GOOD LORD ALMIGHTY!
It's been some time now that i am on head-fi, and every single parts of my setup have been rolled to get my sound. All parts except my transport. Indeed since i read one time that transport doesn't matters when you connect it to an external DAC, i tought that every transport was the same. WHAT A BIG MISTAKE! So, i have tried different amp, headphones and all and my setup always sounded too bright and lean on bass. What was my surprse when i connected my Toshiba DVD player to my DAC! THE BASS!!! It hit hard and go so low i couldn't believe my ears. I was about to sell my VDA-1 + VAC-1 and my PPAv2 and Rudi RP5.1 to build an Opus and B22 to help my rig sound better, but now i know wich will be my next investment, a good CD player!!!

Luidge

Yeah man ;p Definitely matters.

source matters.

for example, the D-03 would not be the same without the P-03.

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I think that you will be interested on reading here. Maybe was the recording, but anyway food for thought...

Yes i just saw this thread...i find it difficult to believe, maybe the fact that parts aren't burned in properly or maybe the lack of boutique parts, who know. I hope that other B22 owners will say otherwise.

Yeah, it does. I think that Toshiba's a great transport and the older Theta laserdisc players even better but much more expensive.

Toshiba DVD player a great transport? What were you using as a transport before?

If you are using it as a transport only, then I fail to agree with anyone who say that CD player matters. Once you hook up a scope to a player and look at the eye pattern, you would get an idea of what I mean. A clean eye pattern gives a super accurate sound. A fuzzy eye pattern gives a fuzzy sound. Then there are also other test points to consider on a player. I connect all my players up to my scope from time to time in order to see how clean the eye pattern is, and then I see what I can do about it if things don't look good. Mind you, I am a highly trained CD repair engineer with qualifications that fill a wall. So don't copy me if you aren't trained in the art of tweaking the internals!
The newer machines use all sorts of tricks to hide or compensate for fuzzy signals. Older players from the 80's and 90's are however in the main full of adjustments to set a player up spot on. That excludes the Philips and Marantz units however, plus anything else that used the Philips mechanisms. Philips was way ahead, and I am still looking for anothet CD960 Philips. I even saved up a spare optical unit just in case..

Yes, the source matters.
...and even the transport matters when you use it to feed an external DAC.

I've noticed transport changes myself... When I first got my Eastsound CD player, I didn't have an amp and was forced to use it with a portable dac/amp that i had at the time. Comparing my Eastsound to my Sony DVD player and my Archos MP3 player [digital out, WAV files], the Eastsound was clearly ahead of the others. Quite an eye opener.

The only time I've ever been able to identify a difference between digital transports (feeding into the same DAC) is when one of them has a built in resampler. This is the case with some DVD players and Creative sound cards, which resample everything to 48Khz.

Maybe, but I advise putting most of your CD gear budget into the DAC. I happen to use a Toshiba DVD player for CD's, as it not longer plays DVD's. With the DAC I just got, the sound is glorious. I intend to regard transports as I do printer cartridges - use them until dead, and replace with anything cheap as long as it has a digital out.

Laz

Well i don't agree with you Lazarus! I know upgrade my transport to a Cambridge CD6 and the toshiba was let behind in the dust! Such a glorious sound with his digital out i'm crazy about it. I now use a Lavry DA10 too, but i couldn't try it with my amp yet (need to wait for the adapters) but from the headphones out of the DA10 the music is rich and soooooo detailed. So yes i also think that the DAC part is important but dont neglect the transport my friend

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Yes they matter.. I purchased a CE 595 to replace my Toshiba HD DVD player which was also my CD player.. With the CE 595 I noticed the highs are a bit extended.. Mid range more refined, bass is more snappy, & intricate details in complex passages are much easier to hear.. But as a whole the majority of improvements are subtle.. At least enough to question my purchase.. But better sonically? Yes.. I just wish I could afford a better CDP..

I agree transports do matter. My Toshiba DVD player (SD-3980)'s digital out is muddier than both the M-Audio FW Audiophile digital out and USB out to my external DAC. And it's not a "I can only hear it on a good day" difference either.