Reference Transports: An overall perspective

Bombaywalla, ALL CD/DVD/SACD players have a sled with linear tracking for the Laser, except for the famous Philips "swing arm" transport which is now obsolete. The big VRDS-NEO and some newer Philips transports are using a combination between radial and linear tracking where the focusing lens is "suspended" on magnetic field. Since this type of “suspension” is inertia-free, it is the fastest and most accurate reading technique available.

You CAN NOT prevent the disc from wobble, especially with higher than x1 rotation speeds when SDRAM buffering is used, without having a FULL disk support on the top (or bottom in the case of Pioneer "Stable Platter" system). With the Audio Desk Systeme Lathe you're talking about, you can balance the disc and prevent from vibrations caused by eccentricity, but NOT wobbling.

From what I know, the Esoteric VRDS you have in your Wadia spins at x1. The VRDS-NEO spins at about x10 using a large SDRAM buffer from which the data is clocked out. This allows the Laser to go back 10 times and re-read the data should there is error sensed by the DSP. Also, the VRDS-NEO is the ONLY transport currently available which is NOT suspended in any way. Still, even at this very high rotation speed, there is NO vibration you can sense. The READ error rate of the VRDS-NEO is almost 0 (if not 0) but Esoteric still uses the latest Digital Signal Processing with the most powerful error correction AND memory buffering in order to make sure that the error and jitter are indeed ZERO. There is no other disc spinning device (including CD/DVD-ROM) to offer these qualities.

Also, even though with computer based audio certain "error free" software can be used, this does not exactly mean that there are no transport device READ errors.

Any current $150 universal player uses powerful DSP and memory buffering which according to your and Lktanx theory is sufficient to do the job providing error and jitter free data output. Why don't you get one of these and hook it up to an external DAC together with your x1 reading and non-memory buffering VRDS Wadia and see which one will sound better? I can tell you right now; your Wadia will be a LOT better. Also, when you were talking about your friend’s computer based audio with external DAC did you try your Wadia as a digital transport through the same external DAC? If you have not, please do that and let us know if the computer based “error free” “transport” can provide the same bass extension and the same top octaves clarity, air, openness and resolution as your Wadia will.

In conclusion, it is a real fun for me to read all these "error free" discussions, but at the end of the day, there are many other VERY important things when it comes to digital audio other than "Zero" error.

Regards,
Alex

Tonyptony and Lktanx, every CD player, even the cheapest one, has C1 and C2 CIRC error correctors which have certain ability to "correct" the error. If the error exceeds the capacity of the C1 and C2 THEN you have an Error Flag output. So, if there is no error flag, this does not meant that there is no error; it means that C1 and C2 were able to correct the errors. Also, please be aware that there are also error correction errors which mean that C1 and C2 sometimes will "correct" something that did not need to be corrected. The other VERY important factor is the EFM Jitter, for example, if two different CD drives have the same error correction engines which will ALWAYS report Error free output, the one that has less EFM jitter will sound better.

In the case of my example in my previous post I meant not using the Wadia as a stand alone unit, but A-B testing it against the computer based "transport" through the same EXTERNAL DAC. In this case, digital filters, DACs and Analog stages will not be the cause of the difference.

My point was also that even a $150 universal digital player uses VERY powerful error correction and memory buffering using large 64Mb (and some times 128M and 256M) memory chips which completely "remove" error and jitter from the reader similar to what can be done with a computer based digital. So my question to you is why then those error and jitter "Free" digital players will not sound as good compared to even a 15 years old regular CD player when used as a digital TRANSPORT ONLY. I am not talking about stand alone use.

This is what I meant when I said that there are many other important things other than a fake "error free" digital data output.

Given the CD surface is really perfect, with the Esoteric VRDS-NEO transport the error is REALLY Zero, not only that, but the EFM signal jitter is also MUCH lower than anything else currently available.

I am sure that one day soon you will realize that “error free” and “bit perfect copy” doesn’t really mean anything when it comes to digital audio sound quality.

Regards,
Alex