Modern Day Good Transport

I continue to use the Pioneer PD65 as a transport and it has performed incredibly well with a variety of DACs including the Counterpoint DA10 (awesome unit for the price), ARC DAC3 II (somewhat bright and fatiguing), ECD-1, VTL Ref and now the Manley Ref DAC.

I have since added the Genesis Time Lens which brings on a significant degree of clarity and added space between the notes. I had to struggle to hear differences between the PD65 and transports much more expensive, Muse and Audio Aero, and so I quit trying. But the Genesis was a marked improvement. Interestingly enough is that digital cables also show a significant difference in sonics.

From all of these experiences, I have yet to be convinced it is necessary to spend a fortune on a transport. My reference source is still the Clearaudio Ref TT.

John

Vman71: If your EAD has an RCA, BNC, TosLink or Aes/Ebu digital output, you can drive the Genesis from any of these. The Genesis has a set of the same type of outputs to accommodate pretty much any DAC of your choice.

Sogood: Yes, selling the DA10 was one of the two regrets I have made over the last few years....the other being the ARC VT130 which smoked the VT100 and sells for far less here on Audiogon. Both the DA10 and VT130 are absolute runaway steals in performance and price.

Elberoth: The Lens benefits highly from aftermarket power cords. Both the Purist Dominus and Kubala-Sosna take the unit as far as the unit itself does in the chain. Other PCs that I tried, NBS Statement and PS Audio Statement made very little difference. It is quite incredible what some PCs do to digital gear. Makes no sense, but a return to the stock PC and the ambience and life in the music is significantly reduced.

And yes, a super duper digital cable is the same improvement as the PC. I went from a cheapo cable to the MIT AES/EBU and this was quite a nice gain in clarity. I then changed to the Marigo 5.7 and wow, even bigger. So maybe it is not so much what these more expensive cables are doing but rather all the damage that the cheapo cabls are doing.

Yioros: I got my Lens for $450 a couple years ago. It has the plastic remote but who cares as the remote is used only to power the unit up when power goes down. It is too bad the unit does not have a power-on switch as I would never need to use the silly remote at all. And yes there are different versions but I understand this to be only the firmware.

John