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Transport - does it matter to the sound at all?

I wanted to start this thread, to gain some insight into peoples experiences on this subject.
My view: From the outset of CD and digital media, we were force fed the view that 'its digital so always sounds the same whatever' ideology. Remember the jam on the cd, and it doesn't skip. Since these naive beginning we quickly found out it did matter, and the quality of components, interconnects (its wire isn't it so doesn't affect the sound?) and design DID affect the sound. So I firmly believe that a transport does affect the signal quality and final sound output in a big way. There are transformers, capacitors, boards, wires, all the components that have such a bearing on quality output on all the other components in a system. And the motor, the bearings, the transport mechanism, jitter correction, noise, damping, vibration from itself and speaker interaction ALL will affect the sound.

My question, what are the views on this balance between cost on a DAC and the transport. Are many of us getting it wrong bolting on Sony DVD players to high quality DACs? And are many of the 'quality transports" out there just re-boxed philips units. It does appear very few manufactures build their own transports aka Meridain, Linn and Naim to mention a few.

It would be great to see a high quality transport kit out there, which would allow a full transport and kit DIY project, with mods and part upgrades available at an affordable price.

I haven't the money at present to upgrade my DAC, which is an upgraded Audio Note DAC 1.1 and Zero transport, but I am very happy it at the moment as it was a huge jump over oversampling units I had owned previously.
astrostar59

Showing 6 responses by jsadurni

jsadurni
210 posts
 
I believe in very expensive transport and cheap DAC.
I have a Forsell Air Reference transport hooked to an EAD 7000 III DAC

I dont believe in the "Reconstruction Theory", jitter is all that matters, so the Transport can send any crap to the DAC and the DAC will "Reconstruct" the signal with a good clock!!!
I just dont buy it!!!
jsadurni
210 posts
 
Steve "the Transport primariily has a impact on the jitter. The jitter has a sonic signature that mostly impacts the high-frequencies and the dynamics of the HF"

Are you saying that the only difference between a good transport and a bad one is in the High frequencies?

If this statement is true, I will have to ask what transports have you listed to in your system?
jsadurni
210 posts
 
I had the Benchmark dac in my system and it is VERY sensitive to transport changes!!!

This is high end, we need the best transport and the best DAC with the best reclocking available!!!

This jitter thing seems to me like when Solid State replaced Tubes because the only factor people where looking at was WATTS, we later noticed different.
jsadurni
210 posts
 
Seandtaylor99: What the Genesis does is a buffer, the data is read and sent out the buffer which then reclocks it, this approach is used in modern DVD transports which also buffer and even get to re-read the tracks before playing them: been there done that, a good transport beats it hands down IMHO, If you want to believe you can do with a DVD player and justify it with mental fabrications its fine, just leave my immense ignorance out of this.

Adding an external jitter device with extra cables creates more jitter, a theory I would be comfortable with would be a one box player with a great transport, separate power supplies, a very good clock, and the DAC inches away from transport and clock…theory; my ears tell me a good transport and DAC is already very good!

Steve: I admire how you really stand behind the products you manufacture, cheers!
jsadurni
210 posts
 
"my main point, the question of whether jitter alone is really the whole story aside."

Zaikesman puts it correctly, our ears are telling us jitter is not the whole story, maybe we have to unwrap the whole "DNA" chain before we know for certain, its good to have people like Alex and Steve looking into this.

Seandtaylor: cheers man :)
jsadurni
210 posts
 
I dont know about ESP, but my jitterous transport is scary!!!

Maybe Saendtaylor99 is on to it with the input signal:
this is from the Attraction DAC: "The high integration of unique features was achieved by the development of a special digital receiver-chip (Altmann R16)."

"The digital input signals are recovered with extremely low jitter as they are generated by custom made voltage-controlled crystal-oscillators (VCXOs) and employ the UPCI (Ultra Precision Clock Injection) technology."

"A switchable JISCO-function (Jitter Scrambling Decorrelator) further increases sound quality as jitter-components from the DVD-A or CD player are decorrelated before being ultra-precision-filtered."

"
http://www.mother-of-tone.com/attraction.htm

very interesting reading...

I havent heard the DAC but it has rave reviews, and its really nothing fancy, a nonos DAC and an opamp...yes battery power supply.

Steve do you know which other dacs use this technology?

Best,
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