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Transport - does it matter to the sound at all?

I wanted to start this thread, to gain some insight into peoples experiences on this subject.
My view: From the outset of CD and digital media, we were force fed the view that 'its digital so always sounds the same whatever' ideology. Remember the jam on the cd, and it doesn't skip. Since these naive beginning we quickly found out it did matter, and the quality of components, interconnects (its wire isn't it so doesn't affect the sound?) and design DID affect the sound. So I firmly believe that a transport does affect the signal quality and final sound output in a big way. There are transformers, capacitors, boards, wires, all the components that have such a bearing on quality output on all the other components in a system. And the motor, the bearings, the transport mechanism, jitter correction, noise, damping, vibration from itself and speaker interaction ALL will affect the sound.

My question, what are the views on this balance between cost on a DAC and the transport. Are many of us getting it wrong bolting on Sony DVD players to high quality DACs? And are many of the 'quality transports" out there just re-boxed philips units. It does appear very few manufactures build their own transports aka Meridain, Linn and Naim to mention a few.

It would be great to see a high quality transport kit out there, which would allow a full transport and kit DIY project, with mods and part upgrades available at an affordable price.

I haven't the money at present to upgrade my DAC, which is an upgraded Audio Note DAC 1.1 and Zero transport, but I am very happy it at the moment as it was a huge jump over oversampling units I had owned previously.
astrostar59
undertow
1,033 posts
 
The two biggest factors that I have heard effect a DAC / Transport combo is the Transport And digital cable.. Both pretty much as important from my many trials... A close next would be the Power cables on both units.

Some transports sound more syrupy, some very stringent or thin, some with Heavy weight in the bass and good solid dynamics. It will depend on the combo, but to your question, yes big things can happen for better or worse when A-B testing transports against each other in the same system with same cables, sometimes night and day better or worse in certain areas or with certain types of music.
Myself and a friend tried a few DVD players, Stable platter transports, Good single disc dedicated transports, and even CD changers in some direct compares.. We have normally found the dedicated transport built machines do have some extra magic to them..

Cheap dvd players do implement several other un-used circuits for video etc.. in them and sometimes sound pretty good, but not always competitive with an actual transport. But I have not heard it all so that will be your own listening to determine what you need. They can sound quite different just like putting a totally different amp in front of your speaker, same as what transport you got in front of your DAC.
getheleadout
144 posts
 
Transports do matter, I'm currently using a highly RAM modified CEC TL51X and it sounds COMPLETELY different than other transports I've tried.

I think what may give the, transports don't matter myth, some legs is that in my experience, even very inexpensive CD/DVD players can make good transports.

The sound quality of some very low end DVD/CD players has gotten insanely good.

It's when you try the get that extra 15 percent or so of sound quality, that you need to step-up to what is usually a much more expensive transport.

You also need a system capable of passing on the improvement.

Another myth I believe exist is with the "digital cable" used to connect the transport and DAC. Although a number of inexpensive cables sound good. If you want the best, it's going to cost you. And yes, it makes a big difference.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
From personal experience I believe the single most important issue is jitter. I don't believe that bit errors are a significant source of sonic degradation, or that there's significant performance difference in the area of bit errors.

If you have a well designed reclocking DAC then I think that the transport does not matter. (Think Lavry, and to a lesser extent Benchmark DAC1).

If your DAC derives its clock from the SPDIF, AES EBU, or (horror) toslink input then the transport will matter much more.

I'm pretty certain that your audio note DAC does not reclock the data at all, so I would expect it to be quite sensitive to the transport. If you were to put a quality reclocker in between the transport and DAC, such as a Meridian 518, or a Genesis digital lens, I think you'd find the setup fairly immune to transport quality.
undertow
1,033 posts
 
Reclocker... interesting, I already myself have too much power cord cost, and cable cost to add more in between.. I am not so sure you can't get a transport with a upgraded clock or better one in the first place to fore'go the excess cables and conversions adding a third unit to the digital chain, but I have not had these issues so maybe it is a good path.
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