[taylor]

If you are using a seperate DAC, would it matter which CDP you use?

My thinking is that by using the digital out, the CDP is functioning just as a CD transport and any $100 CDP will work just as good as a $1000 one, because the DAC is what makes the sound quality. Is this correct?

 

[lan]

It depends how sensitive the DAC is to the transports jitter. Better DACs will reclock.

The better CD transports will have lower jitter. Lower jitter general gives clearer sound.

 

[taylor]

How do you find the jitter of a CDP or CDT?

 

[lan]

Nobody publishes values so you dont' really know. :/ You could use some equipment to measure but I don't know the specifics of that.

 

[jefemeister]

Quote:

Originally posted by taylor If you are using a seperate DAC, would it matter which CDP you use? My thinking is that by using the digital out, the CDP is functioning just as a CD transport and any $100 CDP will work just as good as a $1000 one, because the DAC is what makes the sound quality. Is this correct?

I agree. I just went through a similar discussion with another member. They asked if they should use an outboard DAC with a Wadia 830 CD player. my point was that if you wanted to do that you should just buy the cheapie Pioneer that Wadia rips the transport mechanism out of. On the other hand, more expensive transports have a lot more going on and similar quality DACs really benefit from them.

 

[taylor]

I was wondering because I have a Samsung DVD player with digital output. Instead of spending a lot of money on a nice Creek or Rotel or whatnot CDP, I thought it would be a good idea to get a DAC, which would also allow good upgradibility to a transport-only CD deck, a CD changer, SCSI CD-ROM, what have you.
At the meet I saw Hirsch using a seperate DAC with his Creek CDP, which gave me the idea that even the nice CDPs don't have as good DACs as can be had separatly.

 

[jefemeister]

a lot of the cost in a CD player is in the transport. Not only that but there is a lot of control software assocaited with it too which is expensive. In other words a DAC that costs x dollars is vastly superior to the DAC inside a CD player of the same x dollars. Hirsch probably had the creek laying around and decided to upgrade with a noutboard DAC. I wouldn't think he would buy the Creek just for the transport. It is an excellent idea to buy an external DAC for your DVD player. If your DVD player can ouput 96kHz make sure you get a DAC that is capable of that rate as well.

 

[taylor]

What I really like about the external DAC route is that I can use it with anything that has a digital output.

This is my DVDP.

I can't tell if it has a 96KHz, can you?

I would think it does because it is fairly new and has a good deal of other feautures.

 

[sbulack]

Allow me to clarify what Hirsch was doing at the Philly meet. He was sending the analog out of the Creek to his HE60, and also taking the digital out of the Creek, DAC'ing it and sending that to his PPX3. So, the Creek-DAC'd analog was going to his really high end system, and the externally DAC'd analog to his wonderfully musical and involving, but more modest (certainly in price), PPX3.

The IC's that carried the analog out from the Creek to the HE60 were the most amazing-looking cables I've ever seen. Their sheen made them look like a wizard's concoction from Middle Earth in LOTR. Based on the sound coming from the HE60, I'd say that they probably were.

It is SOOOO MUCH FUN getting to see and hear equipment that, short of a lottery win, you would NEVER otherwise get to experience.

 

[taylor]

Thanks for the clarification.

I agree, those ICs were crazy! They looked like those big snakes you see in the zoo, except they had RCA connectors instead of mouths.

 

[Ctn]

If your dac reclocks then the transport doesnt matter.

 

[strohmie]

There is obviously a lot of debate as to how much a transport has to do with the sound quality of the music. Remember that there is circuitry attached to the transport - it's not as if the digital data just magically is pulled off the disk the same way for every player.

Most recent players all use a specific Philips transport (iirc, the Philips CDM12), so obviously with most CD players the difference is mainly in the DAC itself. But the power supplies, cabinets, etc are different for each player and have an effect on the output in different ways (jitter, etc.).

All that being said though, if you're using an external DAC you're better off looking for a cheaper transport because a lot of the cost of higher end players is based with the DAC itself (the best of which use high quality Burr-Brown chips and the like). Oftentimes players of various cost generally all use the CDM12.

 

[jefemeister]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ctn If your dac reclocks then the transport doesnt matter.

It's not quite that simple. The data has to read off corectly and be glitch free too. But in general, I agree DACs are *way* more important than transports in the playback chain.

 

[Ctn]

Quote:

Originally posted by jefemeister It's not quite that simple. The data has to read off corectly and be glitch free too. But in general, I agree DACs are *way* more important than transports in the playback chain.

Some high end cdp's uses a PC cdrom drive as transport. As long as the bits are read correctly off...then there's no problem.

 

[kuma]

Sorry for the thread hi-jack, but is Wadia still using TEAC VRDS transports on 861 and Pioneer transport for lower end models?