A Question about transport!!

[Thaiman]

No it's not about Taxi or Virgin Train, I am talking about CD transport. Up until recently I always believe it's all about 0 1 0 1 0 but never bother to find out as I mainly use a single box player. But since it's my upgrade time so I got to keep my option open for Transport/DAC combo. Just wonder if any members here would like to share any oppion on CD trasport with me? How much do they influrence the sound!

 

[Anonymous]

I think if transports didnt make a difference all manufactures would put the cheapest drive in they could find,but some,like TEAC go to great lengths to get them right,like all things digital the differences can be hard to hear or appreciate,or not worth the outlay,I've tried testing some transports,level matched the sound,but not blind,as still I ended up preferring one over the other after listening to both for about 10 minutes,a quick A/B doesn't show so much these differences.

 

[Anonymous]

Agree with Silly. A good transport is essential to accurate sound
reproduction. A lot of audiophiles around the globe use transport+DAC.
Obviously costs more but does bring improvement.

But, personally
I feel it is better to invest in a decent CD player rather than get
into separates. It is very difficult to tell the difference after a
point when you have a great CD player. Of course the advantage is that
you may keep changing your transport every couple of years while still
having the DAC you love the most, i.e. if your player starts skipping
you don't need to replace your player, just the transport.

 

[Anton90125]

Out of nowhere a load of formatting icons
appeared. I shall have some fun now!

Thaiman, you know my feeling on the subject of transport.
Big and heavy (like a tank!) to try to protect the disc from vibrations. (Much
like a high end turntable- the same laws of physics apply). As I said in
another post the disc tolerances are so small that even the smallest vibrations can cause
mistracking problems.

Since writing that post, I have discovered that the original
CD players were going to have a digital readout indicating the level of error
correction taking place. This idea was dropped when the first production player
appeared. My first CD player Philips CD303 had a red led(or was it green? I can't
remember) which was meant to flicker while any error correction was taking place. I
never noticed it light up but I was later told (after I sold it) that if you
look at the player in the dark you could see the light glow gently indicating
there was constant error correction going on. I found out even later that
people were writing in complaining they had defective players. As a result of
this the error correction light was also dropped in all subsequent models. This
error correction is only a series of methods for trying to statistically
"guess" what the erroneous data should have been had there been no error. Clearly
this any error correction guessing will result in a poorer sound.

By using a transport that can dampen vibrations the "010101's! can be protected. The transport will also be using a separate power supply,
which will isolate the DAC from digital noise produced by the transport servos mechanisms.
This noise pollution of the power supply can be the bane of many a CD player. I don't use a dedicated transport, instead I use my Sony SACD which is like a King Tiger Tank!

 

[Thaiman]

My MF Cd player build like a tank so I might try a digital out from there first and compare sound different to a dedicate transport later (a hi-end one like Chords or Teac) and then I will try a few of cheaper cd players that well known for transport used (like My old marantz 17, Meridian 200 etc) and if I come across Sony SACD I would give it a go too.....look like I will have plenty to do the the next few weeks! I hope I can hear the different....