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Do Transports Matter???

I borrowed an outboard D/A from a friend to try in my system. My intent was to hook the analog outs on my CDP to one input on my preamp and the analog outs of the DAC to another input so I could a/b my player with and without the DAC. However something is wrong with the digital out on my player because I couldn't lock a siginal with the DAC. So I grabbed my pioneer DVD Player and hooked it up as a transport. Everything sounds awesome, made a big difference in my system(won't go into details). The outboard also puts the DVD players onboard DAC to shame(well duh). But this of course also made me wonder if using a different transport(my cdp if it worked)would make any difference?? In reality the DVD player is reading the CD and sending 0s and 1s to the DAC where its reclocked anyway. I know that sometimes little things make a difference, even though on paper they shouldn't. Being this is my first expirence with an outboard DAC, I am just curious if what you use as a transport makes any difference
brianvoelz

Showing 1 response by jafox

jafox
1,471 posts
 
I seem to have a very different experience than most here. Either my Pioneer PD65 as a transport is incredibly excellent or my Muse Model 8 transport is not all that good as I have swapped back and forth these many times and I am still not sure if a difference exists between them. Is it my poor hearing on this or were the Stereophile ratings A vs C truly nonsense in this case? Both of these with so many DACs bring on an excellent redbook CD presentation.

I have had many DACs here: Audio Alchemy, ARC DAC3 II, Counterpoint DAC10, Muse 296, Electrocompaniet ECD1 and now the incredibly awesome tubed Manley DAC....I own all but the ARC now. The differences between each of these is immediately apparent. In some cases it is extended bass that is quickly noticed or a more in-the-room vs back-of-the-room presentation, more energy on the top, etc. Perhaps I need to try the transport comparison again with the Manley DAC.

I just recently tried a MIT digital cable and yes, this indeed brought on a level of smoothness over the cheapo cable that was previously used. I did convince me that the timing issue is critical with cables. But even this was not a huge difference right away like the DACs. Perhaps a return to the previous cable would make me think otherwise.

And I have not played with power cord swapping yet but it sounds like everyone's claims on this will bring on yet a huge change too. I thought I'd play with a Genesis Lens for a month or so and then remove it to hear what it does or does not.

So if anyone has any ideas as to why so many other things make a far bigger difference than the transports mentioned, I'd love to hear it. And if anyone is interested in the differences in the above mentioned DACS, send me an email.

Thanks.

John
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