[Danny Richie]

Hey guys,

I need a little help. I am looking for a good transport.

I have and I am used to the performance of a CEC transport. It sounds great but is several years old and does not play everything I drop into it. What I mean is that it will not play all CDR's. If someone sends me a CDR that does not play, I can take it to my computer and burn a copy with my Yamaha burner and then it will play. Supposedly this burner burns deep traces in the disc. So it will play CDR's but is picky.

I'd go with newer model CEC but am a bit worried about it playing CDR's.

I go to shows every year and people bring in their material on CD's. I need a good quality reliable player that will play anything that I drop into it. I don't want to have to hand a CD back to a visitor in our room at a show because our transport doesn't think their CD is good enough to play.

Whatever I use will get the exposure of being used in a top notch system in many shows. So somebody or some company could get some good publicity out of it.

It needs to be on a performance level with the rest of my system but can't be an overpriced one off something or another. I try to offer high value in anything I do and I am looking for that high value transport to use and recommend.

My DAC will play back 24/96 so I would like a transport that will read and send 24/96 info.

Any suggestions?

[jhm731]

Danny-

Option one:

http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=4280&sid=4765c5b265292293febfe59579679ce9#4280

Option two:

Contact Anthony at Aberdeen Components(702-943-0795) about his modified Northstar transport

Both of these will output 24/96. 

A third option is wait for the new PSAudio transport. See their latest newsletter for more info.

[Marbles]

Danny, how about a laptop?

[Danny Richie]

There are a lot of good options out there for music servers now but when people walk into a show with music to play that are not bringing in their lap tops, hard drives, or thumb drives. They bring in a CD.

[Marbles]

Danny, it only takes about 3 minutes to burn a CD to a hard drive if it is at all free of scratches.
Playback from a hard drive is about as good as you can get if set up right.

 

[Danny Richie]

A third option is wait for the new PSAudio transport. See their latest newsletter for more info.

Hey, this simple method of theirs should have been done years ago. It makes a ton of sense and honestly shouldn't be real expensive to do. I bet we'll see more companies doing this real soon. Thanks for passing this one on.

[TomS]

Surely MLS can get ahead in the line  aa

[Marbles]

A third option is wait for the new PSAudio transport. See their latest newsletter for more info.

Hey, this simple method of theirs should have been done years ago. It makes a ton of sense and honestly shouldn't be real expensive to do. I bet we'll see more companies doing this real soon. Thanks for passing this one on.

I just read the newsletter on the website and it didn't give much in the way of details, but, when it talks about "bit-perfect" it leads me to believe it might have a hard drive in it somewhere.

Is there something more than the September newsletter for info?

Thanks

[jhm731]

A third option is wait for the new PSAudio transport. See their latest newsletter for more info.

Hey, this simple method of theirs should have been done years ago. It makes a ton of sense and honestly shouldn't be real expensive to do. I bet we'll see more companies doing this real soon. Thanks for passing this one on.

I just read the newsletter on the website and it didn't give much in the way of details, but, when it talks about "bit-perfect" it leads me to believe it might have a hard drive in it somewhere.

Is there something more than the September newsletter for info?

Thanks

The unit uses a DVD ROM and takes the data directly off the disc to solid state memory without any
clock. On playback it adds low jitter clocking. Everything is powered by an audiophile PSU.


See: http://boards.psaudio.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4569

[Marbles]

Thanks, that helped A LOT!

[JoshK]

Using a memory buffer between an optical reader and dac is not new.  Levinson did it in their transport, 37 I think, and I believe Ayre did it in their CD player too.   The point though is that if you aren't slaving that memory off the external DAC when playing back, you've just defeated 80% of the benefit of using the buffer. 

[tvyankee]

just wait and get the new ps audio transport that was at RMAF.

it will be the best transport ever since Sliced Bread

just kidding, but you have to laugh a little since ps audio has a way with words.

their marketing people are the best.

[jhm731]

Using a memory buffer between an optical reader and dac is not new.  Levinson did it in their transport, 37 I think, and I believe Ayre did it in their CD player too.   The point though is that if you aren't slaving that memory off the external DAC when playing back, you've just defeated 80% of the benefit of using the buffer. 

The new PSAudio transport doesn't use a buffer.

Just like the NP Memory Player, it rips the entire disk into a solid state memory, where it can played back or moved to a HD for storage.

[JoshK]

Doesn't really matter as long as the buffer is practically deep enough the principal is the same and the result is the same.

[csero]

Using a memory buffer between an optical reader and dac is not new.  Levinson did it in their transport, 37 I think, and I believe Ayre did it in their CD player too.   The point though is that if you aren't slaving that memory off the external DAC when playing back, you've just defeated 80% of the benefit of using the buffer. 

Every single CD player from the beginning had to use buffer between the optical reader and the dac. The data is in interleaved form on the disc and you have to buffer it to decode.

[Alex Peychev]

Every single CD player from the beginning had to use buffer between the optical reader and the dac. The data is in interleaved form on the disc and you have to buffer it to decode.

True, very "short" FIFO only (512K). When it comes to 64MB (or more) SDRAM buffering, the CD player has to spin at x4 minimum. And that is what works best, IMO!

Josh is correct, it does not really matter whether the entire CD will be recorded to memory, or it will be partially recorded to memory, the result/benefit is the same.

Now, the computer based solutions do not only feature a very noisy switching power supply, but also are using the highest read speed transferring the CD to the memory. In my opinion, this is inferior to designs partially buffering to memory while spinning the disc at lower speed.

Regards,
Alex

[riffer]

....their marketing people are the best.

  I agree.

It's too bad they don't have any talent on the style/aesthetics front.  That transport has to be one of the ugliest components I have ever seen.