There are a lot of reasons for transport/cdp to effect the sound of external DAC.
The main one is the jitter on SPDIF or AES/EBU output (digital outputs). Usually the more expensive transports have less jitter, therefore they sound better, however the external DAC's could deal with jitter too, we have just finished design
and built a prototype of such a DAC.
The results are stunning!!!
In our listening sessions we could not detect any sound differences between CAL Delta transport($500 used) and top of the MBL ($11,000.00 used). Whats more amazing, cheap ($99) Sony DVD player sounded as good as PS Audio ($2000) transport.
The other issues with different transports /cdp's that effect the sound are related to the error correction and interpolation techniques, no external or internal DAC coud correct for those.
Hope it helps
Alex
3Dimension Audio
The main one is the jitter on SPDIF or AES/EBU output (digital outputs). Usually the more expensive transports have less jitter, therefore they sound better, however the external DAC's could deal with jitter too, we have just finished design
and built a prototype of such a DAC.
The results are stunning!!!
In our listening sessions we could not detect any sound differences between CAL Delta transport($500 used) and top of the MBL ($11,000.00 used). Whats more amazing, cheap ($99) Sony DVD player sounded as good as PS Audio ($2000) transport.
The other issues with different transports /cdp's that effect the sound are related to the error correction and interpolation techniques, no external or internal DAC coud correct for those.
Hope it helps
Alex
3Dimension Audio