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Just wondering. I always thought the idea of using a computer drive would be ideal as it can be cheaply replaced. A bunch of things bother me about choosing a transport:
1. It often won't match the look of the DAC.
2. How does one know it is even an optimal transport for the particular DAC?
3. Has anyone ever changed transports or cables and noticed the difference in sound?
I guess once one gets a combination one likes, that the end of that particular road. Still, the variation bothers me.
Follow Ups:
It had to be a front load, it had to be a name brand that I knew, and it had to be under a thousand dollars.
I ended up with a Classe CDT-1. It originally sold for about $2,500 - I bought it for $400 a couple of years ago.
I've since traded it in. I still buy CD's but rip them and digitize them right away so they can be played from the music server. If worse comes to worse I can play a CD in the laptop drive tray, although it really isn't made for being used very often.
I think there's a lot of people going digital and selling their CD players and transports - there should be a lot of great bargains out there.
Yes, I use an obsolete Pioneer DVD as a drive into series Monarchy dejitter devices and into my high level stage with a built in MSB DAC. This is my 2nd Pioneer. My first died and I figured almost any decent drive would work with my set up. It didn't. What really went to pot was the dynamics. I had a wide band device that sounded like it had limiters on it. I was lucky and found another Pioneer on Audio Asylum.
If Pioneer is it, then that is actually not too bad. There should be plenty of used Pioneer DVD players on the market. I am using a Pioneer DV-563A and I just had one that I retired from home theatre duty. It 'appears' to work just fine, although it does benefit from vibration isolation (currently via foam sheets that audio equipment is often shipped in).
Coincidence strikes. I'm using the same unit. I tried to replace it with an older Oppo that got great reviews but had to send the Oppo back.
Back when I had a Rotel transport I compared it to my new SonySCD777ES as a redbook transport. Both to the same DAC.
The Sony SCD777ES redbook player as just a transport was far superior to the Rotel. To the point I was ashamed to even sell the Rotel to someone else.
about selling your player. I have a SONY XA-7ES which sounds better than a cheap Toshiba DVD, but not nearly as good as a mid-priced Pioneer player. They're all different (not really the problem), but some are clearly better (that is the problem, if one doesn't happen upon the right one).All one has to tell me is that one player sounds better with one DAC and another player sounds better with a different DAC and I'll have to conclude that we haven't made much progress since the vinyl turntable as far as variability is concerned.
Edits: 06/09/14
"3. Has anyone ever changed transports or cables and noticed the difference in sound?"
Yes. Within two minutes of getting my first two box (Proceed) CD player in the early 1990's I noticed that using a coax cable to connect the transport to the DAC sounded better than using a fiber optic cable. I mentioned this to my dealer and they confirmed that their listening tests had come out the same.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Not as hi fi but I noticed the same thing on my ZVOX TV sound box.
It was a 'rhetorical' question: Aren't all of you bothered that may not be getting all there is out of your transport/DAC setup? So, coax just sounding better means you haven't tried different coax cables?? True, they should all be similar, but, maybe not.
"Aren't all of you bothered"
Not at all
That is what keeps this hobby going
My Audio Note transport with mu Audio Note dac sounded much better than my Sony 5400 used as a transport
Alan
a company such as Audio Note stocks sufficient CD mechanisms to keep you guys afloat for a long time. Is it like Bryston's 20 year policy??
Judging by how long I keep my equipment, it would have to be AT LEAST 15 years. This is good news for American/British/Canadian companies that have a long standing record of customer support.
I saw a video on Audio Note and they have the largest store of parts for old gear I've ever heard of, Impressive for what is not a huge company.
Hope so. They use a modified Philips CD Pro2LF CD mechanism.
I had heard that Phillips has stopped making this but am not sure
Alan
it is no longer made but some stock are still available
I ran an Oppo 103 vs an MSB Data CD drive into my DAC and playing the same CD made a huge difference.
The MSB Data CD transport was clear, had good timing and was more realistic compared to the Oppo.
I also found the Sony 5400 SACD player into the DAC on 16/44.1 to sound different than the MSB namely in being a little softer and having less air around each instrument.
The DAC was a Marantz SA-11S3.
Considering you second question: I think trial and error or the ability to audition before you buy is important.
Hope that helps some.
navman
better with the SA11S3 used as an outboard DAC, than when playing the same material in the SA11S3 as a stand alone player? Who won the shoot out: the two box or the one box setup?
I don't want to ask the price! I wonder how a USB player compares to these other options for sound quality? The high-end wouldn't be the high-end if it were easy or cheap, I presume.
I think more DAC companies ought to offer matching transports that use Data CD drives. Now if the costs can just be kept under control.
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