jasonbourne, Why don't you tell us exactly how you do your blind a/b testing, including all of the details of set up etc? Then we could copy your methodology and see if we agree with your conclusions.
If the DAC is the same, how different do CD transports sound?
One interesting topic of discussion here is how audible the differences are between CD players when they are used as transports only — or when they are only transports to begin with.
In other words, in a comparison which keeps the DAC the same, how much difference can be heard between CD transports?
This recent video by Harley Lovegrove of Pearl Acoustics provides one test of this question. It may not be the ultimate test, but he does describe the experimental conditions and informations about the qualifications of the listeners.
He comes to the main conclusion here: https://youtu.be/TAOLGsS27R0?t=1079
The whole video is worth watching, I think.
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Hey jasonbourne. I think the first consumer CD player was introduced by Sony in 1982. The CDP-101. I was in Germany at the time (in the US Army) and my buddy bought one at the post exchange. Also Philips (the co-developer of the CD player) introduced one as well. I actually bought the Hitachi brand, just like you did... but a little later. Also I agree that if you find a quality integrated amp that can switch two digital sources and the listener does not know which one they are listening to, that might be a good way to test two players. I think any way you can do this with headphones might be an even better way to eliminate external noise. |
The question the OP is posting is about the difference between various CD transports. Level matching does not come into play here. Neither is this a discussion in a difference between CD players.
As to A/B testing - quick A/B is never a good way to fully appreciate the differences, blind testing or not. Take your time with each component and trust your ears. |
They should be very similar. You've hit on a key point. The main difference in the sound between CD players is the relatively cheap onboard DAC that each uses. Eliminate the DAC and now you've eliminated most of the variance. So it comes down to which CD transport drops the most bits and introduces the most jitter. Good CD transports should do very little of either so it should be hard to tell them apart. Jerry |
@jasonbourne71 If you watch the video first, you won't need to say "Only a blind listening test to eliminate sighted bias and matched output voltage levels has any validity. Anything else is anecdotal!"
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