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Its all in the DAC?

Hello All,
I currently own a Pioneer Elite DV45a. The DAC in the Pioneer sounds grainy in my system. When I use it as transport only to my B&K ref 50, the sound quality and stage opens up and sounds much better. I use my system for both 2 channel and HT. I am considering a reference quality CD palyer; but it seems to me that the quality of the sound is really in the DAC and not the transport. As long as the DAC can discern between 1 and 0 from the transport and the clocks are in sync between the transport and the DAC, which should be the case for most modern CD players, I should be able to get reference quality sound by just adding a high quality DAC to my system. If there is any jitter in the system at all, the DAC should have enough de-jitter buffer space to take care of it. Do you agree?
tfee

Showing 1 response by kana813

kana813
956 posts
 
I have a 45A, even stock it never sounded "grainy," but it
did improve with some better parts in the power supply,
replacement of the cheap coupling caps, IEC connector for
a better PC, damping and decent ICs. Others(on the yahoo tact users group) report improvements using ERS sheets placed around the power supply and on the DAC.

Also, be sure to switch off the video section, when listening to CDs, DVD-As and SACDs.
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