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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 tpcarter

tpcarter
16 posts
 

I’m using a Vecteur L.4 cd player as transport through a great coax cable into an Audio Note Kit 3.1 DAC that was prebuilt but retubed by me.

Recently I purchased an Arcam CD5 transport because of the terrific reviews ("great with vocals" "great sense of space" "great bass punch" et cetera). And I wanted to see how the new Arcam compared to the 20+ year-old Vecteur.

Wow, after doing an A/B, I was SHOCKED at how anemic and thin the Arcam sounded compared to the Vecteur. Putting it into automotive terms, the difference was as substantial as comparing an old Volkswagen Beetle (the new Arcam!) to a new BMW (the old Vecteur!). The naturally airy lushness and warm musicality of the Vecteur completely outperformed the Arcam.

So, I would agree with facten above that transports can make a HUGE difference. I would also encourage you to get high quality and well-reviewed after-market cables and vibration dampeners. I’ve found that each component I’ve upgraded has opened up the sound, making it more natural and "magical."

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