A "bit" of information

Sure, if it was perfect. But it isn't. We have CDDA and SPDIF to contend with. And our methods of dealing with these appear to be flawed. If it was WAV files read over something like USB or firewire, we wouldn't have a lot of these problems. But we do. And it sucks.

Aaron

C L E A N U P ...Aisle Five!

The party line from Musical Fidelity (per a dac review in stereophile) is that all transports are the same if your DAC reclocks the bitstream.
My belief is that all digital cables also sound the same if your DAC reclocks (and very likely even if it does not).
Without reclocking there may be merit to Jax2's perspective.
I think audiophiles are sometimes encouraged to lose sight of the fact that bit rate via redbook cd is ridiculously slow compared to modern digital devices, and potential problems inherent to rapid data transfer over long distances are not an issue with a painfully slow cd and a 2 meter digital cable.

The power supply design, common-mode noise, EMI/RF, pulse aberration,quailty of the parts/design of the digital output circut, vibration control and the power cord all can effect on the sound quality?

my marantz 5 disc cd changer sounds VERY different(like crap to be exact) from my dvd player when both used as transports with my Bel Canto DAC2, with Philips $65.00 dvd player being a clear winner. And WireWorld Super Nova 3+ glass toslink sounds way better than the $25 Monster coax when fed into the dac from same dvd player, and I am not the only one to confirm this in my own system, just for those who beleive all digital cables sound the same. go figure.....