Hey
Are transports less of an issue, regarding jitter and all, with todays new dacs then they were say 10 years ago?
Im currently using an inexpensive CD player to feed my DAC.
There are several Sonic Frontier transports on Audiogon that have caught my attention
Please, no computer audio suggestions :lol:
Great minds think alike, Emil... I was asking myself the same question just the other day! :)
Yes a dedicated transport will change the game. CEC being the most desireable.
The PS Audio is a good choice as well. If it were me I would demo the PS audio from Music Direct with the chance to send it back. You then can hear the difference between the inexpensive one you have and determine if the the more expensive transport is worth the extra investment.
When I use an inexpensive Sony as the transport it sounds very good. When i use the Plinius CDP as the transport all is improved. A big difference.
The other part of the game and very important is the digital cable used to connect to DAC. not all are equal. Huge differences can be had. Which one ? unfortunately one size does not fit all with digital cables.
One you have all figured out it is very affective to have your digital front end on a different circuit then the rest of the system. Most desireable is having separate circuits for Amps, CD and Preamp. If three is not a reality two should be minimum.
another area of concern is how the transport is supported. Meaning no vibration from below. Isolate the transport or CDP with whatever works for you. I'm a fan of Pon -Tunes on a Corian plinth with Mapleshade Isoblocks supporting the plinth. very very affective.
Your other option would be a single box player that outdoes your existing DAC. EAR ? Lector? AMR ?
My advise would be to scratch the transport idea and get a better single box solution. I recently heard an EAR Acute CDP and was quite impressed. Not inexpensive but you get what you pay for. BTW not a dealer of EAR.
charles
It depends on the DAC.
A W4S music server or PSA transport with I2S will have no jitter. Otherwise, computer audio is the way to go. :D
Quote from: Face on August 29, 2012, 08:19:23 AMIt depends on the DAC.A W4S music server or PSA transport with I2S will have no jitter. Otherwise, computer audio is the way to go.
I was privileged to be at some listening tests with a battery powered Hi Face via I2S directly feeding a DAC chip - it easily bested any transport we could get a hold of - Wadia, Stello I2S, heavily modified battery powered Marantz via I2S - anything.
However I have to say when I post about it very few people seem to believe it for some reason - didn't really know why.
Thanks
Bill
Even with the mighty jitter busting ESS Sabre32 9018 DAC chip, basic jitter reducing tweaks like cabling and connector quality still improve the SQ noticeably, so transport quality does still matter to the degree that the jitter reduction technlogy you choose is unable to remove some jitter. If you use a reclocker like Empirical then it should not matter the original source of bits.
Anytime the transport and the DA converter do not share a common (low jitter) clock then you will have jitter created along the path between them. If the CDP transport's clock is cheap consumer grade, then the bits start out with jitter.
Older CDs from the digital's early days before engineers were jitter aware have the jitter sound recorded right into the master, so the playback chain cannot correct it. There are still some jitter ignorant engineers out there making jittery CD masters for small labels. The ADC needs a quality clock to avoid this.
To me the transport can have an affect with the DAC you pair it with. Some time ago I was in a financial pinch and wanted to have a sound system on the cheap. I paired a Musiland MD-11 DAC with a very cheap Memorex DVD player from Rat Shack. The tray was flimsy and who knows what flimsy parts were in it. Whenever I was listening to music I just pictured cold grey steel. Later I lucked out and scored a Pioneer Elite DV09 for $100. What a difference! Music was definitely more involving and warm. I know this is an extreme case but it is the experience I have.
What DAC do you currently have? I'm assuming if Sonic Frontiers transports catch your eye it must be pretty serious DAC.
Thanks guys
[What DAC do you currently have? I'm assuming if Sonic Frontiers transports catch your eye it must be pretty serious DAC./i]
Im using a Wyred DAC1.Not exactly what I call serious but nice. The Sonic Frontiers transports could be had for around $700.
Parts Connection are offering refurbs for $800 with warranty
My attention has turned to the PS Audio Perfectwave transport as suggested by Rollo.
The PS transport not only plays CDs but can play hi rez discs either purchased or burned onto a DVD disc but only if converted to wav.
HD Tracks.com sells downloads in FLAC so a conversion to wav and then burned would be needed.
Anywhere to purchase hirez in wav to avoid this step ?
Emil, I'm not sure the WAV format will support a high resolution copy. I think it would need to be down-converted too, which kind of defeats the whole purpose IMO.
But I could be incorrect on this.
Quote from: BobM on September 04, 2012, 11:04:34 AM
Emil, I'm not sure the WAV format will support a high resolution copy. I think it would need to be down-converted too, which kind of defeats the whole purpose IMO.
But I could be incorrect on this.
WAV does do HiRez
Ok, so I tried to download and burn a wav hirez.
Downloaded the file and now what? :? Where does it go? Where do I put it?
Please explain to mean as if Im 4 years old :lol: cus' a 5 year old would know what to do :lol:
You can download a free 14day trial version of Switch Sound file converter and use it to convert the Flac file to wav.
See link below
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Convertors/Switch.shtml (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Convertors/Switch.shtml)
Scotty
Quote from: Emil on September 05, 2012, 10:21:09 AM
Ok, so I tried to download and burn a wav hirez.
Downloaded the file and now what? :? Where does it go? Where do I put it?
Please explain to mean as if Im 4 years old :lol: cus' a 5 year old would know what to do :lol:
You need a software player than can handle hirez flac files. It will convert them to WAV before streaming to the hardware DAC.
You need a DAC than has USB input and can play hirez via USB.
If your hirez DAC doesn't have USB input, then get a HiFace USB/spdif adapter.
I guess you could burn the file onto a DVD and play it on a universal optical disc player than can handle DVD-A. I don't know what kind of software can create DVD-A, or whether a raw WAV file will play on any DVD player by default. I guess Sony Vegas or something could do it, but that is overkill since you are not editing.
Putting downloads onto physical media is a step backward. Just stream it to a modern DAC that can play flacs directly and can play hirez files via USB.
Quote from: rollo on August 29, 2012, 07:31:22 AM
Yes a dedicated transport will change the game. CEC being the most desireable.
The PS Audio is a good choice as well. If it were me I would demo the PS audio from Music Direct with the chance to send it back. You then can hear the difference between the inexpensive one you have and determine if the the more expensive transport is worth the extra investment.
When I use an inexpensive Sony as the transport it sounds very good. When i use the Plinius CDP as the transport all is improved. A big difference.
The other part of the game and very important is the digital cable used to connect to DAC. not all are equal. Huge differences can be had. Which one ? unfortunately one size does not fit all with digital cables.
One you have all figured out it is very affective to have your digital front end on a different circuit then the rest of the system. Most desireable is having separate circuits for Amps, CD and Preamp. If three is not a reality two should be minimum.
another area of concern is how the transport is supported. Meaning no vibration from below. Isolate the transport or CDP with whatever works for you. I'm a fan of Pon -Tunes on a Corian plinth with Mapleshade Isoblocks supporting the plinth. very very affective.
Your other option would be a single box player that outdoes your existing DAC. EAR ? Lector? AMR ?
My advise would be to scratch the transport idea and get a better single box solution. I recently heard an EAR Acute CDP and was quite impressed. Not inexpensive but you get what you pay for. BTW not a dealer of EAR.
Good info Charles: So I am using a Denon cdp with a Burson 160 DAC. The CDP appears to be pretty cheaply built. If i were to purchase a used CDP as a transport, who builds a CDP with a robust transport? I'd like to stay around $500 used.
charles