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New Midrange vs. Older High-End CD Transports

A have a Denon 2900 Univeral player that I had been using as a CD transport, but decided to purchase an older Krell MD-20 since I thought it would have better sound. I had been listening merrily along, when I came along a CD that had a lot of tracking errors on the Krell. I checked the CD on the Denon, and it played flawlessly. I then decided to do a serious listening comparison between the two (both using the same DA converter), and realized I could not hear any difference, which surprised me, given the much more expensive (even at today’s prices) Krell.

What are the opinions of older high-end CD transports vs. newer less expensive ones? I am amazed at how much better the newer Denon tracks problematic CD’s, but as mentioned was surprised at the lack of sonic difference.
smeyers
jsala
99 posts
 
Not sure re dedicated transports, but my old Cary 303 cd player was a better transport than the newer Pioneer DV47Ai and Marantz 9500. The newer players probably have better DSP chips and in some cases memory buffers which help reduce jitter, but its up to the implementation to make effective use of these advantages.
bigkidz
3,330 posts
 
I tried six different transports a while back and found that the digital cable was the biggest improvement over the transports. What cable are you using?
jay_douglas_2879b79
239 posts
 
i sound like a broken record, but the cd transport/dac or player is essentially the same as its always been. the cd however has been dramatically improved through a learning curve in recording, mixing, mastering, and manufacturing for this media. lots of first generation players sound as good as current models. the differences are there in hardware, but nothing as big as the hi end community would have you believe. i've been in the music and video industry for almost as long as i've been into hi fi, and i've had to face the fact that the hi end marketplace never letd the truth get in the way of a good story.
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