Transports make a musically significant difference and can be heard through any upsampler/jitter reducer I have ever heard - same for the cable running into it. That Parasound transport sounds smooth and congealed - cannot understand why anybody would like it except to tame something wrong elsewhere in their system. While there is a lot of stuff I have not heard, my experience tells me that the SFCD1 will better almost ANY dac in the world when that DAC is driven by the likes of the Pioneer 525 and other cheap transports - unless of course you do not the subtle and gentle way in which the SFCD1 does its thing. DACs seem to get all the attention because they are flavoured, a bit like preamps are. But transports are like power amps - the differences are less obvious in a brief audition, but getting a musical transport (as for an amp) is not easy or cheap. This is just my experience, but my experience also tells me to take what Sam Tellig says with a bucket full of salt.
Upsampling/Advice on Transport
After reading Sam Tellig's piece in the Feb. stereophile, I've decided that I want to take the plunge into upsampling via the MSB Link DAC. Unfortunately, my current CD player (Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1) doesn't have digital outputs, and so I will need to get a transport. His article implies that the quality of the transport is virtually irrelevant (he even used a Radio Shack portable and got the same results), because part of his suggested system is a Monarchy Audio Digital Interface Processor, which acts as a jitter reducer. So here is my question: in order to get the best sound, do I need to spring for an expensive transport, or will any consumer-grade CD player with digital outputs do the trick. Opinions?
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- 28 posts total
- 28 posts total