Can you use anything as transport if you connect it to a good DAC??

Gerrardasnails

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The new Cambridge Audio Super DAC is arriving soon. It has got me thinking. Would buying a really good DAC and connecting it to a lesser cd player be the same as connecting it to a budget dvd player or Bluray player as transport?
 

Thaiman

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I never believe that transport made a different until recently! I have a long conversation with Mr. Miller (co founder of sugden audio) and he explain to me in such a details that I couldn't argue at all.

Try them and see mr. Nails, I reckon a dvd player will be the best bet. Although older Pioneer (can't remember the model at the moment - the one that you put the cd in up side down) are also very poppular along with Meridian 200 transport or 206 cd player.
 
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Anonymous

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I would have thought the transport might have some effect. AFAIK The transport would contain the read head and the little bit of circuit that effectively says - sorry - can you read that again for me I missed it. But I am prepared to stand corrected on that.
 
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Anonymous

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...and surely it has it's own PSU and associated problems that may become apparent when passing the signal out of the optical or electrical digital out...
 
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igglebert:...and surely it has it's own PSU and associated problems that may become apparent when passing the signal out of the optical or electrical digital out...

I think the clock signals on the CD still get passed to the DAC though so that should not be such a big issue.
 

Tear Drop

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The Pioneer reference mentioned above is the 'Stable Platter Mechanism' and was used in many models during the early to mid 90s. Wadia used it in some of their CD players for a while. The Pioneers often pop up on ebay. It is IMO one of, if not THE best transports ever developed.
 

John Duncan

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JoelSim:Looks like the Cyrus se has turned that argument on its head

Well yes that's possible, though isn't it more to do with the way the Cyrus reads the disk which has benefits, which may not be an issue with, say, HDD storage?

Not disagreeing with your theory, am just curious myself.
 
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Anonymous

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JohnDuncan:JoelSim:Looks like the Cyrus se has turned that argument on its head Well yes that's possible, though isn't it more to do with the way the Cyrus reads the disk which has benefits, which may not be an issue with, say, HDD storage? Not disagreeing with your theory, am just curious myself.

Cyrus claim a great improvement in read errors which bring benefits to a transport. HDD storage inherently doesnt have this problem as signal transfer is a lot more stable. Reading from a cd is signal transfer 'on the fly' where errors may be introduced. i think this is the reasoning behind the argument that HDD sources with lossless files are at least as good as a cd player
 

Gerrardasnails

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Tear Drop:The Pioneer reference mentioned above is the 'Stable Platter Mechanism' and was used in many models during the early to mid 90s. Wadia used it in some of their CD players for a while. The Pioneers often pop up on ebay. It is IMO one of, if not THE best transports ever developed.

So, you could pair something like the Pioneer bluray player and connect it to a MUSICAL FIDELITY X-DACv8. If the BD player reads cds and passes the information ok to the MF DAC, would this sound good??
 
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Ive heard dvd players before with very good DAC's, like the Stello and DAC-X from Cyrus. They sound great. Even 2 channel dvd audio sounds immense, especially film music soundtrack-wise.

The only thing I dont like about dvd as a source is that a lot are very slow at loading and also the user interface is poor via remote control
 

Gerrardasnails

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thfcwestlower:
Ive heard dvd players before with very good DAC's, like the Stello and DAC-X from Cyrus. They sound great. Even 2 channel dvd audio sounds immense, especially film music soundtrack-wise.

The only thing I dont like about dvd as a source is that a lot are very slow at loading and also the user interface is poor via remote control

Any reason to suggest that a bluray player would not work the same?
 

fatboyslimfast

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Wouldn't have thought so.

I actually connected my old iRiver MP3 player up to my Beresford (the iRiver has optical out!), and played WAVs through it.

Well batter me backwards and chuck me in a fryer if it wasn't better than using my Arcam 6 CD as transport...
 
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Anonymous

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nails, I dont see any reason why it wouldnt sound as good as a cd transport of decent build quality etc.
 

Tear Drop

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Gerrardasnails:Tear Drop:The Pioneer reference mentioned above is the 'Stable Platter Mechanism' and was used in many models during the early to mid 90s. Wadia used it in some of their CD players for a while. The Pioneers often pop up on ebay. It is IMO one of, if not THE best transports ever developed.

So, you could pair something like the Pioneer bluray player and connect it to a MUSICAL FIDELITY X-DACv8. If the BD player reads cds and passes the information ok to the MF DAC, would this sound good??

I'm not too familiar with the current Pioneer range, but it seems that they don't use their Stable Platter Mechanism in any of their current digital players - which is a great shame.
 

Gerrardasnails

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thfcwestlower:nails, I dont see any reason why it wouldnt sound as good as a cd transport of decent build quality etc.

I've been thinking about getting my pc involved with my stereo set up for a while. I've seen the new Sony BD player and it could cover my dvd player duties as well as acting as a transport for my cd's. I really love the sound from my Arcam dvd player but if I could lessen the number of boxes and bring my flac files into play, it would be a good thing. I'm assuming if the new Cambridge Audio DAC is costing approx £200 and it's the same that's in the 740C (£500 player) then a £800 DAC will get you a lot for your money.
 

Gerrardasnails

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JohnDuncan:Diminishing returns notwithstanding.

$399 for the CA DAC - that sounds around the £200 mark to me. I could use my balanced out on my amp at last!

http://stereophile.com/news/090608cedia3/
 

John Duncan

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Yep, Clare confirmed it was £200 last week I think. My point was that an 800 quid DAC wouldn't be four times better than a 200 quid one. And am still waiting for a review - if it's on a par with the Beresford (say), I'm having one for my airport express, no question (for no other reason than the aesthetics).
 

Gerrardasnails

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JohnDuncan:Yep, Clare confirmed it was £200 last week I think. My point was that an 800 quid DAC wouldn't be four times better than a 200 quid one. And am still waiting for a review - if it's on a par with the Beresford (say), I'm having one for my airport express, no question (for no other reason than the aesthetics).

Aha.

And the XLR to my 840A!
 

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