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Transports and Dac's mix and match Brands

I have a Questions with regards to transports and Dac's, most manufactures produce both the Transport and Dac, can you mix and match one and enother(brands)i.e Esoteric, EMM labs, Wadia and DSC come to mind, Iam am using a Dodson Audio Dac model Da-217 mk 11d at the moment and I wont a decent transport to use with it, I dont wont to be tied to one brand, as a example I like the Esoteric P05 there new pick up reads well, I not interested in SACD just red book, but can I use it with my Dac or other Dac's, if I decide to change in the future and will it preform as good if it was mated with other manufactures Dac, when you read the reviews or there owner manuals it seems they are designed to pacificaly be sold together, transport and dac, is this the case i.e P05 and D05.
Thanks for the insite or any recomendating on what I should be looking for.
k_rose

Showing 1 response by clio09

clio09
3,346 posts
 
I've done it both ways. I used the Northstar 192 combo to take advantage of the I2S connection between transport and DAC. However, I've used the Northstar 192 transport with a Monarchy M24 and TRL modified Audio Mirror DAC as well with fine results.

Today I'm using a CEC TL-51X with a Lessloss DAC 2004 MkII. While these are from different manufacturers the DAC has been designed with a clock output for use with this specific transport so that the transport is slaved to the DAC (user option via switch, you can run the DAC slaved to the transport as well). This combo is some of the best digital I have heard.
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