2. digital
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Dedicated CD Transport vs DAC

Greetings,

Just some honest questions...

In your opinion, based on what you have actually experienced....

1)  Which accounts for the most sonic improvement?  A quality dedicated CD Transport or a Quality DAC?

2)  If a person could assign a percentage... by what % did your cd transport improve your sound?  By what % did your new dac improve your sound?

3)  If you honestly gained an improvement in sound... was it like, " Oh my God, I can't believe how great this improvement is " or is it more like, " I can hear an improvement but no wheres nearly commensurate with the increase in price it cost me."

Coming from being highly invested in vinyl playback for the last 50 years... I'm struggling trying to decide how to improve the cd playback side of my system.

Up to this point in time, I've usually found cd playback to oftentimes sound hard, glaring, sterile, two dimensional, etc.

Which in your mind, helps to eliminate the above sound qualities that I dislike?  A new dedicated cd transport or a new dac?

Thanks much for taking the time to reply and help me better understand!

Best wishes,

Don

 

no_regrets

Showing 1 response by fleschler

fleschler
2,041 posts
 

31,100 LPs and 16,100 CDs. Like both formats. Upgraded from a $500 Topping D70s DAC to a $25,000 Lampizator Poseidon at 70X the price. About 20%+ better in openness, separation, dynamics, etc.). Sonically, not that far apart.

Jay’s Audio $5K CDt3 Mk3 transport Best friend is using his Topping above with a Schitt Urg at $1,200. Very impressive.

I tried many CD players under $5K. Not comparable. Maybe there are equally good CD players but at higher prices as well.

Unfortunately, I found out 25+ years later that digital reproduction at my analog level costs about the same or more.

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