Modern Day Good Transport

Sogood: Yes, selling the DA10 was one of the two regrets I have made over the last few years....the other being the ARC VT130 which smoked the VT100 and sells for far less here on Audiogon. Both the DA10 and VT130 are absolute runaway steals in performance and price.

Elberoth: The Lens benefits highly from aftermarket power cords. Both the Purist Dominus and Kubala-Sosna take the unit as far as the unit itself does in the chain. Other PCs that I tried, NBS Statement and PS Audio Statement made very little difference. It is quite incredible what some PCs do to digital gear. Makes no sense, but a return to the stock PC and the ambience and life in the music is significantly reduced.

And yes, a super duper digital cable is the same improvement as the PC. I went from a cheapo cable to the MIT AES/EBU and this was quite a nice gain in clarity. I then changed to the Marigo 5.7 and wow, even bigger. So maybe it is not so much what these more expensive cables are doing but rather all the damage that the cheapo cabls are doing.

Yioros: I got my Lens for $450 a couple years ago. It has the plastic remote but who cares as the remote is used only to power the unit up when power goes down. It is too bad the unit does not have a power-on switch as I would never need to use the silly remote at all. And yes there are different versions but I understand this to be only the firmware.

John

Jafox,

I agree that the 2-nd digital IC has to be of high quality. I was talking about the first one (form transport to lens). It does make SOME difference, but it is nowhere near as great as the second one, and if you are on the budget, that is the place to save some $$$ IMO.

The best way to save money using GDL is going with ST cables - they are superior to electrical connections and are dirt cheap (you can get one for 30$). Talk about "value-for-money" here. The problem is, not many components sport ST ins/outs. But if they do - use them by all means.

As for power cords - I have tried Shunyata Diamondback and could not tell the difference. Maybe some more expensive cords would, but I was not encouraged to try.

BTW - get the GDL with plastic remote - it doesn't look as good as metal one, but it is easier to use (and it is cheaper). I had both.

Try a good computer-based transport. I just got myself a Red Wine Audio USB select and love, love, love it. $400 and it doesn't need a good power cable as it runs on batteries. It's the sound I've been craving but never could get from CD transports.

I bought a Sony X-707 and had it modded by APL-Hifi to work as a stand alone transport (same as the older highly regarded Accuphase models). These players can be found for around $600-700, add $450 for the mods and you get a terrific transport for around $1K. It replaced my CEC TL-1.

The marantz hd cd1 is a terrific machine. Great as a transport. Also the audiolab cdt6000.