[Mass. Wine Guy]

If you have a good external DAC, does it matter how good or bad (or cheap) your CD player or transport is? As long as the player tracks the disc correctly it's the DAC that interprets the infoprmation on the disk, right?r

[JLM]

Yep, the quality of transport does make a difference.

I had one of original (well respected for the money) Oppo universal players.  Upgrading to an Onix CD-3 added bass body and overall resolution.  Computer transports are better yet.  And just to confuse some more, you can add a music server to your computer, like a Logitech Duet or Touch for instance which has digital and analog outputs.  The digital output section is also called a transport.  And check out the Bolder Cable circle where Wayne mods the digital (transport) only.

One of major factors of playback for transports is called jitter which relates to the deviation in or displacement of some aspect of the pulses in a high-frequency digital signal as it is pulled off the disc and transmitted (yes even the digital transfer mode).  Jitter has been blamed for much of what is termed "digital" sound and the industry has been trying to conquer it for nearly 30 years.

Sorry, no free (or cheap) lunches.

[Mass. Wine Guy]

Thanks, JL. This makes sense. A cheap transport is still cheap and performs badly. My Arcam CD-72 will have to do for now.

[Sam-fi]

Honestly starting with a good transport is key. Otherwise you just aren't going to get results from your DAC unless it is to change the sound signature in some way. A tubed dac will do this.

I recommend starting with your favorite cd player and adding a dac from there down the road.

Sam

[Mass. Wine Guy]

I recently added a Van Alstine Omega Star DAC. Sounds good to me.

[Sam-fi]

Arcam is a quality transport.

 

Sam

[Phil A]

I am using my old Marantz DV9600 universal in the main system as a CD transport and it sounds very good.

[werd]

I am using my old Marantz DV9600 universal in the main system as a CD transport and it sounds very good.

marantz makes good transports.  I like that 9600 you got.

[Phil A]

The best transport I ever had was very expensive.  Probably about 10 years back I had a Proceed PMDT.  They (Proceed/Madrigal) pretty much straightened out the DVD issues they had and I decided to sell it while I could get something decent for it.  The day after it was received by the buyer, they announced it was discontinued and it was shortly after that the Proceed brand went away.  I used it with my old Micromega DuoPro DAC I had at the time.  Would love to see what it could do with the Bryston DAC but it is probably not practical as even if I found one it would be a door stop at some point in the near future.  The DV9600 is the best I've had since then.  The Sony 2000ES CD/SACD changer (which I've since sold) was also pretty good, although not as good as the Marantz DV9600.  The Oppo BDP-83 is decent, but also not as good as the Marantz.  I have not tried the BDP-93 at this point as I have it in the bedroom system.

[soundbitten1]

The Sony 2000ES CD/SACD changer (which I've since sold) was also pretty good

I have one of those and also an Arcam Alpha changer, they both make decent transports.

[werd]

The best transport I ever had was very expensive.  Probably about 10 years back I had a Proceed PMDT.  They (Proceed/Madrigal) pretty much straightened out the DVD issues they had and I decided to sell it while I could get something decent for it.  The day after it was received by the buyer, they announced it was discontinued and it was shortly after that the Proceed brand went away.  I used it with my old Micromega DuoPro DAC I had at the time.  Would love to see what it could do with the Bryston DAC but it is probably not practical as even if I found one it would be a door stop at some point in the near future.  The DV9600 is the best I've had since then.  The Sony 2000ES CD/SACD changer (which I've since sold) was also pretty good, although not as good as the Marantz DV9600.  The Oppo BDP-83 is decent, but also not as good as the Marantz.  I have not tried the BDP-93 at this point as I have it in the bedroom system.

When i had the 9600 in my house it was new, the cost was over 2k. Now i see them for under 500 bucks used. Even cheaper.....

[Phil A]

When i had the 9600 in my house it was new, the cost was over 2k. Now i see them for under 500 bucks used. Even cheaper.....

Werd, same here.  I got mine new as well and used it in the main system for a bit and then it moved to the basement system as a universal and now it is back in the main system as a CD Transport and I have the analog outs going into a Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram unit just for fun.  I'm a big fan of DACs.  I moved my old Oppo DV980H to the basement system for a universal and I just picked up the Emotiva XDA-1 to use down there as well.  I'm also going to use an HDMI audio de-embedder and try hi-rez through the Emotiva.  I don't use the basement system tons for music but when you have a good system it makes the flaws in the secondary system shout out.