CD Transport - budget in the order of £1500

[BigH]

Maybe you should this: http://www.drhifi.net.au/Hi-Fi/Digital%20Is%20Digital/1.htm

If I were you I would be auditioning some active speakers before spending anymore money on your system, it maybe not for you, but the last guy who changed his Naim system for one can't believe how incredible it is and far cheaper than his old system.

 

[jjbomber]

Yes, it is up to me and I don't doubt that many are overpriced and not significantly better than some of the cheap CD players. The thing is, it's not one of those I want, which is why I asked the question in the first place hoping that I might find some guidance towards the really good ones.

Not an expert, but the transport will come down to a timing issue and a reduction in jitter. Generally, the more you pay, then the better the timing and the better the sound. Just because it is digital, it does not follow that they will all be the same. As an easy example, digital photos are a series of 1s and 0s but they don't all look the same. far from it.

A long while ago, a friend of mine was called into the bank to see the manager. He had a couple of million in there and the manager wanted to give him advise on where to invest. My friend left him with the immortal words 'those that earn it decide what to do with it'. You are in the same position. If you want a better quality transport, then get one.

 

[the record spot]

To say that the Mission TRANSPORT is to blame for the sound you don't like I also think is misguided.

You do know that dvd is higher quality than cd don't you?

H, he hasn't got a Mission transport, it's a Cyrus. Mission-Cyrus as a corporate entity ceased to be years ago. Cyrus is a distinct standalone company now, Mission is part of IAG.

 

[Overdose]

Yes, it is up to me and I don't doubt that many are overpriced and not significantly better than some of the cheap CD players. The thing is, it's not one of those I want, which is why I asked the question in the first place hoping that I might find some guidance towards the really good ones.

Not an expert, but the transport will come down to a timing issue and a reduction in jitter. Generally, the more you pay, then the better the timing and the better the sound. Just because it is digital, it does not follow that they will all be the same. As an easy example, digital photos are a series of 1s and 0s but they don't all look the same. far from it.

A long while ago, a friend of mine was called into the bank to see the manager. He had a couple of million in there and the manager wanted to give him advise on where to invest. My friend left him with the immortal words 'those that earn it decide what to do with it'. You are in the same position. If you want a better quality transport, then get one.

What is Jitter? How is it audible? What does it sound like? What level of jitter is audible? How much jitter do modern disc players give out? Are DACs susceptible to jitter? Can they mitigate the jitter or eliminate it altogether?

Just a few of the questions that you might need the answer to, to qualify jitter being an issue or not as the case may be. Personally, I think not.

What is 'timing' in the context of a digital transport anyway?

 

[Anonymous]

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice. It's way more complex and the scale of machine code being picked up is gigantic, for example, it may miss some data.

you have two routes though with better fidelity that you are discussing with CD's. get a dedicated transport such as Cyrus or Wadia, or get a great CD player because sometimes having the Dac near the source has a better effect.

I would suggest buying second hand as CD is not in fashion making amazing bargains. I have a chord QBD 76 dac and the music from my plinius is different when I use it as a transport and prefer the CD player doing all the Dac duties because it is so good and harmonised. You can get a Chord Blue under £2k on auction sites (the cd transport for the Chord dac). But you can pick up a. plinius CD player for your budget, and I don't think you will better that sound with another dac.

 

[Al ears]

if you want a top grade transport cyrus will convert your cd8se to a xtse 2 or whatever they call it these days for a few quid. now i guess if you think thats value for money and you have plans to improve the rest of your set up its gonna be hard to beat. add a psxr if your not using one already and its a top notch transport.

This is indeed one of the options I am considering. In fact it's probably as far as I've got so far, so I could reask the question as "what would better the XT SE 2" for the same money or thereabouts"?

Re your question "what would better the XT SE 2" for the same money or thereabouts"?

Answer = not a lot. At least not without spending a lot more.

 

[Craig M.]

As an easy example, digital photos are a series of 1s and 0s but they don't all look the same. far from it.

That is a terrible example.

 

[Craig M.]

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice.

Nor, it would seem, do you.

Signed, A. Moron.

 

[the record spot]

Thank you for your constructive comments. You are right, I do not want a DVD player or one of those blue things. I want a top quality CD transport for playing CDs. Suggesting I replace the CD 8 SE with a £100 multiplayer is quite simply ridiculous and I doubt it's Hi Fi either.

Not quite, it can be very hifi, but as I mentioned, the Sony transport can be (or was on mine) noisy in operation. That aside, performance was excellent and sound quality on its own very good. For a transport only, just use, as others have suggested, your Cyrus 8SE and put on a new DAC.

 

[Anonymous]

You can read computer audiophile who explains all about transporting data. The same issues that affect cd affect all source data.

sometimes having the dac next to the transport provides better cd quality. The naim reference CD player takes this approach, separating the power supply which can do more damage to the data. I think the Plinius Cd101 is the bargain of the century at second hand prices. Chord have seperate transport and dac but requires two cables to transport the data such is the scale of the task.

 

[Anonymous]

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice.

Nor, it would seem, do you.

Signed, A. Moron.

hmmmm. It would seem the university has duped me out my money. Thanks for the good advice.

