Warm relaxed digital coax

@ghdprentice - touché may friend, touché. 

Thanks guys for replies.  It is definitely food for thought. 

@mikelavigne  Interesting observations and thanks for sharing.  I was a little surprised you were using SPDIF instead of AES/EBU or i2S as they seem to be the preferred digital connections but then took a look and saw the TEAC only has SPDIF and optical outs.  On the surface these seem like strange omissions for a transport at this price level, especially as the slightly cheaper Jays CDT2 Mk3 has both of those other connections.  Thoughts?

Thoughts?

@soix

i wanted (1) the new version of the VRDS transport, and wanted (2) a front loader for my rack. and (3) my Wadax Reference Dac does not have the i2S interface (it does have a proprietary Wadax interface, plus an option for an even higher level Wadax interface for uber spendy Wadax transports).

i’m sure that the Jay’s CDT2 Mk3 would have a similar level of performance.

my ’guess’ is that the effect of the clock dwarfs any other performance issue. and that the i2S interface advantage over the S/PDIF interface mostly has to do with better clock performance, but at a way lower level than what i ended up with. and ’guess’ my performance is right up there with any transport and any interface.....at any price.

i was astonished at the effect of the Esoteric G1X clock (which i had on hand from when i acquired it for my Esoteric T1 turntable). so did not have to add it.

my experience here indicates to me that once you get past the basic transport level.....it’s all about the clock. but i'm just one guy with one data point.

“my experience here indicates to me that once you get past the basic transport level…it’s all about the clock.”

Agreed! That’s been my experience as well.

@mikelavigne

Given your system, interesting decision on Teac transport. Are you testing the waters with Teac transport before you upgrade to Esoteric top tier CD transports like K-01XD or Grandioso K1X SE.