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CD Player used as transport

Does anyone have experience trying different CDPs as a transport for a DAC? I've tried a few and the results were all over the map in performance from terrible to OK, I suspect problems from the balance of the unit creep into the performance of the transport. Some could be poorly made or the designed is a 2nd thought from a transport perspective. There seem to be a lot of new or used options in the $500 range from manufactures like Oppo, Marantz, Sony, CA etc. but do any of them get the design and integration of the transport right so the unit can stand alone as a quality transport? I'm a vinyl and CD spinner, tried the computer route didn't like it. Looking to improve the transport side of CD playback before I consider upgrading my DAC.
128x128musichead
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

All transports are equal and even better than before, provided you reclock with a Synchro-Mesh.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
Does anyone have experience trying different CDPs as a transport for a DAC?
I use an Emotiva ERC-3 and Oppo UDP-205 (although the Oppo is a "universal" player), both connected to my Yggdrasil. If I play a CD, the Emotiva is preferred because I have that connected via AES/EBU. Both sound great to my ears (and without the need for exotic cables). 
loomisjohnson
1,526 posts
 
i was surprised to find much more audible difference between different transports than between different (mid-tier dacs). i will leave to the experts whether it's due to different circuitry, jitter or other technicalia, but the differences can be significant to my ears.
musichead's avatar
musichead OP
51 posts
 

"All transports are equal and even better than before, provided you reclock with a Synchro-Mesh."

Sounds like a sales pitch :-) so just buy a transport that is reliable and has the functionality you like and the Synchro-Mesh will make it sound no different than the most expensive and highly regarded transports? what creates jitter? dedicated transports seem to work better than CD players used as transports, does the DAC side of the CD player create jitter?

Also my Rega Dac-R claims to reclock the signal coming in, I never considered a reclock before because of this.

Any downside to up sampling? there seems to be mixed opinions out there.


grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
A great sounding transport is a used PS Audio Memory Player.  Can be found for $1000 - $1200 used.  Wonderful sounding. Beat my very expensive and good CEC belt drive beast. 
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