 

[BigH]

Just because it is digital, it does not follow that they will all be the same. As an easy example, digital photos are a series of 1s and 0s but they don't all look the same. far from it.

Haha.

 

[char_lotte]

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice.

Nor, it would seem, do you.

Signed, A. Moron.

This is the most childish post so far tonight I feel.

 

[char_lotte]

I have Cyrus and Spendor too Ifor and personally I would look at the upgrade keeping with Cyrus if you are wanting to spend your money.

Good luck be interesting to see how you go.

 

[Anonymous]

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice.

Nor, it would seem, do you.

Signed, A. Moron.

This is the most childish post so far tonight I feel.

the night is young, and two things are garaunteed to stir it up are data and cables.

the photo example is not bad and think what the poster meant is that two identical screens showing the same photo from different computer from a cd, will show different pictures. The question is if you notice the difference. Many hear the difference in hifi and the OP probably has and wants this improved fidelity specifically from CD.

 

[Anonymous]

And my opinion is that the comment is moronic, but the person seems to think he's the moron?

 

[BigH]

Yes depends how far you want to go, maybe he could replace all his cds with sacds. I feel that money is better spent elsewhere.

 

[char_lotte]

Yes depends how far you want to go, maybe he could replace all his cds with sacds. I feel that money is better spent elsewhere.

Yes we kind of got that. Maybe , just maybe you could appreciate that someone would like to do something different to you.

 

[the record spot]

Yes depends how far you want to go, maybe he could replace all his cds with sacds. I feel that money is better spent elsewhere.

He'd be lucky and you do need to respect that we all have different reasons for buying products other may not understand or even agree with. I have four disc spinners just now - a PS3, a Panasonic BDT110, and the Denon and Marantz players listed below in my signature. Would I have just the Panny or the PS3? Nope. I like a dedicated player that looks good. I'd no more go for a slimline entry level DVD player as my main source as I'd sit on my head on my sofa all night. My requirements are different than the "stick in any old DVD player and use that". Sometimes you can get a little too much of the AVI Forum's Kool Aid.

 

[Overdose]

Yes depends how far you want to go, maybe he could replace all his cds with sacds. I feel that money is better spent elsewhere.

He'd be lucky and you do need to respect that we all have different reasons for buying products other may not understand or even agree with. I have four disc spinners just now - a PS3, a Panasonic BDT110, and the Denon and Marantz players listed below in my signature. Would I have just the Panny or the PS3? Nope. I like a dedicated player that looks good. I'd no more go for a slimline entry level DVD player as my main source as I'd sit on my head on my sofa all night. My requirements are different than the "stick in any old DVD player and use that". Sometimes you can get a little too much of the AVI Forum's Kool Aid.

For me, it's not the choice that is wrong, it's the reason for those choices, hence why the advice given in the main, is don't go spending any more than you have to and you don't really have to.

Of course the OP can do whatever he likes with his money, but it's better for him to be aware of what he will be buying. Satisfaction maybe, but better quality of sound, quite probably not.

 

[Singslinger]

Hello ifor - lots of good advice here so you've plenty of options to consider.

My own experience is that a decent two-box player can sound better than a single box but this is not always the case so you'll have to listen first to decide for yourself. I have no technical credentials for saying so and am completely in dark when it comes to discussion of jitter, sampling rates, timing differences etc. But I have listened to many systems and have found that sometimes, higher price doesn't translate to higher sound quality.

At the price you're looking at, I would also consider the Musical Fidelity transport at £1,000.

Good luck! :cheers:

 

[the record spot]

For me, it's not the choice that is wrong, it's the reason for those choices, hence why the advice given in the main, is don't go spending any more than you have to and you don't really have to.

Of course the OP can do whatever he likes with his money, but it's better for him to be aware of what he will be buying. Satisfaction maybe, but better quality of sound, quite probably not.

I think I pointed out that already if you look at one or two of my other posts on this thread. Not the bit about the "reason for the choices" being wrong, but that excellent sound quality can be achieved for less, however, for some, that's not the only reason for buying "up".

 

[fr0g]

With so much money to burn, why not get a proper blind test organised? I personally think that any well made transport will sound identical to any other when used through a DAC. But if you disagree, why not test yourself. If you can tell the difference between using a £200 CD player via digital out and a £1500 then you win. If you can't, you also win.

These sums of money for essentially cheap components in a fancy case are my personal equivalent of emails from certain African nations saying you can claim millions if you send them a grand....some people fall for it and most take it with a large, dried up Pacific Ocean sized pinch of salt.

You could possibly improve matters by streaming from a hard drive, or better still a solid state drive. HDD is many times less likely to give errors and SSD has no moving parts.

 

[ifor]

Boy am I glad I spent the evening in the pub! I've spotted one or two interesting rather than fanatical comments and so far I think there are just two or three suggestions that actually attempt to answer the original question. Thank you for these. See you tomorrow.

 

[Craig M.]

Ignore the moronic comments about just 1's and 0's so it doesn't matter; they have no qualifications to give good advice.

Nor, it would seem, do you.

Signed, A. Moron.

This is the most childish post so far tonight I feel.

It was meant to be funny. Failed as usual. Ah well...