CD transports; do they really matter

Charles 1dad, the esoteric p700 was not that good, that was their cheapened out version of the esoteric P10 which is what I have, that thing was so well built they were even using OCC single crystal wire for the internal wire back in 1990 when it came out, they were so far ahead of everybody even back then, but they're transports now are way crazy priced, the P10 was only $2,500 Canadian back then and the p1 was $4,000, now they're transports are like 10 $20,000 that's ridiculous.

@havocman

The P700 may not have been Esoteric’s very best effort but during that era it served me well and was better than most in that particular price range at that time. I’ve heard their more recent models at a not too distance dealer.

Charles

IME, it is important, but less than DAC.

if DAC = 100% then transport is 30-40%.

Similar to upgrade the digital I/C's from transport to DAC vs analog I/C's from DAC to amp.

Given the requirements of the DAC and CD transport and their impact on sound quality when either is suitably upgraded my perspective of their respective contribution is 50-50 Maybe 55-45 in favor of the transport.  The delivery of the digital signal from the sorce is paramount.  So this obviously varies from one individual's viewpoint compared to another. 

Charles 

From my personal experience. I had been using Arcam 192 CD player, not too shabby in its days, as a transport with Denafrips Ares II, it was big improvement over Arcam inside DAC. Then I bought Cambridge CXC transport and the improvement was really significant. Here I said it.