Pioneer Elite DV-09 as a Transport...

I used my DV-05 as a transport for awhile. Fortunately, it's one of those things where you won't know its limitations unless you compare it to something else. If you add the jitter reducer, you will probably notice an improvement. If you switch to a better CDP as transport or a dedicated transport, you will probably notice an improvement. If you hook it up with a good DAC, cable, vibration isolation, etc. and don't compare it to anything, it will probably sound pretty great (you will certainly notice an improvement compared to its internal DAC).

Ignorance is bliss in this case.

I'm curious about this, because I remember someone saying that the Pioneer DVD units would be superior transports, better than the PD-65, which I use and think is great. But here the opinion seems to be that they are so-so.

I think people got the impression that they were amazing transports a few years ago when Dan Wright, Stan Warren, Ric Schultz, etc. were modding them as transports for various DACs. I believe those people modded them because they had a lot of potential (considering their sub $200 price), but mostly because they also played DVDs and the new DACs were 24/96 compatible.

At that time I remember Ric Schultz offering a modded Sony CDP and a modded Pioneer DVD player as transports. He recommended the CDP over the DVD for redbook. He said that all of the extra video circuitry in the DVD player interferred with the audio to some extent.

My DV-05 was a fine transport (cost $600?). It didn't do much wrong. However, used with the same DAC, my old Denon DCD2560 (originally $1500) had better bass, my old Studer A727 (originally $3000???)had better everything, and the EVS modded Sony CDP transport ($600-ish) bettered them all by quite a bit. Besides the obvious bass/treble comparisons, the better the transport, the better the resolution.

My DV-05 was probably as good a transport as most sub $500 CD players. I'd guess the DV-09 compares to players costing less than $700-$800. If you want most low/moderately priced players to be good transports, you need to have them modified. In some cases that probably holds true with the expensive players too. With few exceptions, you usually get what you pay for (although, in audioland, sometimes you pay for a lot more than you get).

All that being said, you can do a lot with any player if you experiment with isolation, digital cables, and interconnects. It's surpising how much they can change when you find a good match.