Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Transport vs. PC transport
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Transport vs. PC transport

post #1 of 4
7/7/08 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
Assuming that both cost about the same, and the PC is tuned for the best audio performance, then which would be better?
Reply
post #2 of 4
7/7/08 at 2:51pm
this has been discussed before-- a search through the Computer as Source or Source forum can pull up the discussion.

Executive summary--

There are some who believe up to a certain price point PCs have an advantage of sorts-- because all of your music is available at one time versus a CD transport. The premise is sound quality is the same from a *quiet* PC and a non-PC transport.

But some believe you need higher end USB-SPDIF or sound card transports to really get good sound (e.g., M-Audio Audiophile, Trends 10.x, Empirical Audio Freeway, RME Audio sound card).
Reply
post #3 of 4
7/7/08 at 3:41pm
If the DACs are equal, the PC should, theoretically, be superior, because there is no "transport." Data is fed from hard drive into RAM, with error correction running to ensure that what is in RAM is a bit-perfect match to what came off of the hard drive. Then the data is fed out of RAM to the DAC. No moving parts. No stability issues at all.

Of course the DACs are never "equal." Even if they use the same chip, the analogt output stage of the DAC or CDP probably has more effect on the sound than the DAC chip itself, and you may prefer the sound of a CDP.

Tim
Reply
post #4 of 4
7/8/08 at 12:21am
Not exactly a high-end setup do I have, but I can say that my Trends UD-10.1 USB transport connected through coax to my SuperPro DAC707 sounds superior in almost all areas (except, maybe, for bass extension) to my Rotel RCD-970bx CD player (now sold! ) used as a transport for the same DAC.

All I'm using is my laptop, too, for now. I'm planning on getting a dedicated, fanless Mini-ITX system in the future, which I'm expecting to sound even better.

Add on top of that the ease of not having to get out of my seat to change a CD, and I'm never going back to component sources again...
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › Transport vs. PC transport