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PS Audio CD Memory Transport?? Yes Or NO

I have thousands of cds and I have 4 or 5 cd players. To me they all sound pretty similar. I want to buy one that would be a step up. I have Marantz 6005, Pioneer cd recorder, California Audio Labs Mark 2 and an old Oppo dvd player. I have a Wyred 4 Sound Dac 2. LIke I said I cannot tell if any of them sound any better than the others. I think the California Audio actually sounds best to me. I have Prima Luna separates and a Luxman 505U integrated amp. The questions is, will I hear any improvement going to a transport with the hard drive to reduce jitter etc. or will it be a waste of money? Any advice or other suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks,

dylanfan

Showing 2 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,685 posts
 
Well, I'd say do you want it to sound better?

Do you hear better when you go into a store? Imaging, balance, voices, piano. Does any of it make you t hink you are missing something?

Have you auditioned great headphone gear to give you a reference?

USB 2.0 Asynch, properly implemented, is the bomb, but can be done really cheaply and well too.

Best,


Erik
erik_squires
16,685 posts
 
I'm not sure if you have USB 2.0 support or not.

If so, any streamer, or any home built PC should do a very good job feeding a USB 2.0 capable DAC that is driverless for Linux/OSX. I built my own 2TB server/streamer for around $600 to feed a Mytek Brooklyn PCM and DSD. Works great.

I will say that different DACs have different levels of source sensitivity. My ARC was much more sensitive than my Mytek via coax. It required an exceptionally well clocked source to sound great. In demo's I've heard, an Ayre was also "sensitive" like this, but the Schiit was not.

While experimenting with alternatives I did find teh Wyred4Sound Remedy reclocker. It worked great on Internet sources. If you are a die-hard CD player kind of guy, I'd suggest an alternative like this may give you the most consistent results, but not the convenience of a streamer. :)


Best,


Erik
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