General transport Question

Sundance45: Did you actually listen to the Sony compared to each of those standalone transports and hear the Sony that far behind the others? I have what I consider a top-notch DAC and my little dismal Pioneer PD-65, with or without the Genesis Time Lens, does a mighty fine job.

Hello, Eric!
I am also wrestling with this question at this time. My humble opinion is that what matters most is the lack of jitter emanating from the CD player's (or transport's) digital interface and not whether the machine also has DACs and an analog output stage inside it as well as a CD transport mechanism. The problem is, as far as I know, there is no way to know what these jitter numbers are for most machines out there. I have been trying to determine if my Sony CDP-XA7ES is as good a transport as a Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 and there is simply no information, or even opinions on this question out there. Common sense says that the SFT-1 blows the Sony away in spite of the Sony's transport mechanism being a work of industrial art. But where is the empirical data?

I agree!! I just don't want to swap equipment, I want a real improvement

Common sense would also tell us that a transport is the easiest component to measure and validate its accuracy - you either have the exact data at the correct time interval or you don't. And repeatable validation tests would be equally easy. But instead all I ever hear about the "best" transports is that they have the most analog-like sound. Hah?

Getting a better digital cable is the answer. Transports make a difference but a better cable will offer greater improvements from my experience. Borrow a few from your local dealer and find out for yourself.

Happy Listening.