If the DAC is the same, how different do CD transports sound?

@jasonbourne71 If you watch the video first, you won't need to say "Only a blind listening test to eliminate sighted bias and matched output voltage levels has any validity. Anything else is anecdotal!"

@audphile1

there’s a difference between CD transports. Higher end transports use better quality parts, better power supplies as well as better chassis and dampening. This results in improved sound quality.

That was my assumption going in. I think that was the assumption of Mr. Lovegrove. It was not borne out in this test. That’s interesting to me because it helps strengthens the argument for optimizing a CD-DAC combo by putting most of one's time, energy, and money into the DAC. This does not mean get a bad CD player. And this was a point I believe @jjss49 made on another thread, and now we have a video about this same topic.

@yage Thanks for watching and commenting thoughtfully. I am curious whether Mr. Lovegrove feels satisfied that a sufficiently high quality of transport (or player used as a transport) was represented in this listening trial. He went to a lot of trouble to do this experiment -- did he miss a chance to use the kinds of units people here are convinced make a difference? (In fairness, I am not sure if any here have done the kind of controlled listening test that Lovegrove did.)

@audphile1

In my opinion, I would not rely on this type of evaluation

Thanks for spelling out your thinking. I see your point about longer term listening. On the other hand, this was a test done by someone experienced in speaker design and recording and a group of others with a variety of expertise in audio and acoustic arts. Given the mettle of this group, I find it hard to believe they would participate in a sham experiment for entertainment purposes only, especially one where their names are mentioned and for all of this to be posted on a fairly popular YouTube channel. (It has 94k views so far.) I’m more inclined to think that both you and they have made observations relevant to the question, Do transports make a difference?

@vthokie83 Interesting that you find differences but that they’re not enough in your resolving system to spend up for a Jay’s. That does confirm if not the lack of difference in the YouTube experiment, at least the proposition that there is not that much to gain by a better transport. I see others here differ, and that’s fine, of course.

@pwerahera

Most modern DACs have good reclocking mechanisms and other methods to reduce playback jitter. Any transport can provide the digital signal with varying degree of jitter. So the issue is, if you have a good DAC, then why would the transport matter? Because DAC should be able to buffer the incoming digital signal from any transport and convert into an analog signal based on its own clock and analog filters. Now one can argue about different DACs and their implementations. However, different CD transports should not impact the digital signal or its quality. [my emphasis]

This is the explanation I got from a local audiophile friend whose expertise is in telecommunications and computing. It would fit with the experimental listening results which Mr. Lovegrove obtained.

It often gets lost in these threads, but I posted the Youtube video to generate discussion, not because I agreed with it. Thank you, folks, for the discussion.

@facten 

A firsthand assessment in your system would be much better to draw a conclusion from for yourself then [sic] cherry picking the comments in the thread that allow you to confirm the video narrative that you bought into. 

I didn't "buy into" the video narrative. I presented it as something which seems worth discussing. You've phrased my position here tendentiously. 

And a test in my system with a local CD transport to compare with my CXC would be interesting, but I would need someone to help create blind conditions and make sure the voltage outputs and dB levels were equal to make it more valuable. That's something the "video narrative" did, and described the procedures pretty well.

@audphile1 

not at all what I was trying to convey.
Also, the number of views on the video is not an indication of how accurate the information is. Not sure why you think it’s important.
Looks like you’ve formed your opinion and the conclusion of the experiment described there just feeds into it.

Sorry to miss your point. OTOH, I thought your point about longer listening as a way of determining differences was valid and something the video did not address. I hope I got that right.

The number of views of the video is relevant because the people cited by name in it have been heard 93k times as holding a certain view about audio. I would not want my name cited 93k times if I didn't believe what the video said I believed. Especially if it was in my professional area of expertise.

@facten Go ahead and believe whatever you want about me, since you've already cherry picked your way toward that conclusion.

@audphile1

don’t take it the wrong way, but I think you are too excited to see the conclusion of that video aligned with what you were hoping to hear. In other words you had a biased opinion going in and now it impairs your ability to keep an open mind.

You might be right. I’m going to accept your take as a reasonable hypothesis and reconsider why I’m posting this. The funny thing is, I have disconnected my CD transport because I’m not using it very much. I stream all the time. So, I’m not that motivated to keep what I have vs. upgrade. I find the question theoretically interesting and two audiophiles I admire for their acument (including @jjss49 ) make the same argument as the video. So, if I’m biased, it’s because the people I respect for their knowledge agree with the video, not because I have a dog in this fight.

Your argument on why the number of views matters is pretty weak as well.

I really botched explaining it. My apologies. Here’s another way to look at it. If you were on a youtube video accidentally slipping on a banana peel, would you want it to have 93k views or 10 views? Probably 10 views, because no one wants to be embarrassed. The same idea holds for those mentioned as participating in this review. He names them here: https://youtu.be/TAOLGsS27R0?t=528

If they have reputations they want to protect, then if the experiment in which they’re mentioned is a shoddy one -- with 94k views -- that works against them. That’s the best I can phrase the argument, but I’m happy to agree to disagree on this one.