Use a gDVD/CD player as transport with a good DAC?

I agree with Tarsando. Get a used SACD player and even consider the Dan Wright (www.modwright.com) transport modifications. You get SACD playback capability as a bonus. My understanding is using a DVD player as CD a transport leads due increased jitter on the digital output from the CD clock on the DVD player being derivied from the much higher frequency DVD clock. I have used a Chord DAC 64 with great success in the past with CD, DVD and SACD players. However, the DAC 64 has an internal buffer stage that retimes the incoming signal, reducing jitter from the transport.

We have found the same problems with dvd players as transports as with cd transpots using inferior readers.Most DVD players simply have very flimsy computer type mechanics that don't really do a good job of transfer of data without a lot of artifacts.The best we have found so far are the Goldmund.Although they use OEM companies for the drive they have a very sophisticated clamping system machined by the company that mills Rolex,Paget,and Goldmund,exclusively.They currently have 2 products with the reference unit expected this summer.If,for the first time you require a DVD system and a 2 channel playback system to interlace, it can be done without compromise.Easy DVD turntable at 3095.00 or Eidos 38 at 12995.00.

Dear DC, Been there and done that and learned a few important things. A standard DVD player from most mass market companies can not be upgraded to justify the cost of adding an expensive DAC. The one exception was Marantz. There was a modification which did help cosiderably. I just can not recall the name "ODDJOB" maybe. I also found that using a transport and DAC from the same company work best .Trying to match different brands did not give predictable results. Lastly , the choice of digital cable between the transport and DAC WAS JUST AS IMPORTANT. Try a number of them before choosing. I eventually decided on an upgradable transport and DAC from Theta with a HT digital cable. This long winded answer to your question can save you hundreds of dollars in the long run but we all learn the same way; by trial and ERROR, lots of error. Hope this helps, Dredster

Great everyone. Thanks for your help. I guess this was not a silver bullet. I am looking for one so if you have one let me know. In the meantime, I will continue my chase for perfect reproduction looking for used Theta and EAD gear. I certainly believe myself, as someone above said - the Transport is much more important than the DAC. I just sold a Rega CD player that I tried with the Bel Canto. Clearly was some improvement, but a $ 800 player with a $ 1500 transport was the wrong balance. Should have been a $ 1500 transport with an $ 800 DAC. Thanks everyone.

excuse my poor english : i'm a french guy from Paris, and I follow very frequently this forum, because a lot of french products as audio aero are much more described and tested than here in france.

I also do wholly agree with the hifi farm point of view : I will quickly describe my last experience in this domain.

I've been, three weeks ago, in a store in the east of France, in order to have a listening to some french Apertura loudpseakers. I brought with me my LINN CD Ikemi player, in order to test several configurations based on this player : alone and connected to an external DAC, in oder to test the capability and tha quality of the Ikemi as a stand alone drive.

I didn't bring my amplfier, because it's a very heavy one : Cayin 500 vacuum tube model. The amplifier proposed by the store was AYRE preamp + power apmlifier, about 12.000 us$ !!!

the first listening was made using my Ikemi + Ayre preamp + Ayre power amp + Apertura loudspeakers. I will not review these speakers here, but I will give you my feeling about the Ikemi, and more generally, the improvement that can be heard by replacing step by step the source.

The LINN Ikemi has the reputation to be a rather good CD player, but a little bit too "neutral", with not so many life, and a little bit too harsh in the highs.

We did then connect the Ikemi to a GOLDMUND SRDA2 D/A converter : the improvement was obvious, with a much more 'analog like' presentation, more soundstage, more air between the performers, more 'weight' behind the notes, a less digital global sound.

But the face of the owner of the store did clearly show that he wasn't actually happy by what he was listening. He asked me the permission to replace the LINN Ikemi by the Goldmund CD/DVD EasyLine transport.

At this step, I didn't believe what I was listening to : the improvement was HUGE, and in the right direction, only by replacing the Ikemi (used as a drive) by the Goldmund CD/DVD drive (both connected to the same Goldmund SRDA2 D/A converter). It was as if the previous improvement (adding the Goldmund converter) was multiplied by TEN. I was hearing real voices in front of me, real life, strings and so on (and all that with speakers that were not entirely burned-in : 100 hours only when they require about 5-600 hours of burn-in).

Since this listening test, I've totally changed my mind : I thought that I could be able, before, to keep my Ikemi as a drive, and add a better D/A converter, but now I'm on my way to sell my Ikemi. I will wait that Goldmund releases, in the newt weeks, a universal CD/DVD-V/SACD/DVD-a player. The store's owner told me that little by little, he will give-up the selling of 'pure' CD player and will prefer to sell CD-DVD drive connected to goof quality converters. He explained me also that using cheap DVD players is not so good, because, such kind of players contain very often cheap 'alimentations à découpage'. I don't know the english translation, but it the same kind of power suppplies than those used by Linn in their Klimax power amp of even in their Ikemi CD player (even if, of course, LINN's such power supplies are much better thatn the one used, for instance, in the Pioneer universal 747 DVD player)......

for your information, the mechanism used in the Goldmund EsayLine CD/DVD player is the ...... Pioneer 747 mechanism.... but entirely improved, and with a LOT of power supplies and regulations.......