someone else? While i understand that was i said was rather bold and confrontational, isn't someone saying that there are no differences or that if there are any differences, that they are "broken" just as bold and confrontational? I'm being serious here.

Why don't you ask Hovland to tell you about their experiences with transports, both "inexpensive" and "mega-dollar"? If you want me to tell you the story, i can do that. Just let me know. I'll even use product names too, but some folks are going to get pissed because they'll find out that they spent their money on brand & reputation rather than performance and sonics. Then again, one would have to assume that Hovland was also pissed when they spent many thousands of dollars only to find out that their "budget" transport was far superior, both sonically and electrically. Sean
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There is not transistor, triode, tube, PC board or wire that is sonically neutral. Why would and piece of gear be neutral?

It is impossible for anything not to leave a sonic signature! Even the best gear is sometimes discribed as have the least signature a reviewer has ever heard, but it is still there.

Sean is right again!