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.
I went from a Cambridge transport to a PS Audio transport and finally a Jay's cdt2-mk3 transport. Absolutely amazing amount of difference in sound performance and all with the same Gustard x26 pro dac. Also of note, using the Jay's with I2S connection via a Tubulus Concentus cable, quite a step up from the coax connections I had with the Cambridge and PS Audio. Sorry Jasonborne, cables and transport matter, in my experience anyway. |
@jasonbourne71 You're a broken record but you speak truth. If companies that made stereo stuff, especially any type of ultra high profit cable, relied on blind testing, most of them would go out of business. George Michael said it best, you gotta have faith. |
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The transport has to recognize errors or ambiguous data, reread those problem areas, correct errors, or if necessary, interpolate and fill in gaps with an educated guess; all of this on the fly. There is an advantage to ripping the CD on a quality ripper. The ripper has the luxury of being able to reread a problem area over and over to confirm a particular stream of bits. The stream of bits out of storage does not have to go through on the fly correction, which might give streaming of ripped CDs an advantage. |
