Dedicated CD Transport vs DAC
Greetings,
Just some honest questions...
In your opinion, based on what you have actually experienced....
1) Which accounts for the most sonic improvement? A quality dedicated CD Transport or a Quality DAC?
2) If a person could assign a percentage... by what % did your cd transport improve your sound? By what % did your new dac improve your sound?
3) If you honestly gained an improvement in sound... was it like, " Oh my God, I can't believe how great this improvement is " or is it more like, " I can hear an improvement but no wheres nearly commensurate with the increase in price it cost me."
Coming from being highly invested in vinyl playback for the last 50 years... I'm struggling trying to decide how to improve the cd playback side of my system.
Up to this point in time, I've usually found cd playback to oftentimes sound hard, glaring, sterile, two dimensional, etc.
Which in your mind, helps to eliminate the above sound qualities that I dislike? A new dedicated cd transport or a new dac?
Thanks much for taking the time to reply and help me better understand!
Best wishes,
Don
@oddiofyl Hello and thank you for your post! It’s great to know that you are hearing a much better sound from your new Teac vs the Oppo as a transport… that there is no comparison! That helps give me more faith in replacing my old Rotel 955ax with a dedicated cd transport. Im curious, are you using an external clock in addition to the Teac transport? Thank you and best wishes, Don |
Hello! Yes, I did purchase a new LTA Aero Dac. Best wishes, Don |
The better the DAC and transport usually the better.But not always. Dac and transport if you can match them with the right cabling and in your system, you will get 3D and good macro and micro dynamics.my Ares denafriifs and Yamaha s1000 with the wrong digital cable they won’t give me 3D , when I tried using my Audioquest diamond ic . It gave me 3D and dynamics.Gear can’t do it alone, you have to keep on trying different cables till you get what you want.By the way Iam using marigo apparition digital cable used. |
I would also say DAC first, but transport also is very important...I also was not happy with my OPPO as a transport...agree digital cable also important as it's really a digital system you're putting together...and then there are power cords...some here always try to get others to stop playing CD's, which to me is very poor advise...and yes I enjoy streaming and have 3 streamers... |
What are your impressions of the LTA DAC so far (I’m gonna guess it doesn’t suck)? It’s clear a better transport can make a significant difference, and using a lesser one on a good DAC is like putting budget all-season tires on a Porsche. Likewise, the digital cable also matters a lot, and at your level I wouldn’t spend less than $200 on one and up to $600 new. Here’s a very good one (read reviews) at a nice discount if you’re in the market… https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649210067-acoustic-zen-mc2-digital-cable/ Jay’s and Teac are obvious choices, but if your wallet’s still hurting from the LTA I’d definitely see if you can get a Shanling ET3 with a return policy as it’s getting very positive reviews and is much less expensive. Either way, I wouldn’t cheap out on the transport (or digital cable) with a good DAC. Just my $0.02 FWIW. |
