What's wrong with a DVD player as a transport?

Warner,

I don't think there is necessarily a technical reason why a DVD player or a changer is an inferior transport. Typically I think the reason is simple economics.

Obviously a DVD player and/or a changer has more complexity than a dedicated CD player or transport. There are more components and more/different signal paths.

There is no reason why a manufacturer could not build a DVD player/changer that would be a great transport, however, they typically won't because the price would be out of reach for most of the buying public. Why build a great product if it just puts your company out of business because it doesn't sell?

Obviously a DVD player can be a great transport. Look at the praise on this site for the mod'd APL Denons and ModWright Sonys. By all accounts they are have excellent CD performance from a DVD based machine. Why didn't the OEM just build the player this way? Economics.....

Enjoy,

TIC

I would guess most of the 10k and above, universal players probably ain't to bad as cd players;and I've read some of the moded uni's--Den.3910/5910-- ain't chopped liver,either.I would say the quality of the parts and the implementation of the circuitry come into play.

Several years ago, the Bound for Sound guy was arguing that DVD players made superior transports.

I used to own a Modded DVD payer (not the Denon), a cheap version, to try it out...it sounded, well..., like a modded DVD player, I tried it also as a transport for my EAD 9000 III with not good results. Flat, no soundstage no impact dynamics...tiny.
I bought a CEC TL-1 and couldnt be happier (well maybe a Forsell would make me happier!) the detail retrieval is complete, the finnesse of the sound is beautifull.
I would recommend a better transport and cheaper DAC.
I am also concerned about reliability with DVD player transports.
I guess there are no shortcuts.

Read this, please. Way back in 1997, there was a panel of ''all star'' reviewers- the ones with the better credibility (leaving Sam Tellig out, of course) from different magazines. They got together, all 6 or 8 of them for a shootout between transports of the ''cost-no-object'' category. We are talking Sonic Frontiers esotaria and the like....

The ONE that came out as the all-around best transport .....

Actually a bit of a shocker for everyone involved - The Sony S-7000 DVD player used as a transport.

These findings were published in the now-defunct Planet Hi-Fi website, one of the early great audio website.

If you are still in doubt, please let it be known that some of the world's best loudspeakers ( how about the $ 16,000 Verity Audio Parsifal ) were developped and voiced on systems comprised of this very same Sony S-7000 player, combined with a Meitner Bidat Dac. I know this for a fact, please don't ask me how. Verity then went on to a Sony 7700 and afterwards - get this- a Pioneer 05 DVD player used again, as a transport. I beleive the Fidelio was developped with the latter. They claimed that the nature of the laser pick-up itself, having to focus on smaller pits and dots, made for a more precise, information-gathering system than the regular cd player optical system. Now we are talking pre-2000 era here.

This does not make a DVD transport the best solution today necessarily - but it speaks volumes about it's long-known attributes. And many other manufacturers (speakers, amplifiers, an preamps, even interconnects) also used these very same ''low-cost'' DVD transports in developping THEIR products. Nothing to brag about on their part, probably, but how interesting nevertheless. It just worked for them, with a finger shown in audio snobery's face.

Of course, hi-fi shops would rather sell us expensive transports than a relatively inexpensive DVD player. But that is another story altogether.

I remember walking in audio snob-shops and having salesmen laugh at me when I told them I was using a ''non-audiophike'' Sony S7000 in my system for audio purposes only. I was politely given the old brush-off for lack of knowledge. Then I would take my (multiple-folded) Planet Hi-fi review from my back pocket, show it to them, and watch their mouth be lost with words.

I have been using DVD transports since 1998 and have never looked back. I'm probably missing something, but I sure can't hear it.