2. digital
  3. 1165585305

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
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
"The wisdom handed down to me from one of the most respected engineers and manufacturers of tube gear was expensive transport and modest dac make for a musical presentation and the other way an audiophile presentation."

This is not wisdom IMO, it is a result of some limited anecdotal evidence. The sound result depends entirely on the designs of the individual components and the parts used therein. No conclusions like this can be drawn IMO. And I would be wary of who you consider wise.....

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
EE with 30 years design experience
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Astrostar59 - what you must understand is that the Transport primariily has a impact on the jitter. The jitter has a sonic signature that mostly impacts the high-frequencies and the dynamics of the HF. The DAC on the other hand can have an impact on the entire frequency spectrum as well as dynamics top-to-bottom. Noise and distortion are also DAC related. The DAC can also add jitter. Given all of these impacts, I would have to judge the DAC the most important with the Transport/digital cable next important.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer
jsadurni
210 posts
 
Steve "the Transport primariily has a impact on the jitter. The jitter has a sonic signature that mostly impacts the high-frequencies and the dynamics of the HF"

Are you saying that the only difference between a good transport and a bad one is in the High frequencies?

If this statement is true, I will have to ask what transports have you listed to in your system?
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
The only difference between a good transport and bad transport is jitter.

So you have a choice. Buy a low jitter transport (often very expensive) or buy a reclocking DAC, or a reclocking device to sit before your DAC.

Personally I feel you get much more flexibility from a reclocking device or DAC than an expensive transport, as you can now feed digital signals to it from any transport, from your PC, from a squeezebox, and the sound that comes out will be relatively immune to the quality of the transport.

On the other hand if you buy an expensive transport it will probably sound great, but won't help at all should you ever want to add a squeezebox.

And my final concern is that the transport is generally the least reliable part of digital audio, so I'd rather not spend thousands on it.
ryder
1,689 posts
 
Pardon my ignorance. If the only difference between a good transport and bad transport is jitter, does that mean the best and most expensive transport will have an extremely low jitter?

IF jitter is the sole parameter in affecting the sound quality of any transport, can we assume ALL transport(including the most expensive ones) will sound similiar if the issue of jitter is addressed successfully?
More to discover