USB CD Transports

Hi Greg (?),

I’d really like to help, but just don’t feel I have quite enough info. So let me try and lay the basics out. See if we can disassemble the question.

A CD transport spins disks with computer files on them. So, it is a reader and a streamer. There is no cashing involved as far as I know. This data goes to a DAC, where it is converted to an analog signal.

Streaming from files located on a hard drive, or network drive, or in a streamers internal drive can be exactly the same files (let’s assume for simplicity). If you use a high quality streamer, it may cashe your files to make sure there are no gapes. The resulting sound quality is roughly equally dependent on the streamer and the DAC (there are some folks that may disagree… but I have a lot of experience on my side that says both). 
 

So, having said this. If I was setting up the best sounding system I could, that was forward looking, I would be getting the best possible streamer and DAC. Your ripped files and CDs are probably all available on Qobuz… so, are of little value. 
 

The Yggdrasil is a good budget DAC… if you matched it with a used Aurrender N100… or better yet N200…. You would have a better source than a transport and access to millions of albums. Then when you upgraded your DAC the sound quality would make a huge jump. 
 

I hope this made sense. 

+1 ghdprentice

My Aurender reads from SSD, or from stream and caches data. All data is played from cache and the design minimizes internal noise. My ripped files sound great. At least they sound great if the recording engineers and musicians did their job.  It’s hard to advise you without knowing what components make up your system.  FYI: You can look up our virtual systems in our profile and should you want to, you can post your system on your profile.  I went through the process of considering the purchase of a CD transport, and decided against it based on the advice given me at the time.

@vonhelmholtz 

+1

Saw the Schiit Urd and looked very interesting, need to read up on it, but I too have a spot in my heart for my massive CD collection and have ripped them all onto my Innuos, so gonna do some serious A/B comparison once my Teac 701t 70th with clock comes end of the month.

I'll be honest I feel ripped CD's are ever so slightly better then what I find on Tidal through my Innuos Zenith with Phoenix USB, and I 100% now buy all digital albums through Bandcamp in Hi-Res (44.1/24 or higher). I feel it's a appreciable difference.

I think the Schiit was released just a few days ago, possibly no one has one yet, and the Shanling about a few weeks, so probably no direct comparisons yet...I also still like to use CD...the debate over CD, streaming, ripping etc is endless...