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

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.

Jimstew,

Although I do not necessarily agree that a DVD player should be better than a CD player or a CD mega changer or special dedicated DAC, my experience is that the differences between players are small enough that I am not at all surprised to read your comment.

My room, speakers and the source material mix/mastering quality totally dominate the quality of what I achieve in playback from my system. Differences in digital players tend to be dwarfed by these other factors.

If anyone wants to prove this to themselves....simply move your speakers by about two feet and you will immediately hear a significant audible difference, often with one position being decidedly better than another. Or compare an original release with a remastered version. Switching between one CD player and another rarely produces such big differences...

I seem to remember the "measurements" section of a review where John Atkinson discussed DVD players being able to generally read the more difficult test tracks without error, compared to cd players. OTOH, I found this post where he indicated their inferiority due to master clock frequency discrepancies.

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=digital&n=89660&highlight=john+atkinson&r=&session=

With the newer stuff, I have to agree with Avguygeorge regarding quality and implementation as my Muse 10 sounds much better than the PD65 with D2D-1 and DAC 3.0 that it replaced.

I bought a used Reimyo DAP-777 DAC here on the 'Gon and was disappointed with its performance using both an older Pioneer CDP with the Stable Platter Mechanism and a Muse 9 CDP as transport. I bought a demo Sony DVP-S7700 CD/DVD player on eBay for $200, and the sound with the Reimyo is incredible. Talk about 'hearing into' the recording. I could hardly believe that a transport could make such a HUGE difference. And that's the stock Sony. (You can have $1300 of mods done to it if you feel guilty spending so little).
I cannot recommend this transport enough.