Your top ten CD transport???

Gammajo - The Northstar Transport and DAC both get I2S mods to improve the speed and edge-rates and eliminate reflections. This alone makes a big difference in the I2S. Then I do a lot of analog, power mods and PC board improvements to the 192 DAC. It is truly world-class when finished. The mods for both are $1K.

I also have two customers that I am doing Superclock4 mods to the Transport. Have not finished these yet. This is around $550.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer

Steve, when one is using the Northstar transport, it is necessary to use a DAC with I2S input to get the best results. But there aren't so many around with this input.

Chris

Steve
What do you think of balanced digital connections?

"Steve, when one is using the Northstar transport, it is necessary to use a DAC with I2S input to get the best results.?"

It will outperform all S/PDIF transports using I2S after it is modded. That is probably enough motivation to use I2S.

"What do you think of balanced digital connections?"

They can be better than some stock S/PDIF interfaces. Depends entirely on the input circuit in the DAC. Some convert immediately to single-ended, so there is no benefit at all for the AES/EBU over the S/PDIF. Once I mod the S/PDIF interface, it is just as good as the AES. Usually, if both interfaces are designed correctly, the AES will sound better due to the common-mode rejection. Still not as good as an I2S interface though.

Steve N.

Dazzdax, it is not necessary to use the I2S interface to get best results. I have had excellent results with the RCA and XLR outputs as well. Using the XLR output the transport can upsample to 24/96 if you wish, which my current Monarchy M24 DAC can read. I use a Creative Cable Concepts Silver Bullet for the RCA digital cable and the new Music Note (from Star Sound Technology) for the XLR digital cable.

I just bought the North Star DAC because I'm very interested in comparing my current cables to the I2S interface. With the I2S output the North Star will allow me to upsample to 24/192 as well if I wish. I predominantly prefer plain old Redbook, but I'm having some fun with the flexibility the transport provides.