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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.
128x128jamiek
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
2,267 posts
 
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's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
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.
wonderful_electric
85 posts
 
Oh please.... This is an easy answer. Jamiek, you have at least a decent transport to begin with so all you have to do is get a good DAC. I own the DAC 3 and it is very smooth sounding and is great for picking up ambient cues and fine details like that but I must admit that the sound is not the most exciting, though it is one of the most accurate.
Unless you have a bad transport like say a playstation or a cheap DVD player then a better transport really won't make a world of difference.
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kijanki
3,575 posts
 
"Unless you have a bad transport like say a playstation or a cheap DVD player"

There is nothing wrong with cheap DVD player as a transport (I use $70 Sony) as long as it is bit transparent (no digital volume control or processing). DVD players have very good tracking and usually very bad analog audio section that wont be used. Additional benefit of DVD player is inherent MP3 playback.
shakeydeal
979 posts
 
It might matter more if you posted your question in the correct forum.....

....just saying.....

Shakey
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