CD Transport Question for WHF Staff & others

[jaxwired]

I'd like to know if anyone thinks that the quality of the CD transport makes a noticable difference once an external DAC is being used.

I've read that the Rega Apollo has excellent proprietary error correction abilities and I'm wondering if there is any point in getting an Apollo to feed the digital input on my benchmark DAC1 or will it sound pretty much identical since the DAC is responsible for the entire analog signal.

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated.

 

[lordmortlock]

Hey Jax

Doesn't the dac take care of all the error correction? I've been thinking about buying an EAD dac from a chap on another forum and he feeds it with a mid market dvd player with excellent results.

I've always wondered what makes one dedicated transport better than another. Surely the dac does all the hard work?

 

[jaxwired]

Hey lordmortlock! Good to hear from you. Well, I'm not sure. I would think that the transport would do the error correction since it is doing the disc reading, but I'm definately guessing. I did read one review of my benchmark where the reviewer stated distinct preferences for one trasport over another. And I've read other such ramblings. I'm sure there is a camp that thinks it matters, but I really have no idea. I believe that benchmark takes the position that it is irrelevant.

I do think the Apollo would look a lot nicer

. Not a good reason to spend the money though. I'm curious what the WHF staff thinks...

Even though I'm very happy with my system now, I'm still looking for any tweaks that can squeeze an extra drop of sound out of my equipment.

 

[Craig M.]

sometime this week i should hopefully be trying a cyrus xtse and dac xp, i'll no doubt be comparing it to my mac and dvd player as a transport and i'll let you know if i can hear any difference. i will also try to get a cambridge 640 as a comparative transport. not a benchmark or an apollo, and i don't make any great claims for my hearing, so maybe not totally relevant to you. i should also state, i'm kinda expecting to hear no difference, so maybe listener bias will be the over-riding factor. anyhow, i'll let you know how i get on.

 

[jaxwired]

Thanks Craig. I'll be looking for your report....sounds like fun.

 

[IJ]

When my Theta data basic transport started playing up, i tested back to back with an Usher CD-7 CD player as the transport with my Wadia DAC. The later gave an improved perfromance in my opinion and i purchased it as it was very cost effective replacement for the Theta

Ok the Theta was some 15 years old, so i guess some improvement over the years has been made.

The CD-7 was also better with the Wadia DAC than stand alone

 

[lordmortlock]

I know that that teac transports with the VDRS system are very highly regarded. One retailer I spoke with about transports a month or so ago ( again when considering this ead dac) said that my wireless set up (itunes, airports etc) was as good as any high end cd transport!

Oh btw Jax - Saw a benchmark ad offering the 30 money back guarantee in the UK yesterday. I'll be taking advantage!

 

[a91gti]

As with most products transports can be good, bad or indifferent. Quality varies in both design and materials, so while some are merely ok others are great (early philips units are among the best).

 

[chebby]

Given the portability of your average DAC, this can easily be proved at a dealer demo.

Plug your DAC into a demo system and try out a couple of CDPs as transports, Try a cheap model and an expensive one and see if there is a difference through the same system.