Once you hit a certain level of transport and DAC coupled with very clean amplification, good cabling, speakers, etc...the differences are pretty easy to hear.
Listening and comparing a couple sub $1000 transports probably won't tell you much.
If the DAC is the same, how different do CD transports sound?
One interesting topic of discussion here is how audible the differences are between CD players when they are used as transports only — or when they are only transports to begin with.
In other words, in a comparison which keeps the DAC the same, how much difference can be heard between CD transports?
This recent video by Harley Lovegrove of Pearl Acoustics provides one test of this question. It may not be the ultimate test, but he does describe the experimental conditions and informations about the qualifications of the listeners.
He comes to the main conclusion here: https://youtu.be/TAOLGsS27R0?t=1079
The whole video is worth watching, I think.
Showing 3 responses by coralkong
@asctim , Perhaps I am making the assumption that if someone is looking at a sub $1k transport, they're probably using a sub $1k DAC as well......so, point taken, I should have been more clear. Now, that being said, if you start talking about using.....say.....a $5k+ DAC, the differences between a $600, $2500, a $5k and a $10k transport will be much more discernable. |