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Transport for CD's

Do they make any difference? I've seen comparisons of similarly priced players used as transports (usually the lower end of the spectrum) and the buzz was that there was no or insignificant difference, but what about comparing a $400 blu-ray to a 1500 dollar player or transport. Do you think there is any difference when either is used just as a transport with an external DAC?
digitalaudio
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
My experience:
I was using a Rotel dedicated transport with an Adcom Dac years ago.
When i bought a new Sony SCD777ES I compared it to the Rotel/Adcom combo.
The sound of the Sony SCD777ES was much better than the Rotel/Adcom combo.
But the sound of the Sony digital out to the Adcom DAC was about the same quality as the Sony via it's own dac.

I sold the Rotel, and felt embarassed to be selling it, as it sounded so poor in relation to the Sony.
(when I bought the Rotel it was the best sounding of what was available)

So from one experience i have to say a quality transport can matter if you have quality components in general.
robsker
132 posts
 
the quality of your transport will make little to no difference in sound if you have a 1.5K DAC in a 8K system (or in a lesser system). Only when you are at much higher-level of equipment will the subtle differences within transports be audible. Assuming the cheaper transport/CD player is decent, the money you would have to spend to upgrade the sound through an improved transport is not money well spent -- greater differences for less $ can be made in upgrades elsewhere.
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