Which matters more, DAC or transport?

In my search to better the digital playback of my system I've been lead to look at several DACs to couple with my arcam cd36, and have also considered buying a whole new player like a McIntosh mcd 201 or maybe even a lower end esoteric. My question is: will I get better results using a good DAC (for $2000 to $3000) with my mid-fi transport or with a new player that has a better transport mechanism built in, coupled with what's probably a slightly less sophisticated onboard DAC? Also, what do people think of the Bel Canto DAC3? It's one I've considered. Thanks.

jamiek09-21-2009 12:37am

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charles1dad Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,996 posts 09-21-2009 at 07:07pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Based on my own experience both obviously matter but I would say transport 70% and the DAC 30%. There is nothing a DAC can do to compensate a poor performing transport. It all depends on a superior signal.
mapman Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 15,679 posts 09-21-2009 at 07:25pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Yes, you need a good jitter free signal but getting one from a transport or other source and cable or via reclocking right at the DAC is not rocket science these days and no longer must cost a fortune either IMHO. Assuming a good signal can be had relatively easily, then the choice of DAC will always have a huge impact on resulting sound from there and matters a lot.
kijanki Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 3,575 posts 09-21-2009 at 07:32pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete The only difference between good and cheap transport is amount of jitter it produces. Jitter rejecting upsampling DACs like Benchmark have so low jitter bandwidth (few Hz) that at frequency of interest (kHz) jitter rejection is in order of 100dB. In addition jitter induced artifacts (jitter=noise in time domain) are, even with poor transport at the level of -80dB. Bel Canto DAC3 is also upsampling and jitter rejecting AFAIK. If you decide to get different type of DAC (like NOS DAC) then get very good transport and good digital cable with good shielding and impedance maching (signal reflects on impedance boundaries).
dave_b Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,267 posts 09-22-2009 at 02:21am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Digital playback is a delicate and very complex issue. Many would be experts or full time audiophiles may hold tightly to the multi box/seperates appproach for best results. My experience has been better with well designed single box designs. The newer software and DAC's afford a more harmonicaly complete portrayel of the performance on CD and SACD.
shadorne Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 7,333 posts 09-22-2009 at 03:33am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete The idea of splurging on a DA then buying a cheap transport, is foolish. Foolish if the DAC is unable to handle incoming jitter (most DAC's unfortunately). Not foolish provided the DAC is specifically designed to be able to reject incoming jitter. Once you eliminate jitter issues from the transport then the rest is just "bits" and pretty much any old transport can generally read the bits correctly with minimal errors. This has been proved countless times through comparisons of copies of copies of CD's that match the orginal.