General transport Question

Jitter is definitely the great bugaboo of many transports. When I was putting together my first new system in 15 years, I opted for a DVD player/external DAC combination thinking that the external DAC would provide all of the performance improvement I needed. I was greatly disappointed in the performance and didn't know where to look for ways to improve matters. I borrowed a dbx Quantum mastering processor to experiment with EQ and to my great surprise, without any EQ at all, the sound was better than I'd ever heard. The difference was the reclocking that was done and the subsequent reduction in jitter. Since I couldn't afford a Quantum, I searched for another solution and found a device called the Tent X3. It's a reclocking circuit that you can add to some standard CD players that replaces the original system clock, then refines the edges of the S/PDIF signal that it generates. The results are remarkable. I took a Marantz CD67(?) player which was horrible as a transport and turned it into an amazing transport with the addition of this device. I would suspect that very high end transports do all kinds of things to reduce jitter.

As far as cables go, I think a bad cable can mess up a good transport but I've never heard a good cable compensating for a bad transport.

Jlambrick- I agree with you on the benefits of reclocking. Where can one find more information on the Tent X3?

For jitter I am using a Genesis digital lens.It does wonders for me.Best 550$ I spend.
George

Here is a link to the Tent labs site. The X03 is under "Player Upgrades".

http://www.tentlabs.com/index.html

The installation instructions were a little vague when I bought mine. I'm an electrical engineer so I was able to trace the signals I needed to use to get it going. Maybe they've improved the instructions since then.

I did not realize that a question was asked. Yes Jafox, I did listen to all those transports in relation to the Sony SCD-1. And after it was so apparent that the Sony was inferior to them, I sold the Sony. The only reason I used the Sony for the comparison was that I owned one. Not only was it inferior as a transport, there was nothing to write home about it as an SACD player either. Somehow elevating the Sony's performance by comparison to a Pioneer is not relevant Most of high end equipment will sound fairly good until compared to something that is perceived better. This hobby is all subjective and there are plenty of Audiophiles that like the Sony SCD-1, however; when comparing components usually one sounds better than the rest.