Originally Posted by Jon L
Your "cd player" being Audio Research CD3 MkII in your sig? That was ARC's reference tubed CDP just a few years back at MSRP $5500. OMZ just the DAC costs like $450-500.
Let me introduce a different view. Personally, I don't consider price much of a factor. My last serious comparison was 50 times more expensive.
The OMZ, like most DACs, requires a transport with a very stable clock. It is my own belief that a "CD-only" transport is the wrong approach to a CD transport. While it may be a mechanical marvel, a 1x reader cannot possibly match the performance of a $10 DVD reader for a simple reason. The 1x reader relies on a "one shot" correct readout and superb mechanical stability to supply correct data and timing, while the much faster DVD reader can recover from severe read errors through multiple reads and its timing performance is totally decoupled from the mechanical transport. Data is sent to the DAC from a memory buffer at a speed governed by a (hopefully!) precision oscillator.
My own observations show that it is not easy to identify a good commercial transport. One of the best transports I've heard was a cheap DVD player, which I bought on sale for a laughable $19.99. I have compared many reputable units as transports and I keep being surprised by the results of these comparisons.
Bottom line for me is to never assume anything about transports just based on price or reputation. This is my own very subjective take on the matter.