If I am buying a DAC, does my CD player matter?

I used to believe that transports didn't matter. After doing several comparisons I found out I was wrong. Transports do matter and, in my opinion, can be as important as the DAC. Many years ago it was a commonly held belief that turntables didn't matter. After all, they simply spin the record. :-)

Wendell

certainly. Don't worry about the output stage of the player as that section will be bypassed. But you will need a decent laser pickup stage. The old Philips with those CDM1s are perfect for this. The current production Sonys are s...t...

There has been countless discussions on this, do transports matter? Answer is a huge resounding YES. Sometimes I have heard them make as big a difference as the DAC. Best transports out there are TEAC ones (VRDS. If you can find an old Krell 300cd player and use it as a transport it will be as good as anything before you spend serious $$. This old Krell has the TEAC VRDS transport and it is killer.

The CEC transports are belt driven and that also makes a huge improvement.

Yes,they do make a considerable difference but a better DAC will still give you a much improved sound. Get a Musical Fidelity V-DAC from Audio Advisor. $299 with return privileges. I have one and it works very well. HIFICRITIC rated it ahead of not only the Benchmark, 42 to 24 on their numeric scale when playing CDs, but also ahead of a Bel Canto player by about the same margin.A huge bargain and can be further improved by upgrading the power supply in the future if you wish. You will have to spend big bucks to get something better.