I don't have the luxury of being able to audition lots of gear before purchase, so I must rely to a great extent on magazine/ezine reviews. TAS has been a good source for many years, and although HP is highly opinionated, I trust his words more than those of many others, (especially some in Stereophile).
So--when the time came for me to buy a transport to accompany my new Chord DAC64, I remembered HP's praise of the Burmesters, with their belt-drives, and got as close as possible (read: without going absolutely crazy with the checkbook) to those very expensive units ($30K for a transport is a bit much, in my estimation!): I bought a CEC TL-1X and I am very happy with it in combination with the Chord.
I can't truly attest to a "magical" effect of the belt-drive feature, but using the CEC is a very satisfying experience (read: Ritual!), akin to the involvement required to spin a long-playing record. I've been involved with analog for 55 years now, and, at my age, "ritual" has become greatly important to me.
On a more realistic plane, it would seem that the elimination, or, failing that, the reduction, of relative movement (other than rotation, of course!) between the disc and the laser pickup is to be desired. The theory then is that the belt provides isolation from the drive motor. Again, I can't attest to the effectiveness of the arrangement. I can only say that the combination of CEC and Chord has provided me with CD sound I can enjoy; my previous Wadia 830 did not. Prior to these recent purchases, I was on the verge of reverting exclusively to analog.
To address the original question, however, I do feel (FWIW!) that of the two components (transport and converter), the converter is of more importance.
BTW--my system comprises:
CEC/BEL(interconnect)/Chord/Transparent(interconnect)/ARC (preamp)/Synergistic Research/Brystons(pair of bridged 4BSTs)/XLO cables/SoundLab A-3s.
Jim
So--when the time came for me to buy a transport to accompany my new Chord DAC64, I remembered HP's praise of the Burmesters, with their belt-drives, and got as close as possible (read: without going absolutely crazy with the checkbook) to those very expensive units ($30K for a transport is a bit much, in my estimation!): I bought a CEC TL-1X and I am very happy with it in combination with the Chord.
I can't truly attest to a "magical" effect of the belt-drive feature, but using the CEC is a very satisfying experience (read: Ritual!), akin to the involvement required to spin a long-playing record. I've been involved with analog for 55 years now, and, at my age, "ritual" has become greatly important to me.
On a more realistic plane, it would seem that the elimination, or, failing that, the reduction, of relative movement (other than rotation, of course!) between the disc and the laser pickup is to be desired. The theory then is that the belt provides isolation from the drive motor. Again, I can't attest to the effectiveness of the arrangement. I can only say that the combination of CEC and Chord has provided me with CD sound I can enjoy; my previous Wadia 830 did not. Prior to these recent purchases, I was on the verge of reverting exclusively to analog.
To address the original question, however, I do feel (FWIW!) that of the two components (transport and converter), the converter is of more importance.
BTW--my system comprises:
CEC/BEL(interconnect)/Chord/Transparent(interconnect)/ARC (preamp)/Synergistic Research/Brystons(pair of bridged 4BSTs)/XLO cables/SoundLab A-3s.
Jim