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
 
Zaikesman - I would be wary of drawing conclusions about jitter reduction from a Monarchy DIP. It certainly helps, but as you say, is far cry from elimination of jitter. Even the expensive Big-Ben, which incidently works much better is not jitter insensitive. A true re-clocker with good ground isolation should make even the cheapest DVD player sound like a million bux. Unfortunately, it does not exist.

Steve N.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
Steve, the closest to what you suggest "A true re-clocker with good ground isolation" would appear to be the genesis digital lens. (I've never used one, but would like to have a play with one).
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Seandtaylor99 - I have customers with these. I have to hear it to believe it.

I've heard a true reclocker, my own Pace-Car. It is still in debug, but amazing sound.

Steve N.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
Thanks for the reply. An additional feature of the Genesis (and the 518, which is a dual PLL, not a true reclocker) is the ability to add dither, and play with the word length. With my limited DSP background dither would appear to be a very interesting possibility, especially since most modern DACs are 18/20 or 24 bit, so the dither can easily be added without reducing the original word length.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Right, I never said the DIP eliminated jitter, I'm sure it can only reduce it. Its low price shouldn't be held against it, and appears very well made inside (though could be better shielded -- what it radiates makes it necessary to keep it a safe distance away from my phonostage). It's widely regarded as effective with independent test measurements to back it up. It does have iso trannies on the inputs and outputs. The "24/96" version I own uses the CS8427 chip for the PLL, not a SRC, and reclocks. Steve says that a completely effective unit doesn't exist, except maybe his own which isn't for sale yet, so I can't feel too badly about taking advantage of the cost-effective DIP. And if that's true, then it should also be true that there's no box out there which can render the differences between transports unimportant, which was my main point, the question of whether jitter alone is really the whole story aside.
More to discover