The transport has to extract an ENORMOUS amount of information in a CORRECT manner, reading from a small, dotted, plastic disc spinning at formula1 speed. This info is then fed to the dac for sampling & conversion.
There is incomplete info on the disc in the first place (redbook s/ware); We usually lose info anyway either because it is read in a "confused" way & oversampling can't "correct" it -- or because it's not picked up in the first place...
So, yes: a transport is VERY useful, not only the actual tray & laser but also the implementation around it!
On the other hand, I cannot generalise saying that a used 1k transport will be better than your particular Pioneer; it SHOULD be, as it's designed exclusively to extract info from a redbook cd! Sony, Philips, and CEC supply transports (i.e. the laser reading and disc spinning part) for most manufacturers: maybe you could borrow an integrated cdp (many sony & philips around) and feed the "digital out" tap to yr dac! Good luck
There is incomplete info on the disc in the first place (redbook s/ware); We usually lose info anyway either because it is read in a "confused" way & oversampling can't "correct" it -- or because it's not picked up in the first place...
So, yes: a transport is VERY useful, not only the actual tray & laser but also the implementation around it!
On the other hand, I cannot generalise saying that a used 1k transport will be better than your particular Pioneer; it SHOULD be, as it's designed exclusively to extract info from a redbook cd! Sony, Philips, and CEC supply transports (i.e. the laser reading and disc spinning part) for most manufacturers: maybe you could borrow an integrated cdp (many sony & philips around) and feed the "digital out" tap to yr dac! Good luck