[JohnnyCanuck]

Is it technically possible for any CD transport to sound 'better' than data from a bit-perfect copy of a CD fed into the same DAC- in my case a Yggy?

Absolutely!

JC

 

[kendavis]

[QUOTEA new CD transport is a fascinating idea and I could be tempted to get one.
However, I would really like to understand the technical arguments for using a CD transport, which would appear to present many mechanical challenges in order to extract data accurately from a disc, compared with playing a lossless file from a hard drive.
Is it technically possible for any CD transport to sound 'better' than data from a bit-perfect copy of a CD fed into the same DAC- in my case a Yggy?
.[/QUOTE]

For me, the technical argument is that I have thousands of CDs and I don't want to take the time to rip them.

 

[Les Strat]

[QUOTEA new CD transport is a fascinating idea and I could be tempted to get one.
However, I would really like to understand the technical arguments for using a CD transport, which would appear to present many mechanical challenges in order to extract data accurately from a disc, compared with playing a lossless file from a hard drive.
Is it technically possible for any CD transport to sound 'better' than data from a bit-perfect copy of a CD fed into the same DAC- in my case a Yggy?
.

For me, the technical argument is that I have thousands of CDs and I don't want to take the time to rip them.[/QUOTE]

Great reply!

 

[sam6550a]

Product candidate number 1 is a CD transport. It has been built as an alpha. It works and sounds fine - I feel content with respect to its performance. It should be a $300 to $500 product. The dependencies of a workable production product are our ability to source a transport assembly in the thousands of units, and our ability to design packing and ship production quantities of fragile items, which we have not yet done. I am convinced that CDs (many/most of which can yet be easily found at a dollar and under) will become popular and enjoy a resurgence of popularity once most realize that streaming is seldom, if ever, the best possible digital source.





A new CD transport is a fascinating idea and I could be tempted to get one.
However, I would really like to understand the technical arguments for using a CD transport, which would appear to present many mechanical challenges in order to extract data accurately from a disc, compared with playing a lossless file from a hard drive.
Is it technically possible for any CD transport to sound 'better' than data from a bit-perfect copy of a CD fed into the same DAC- in my case a Yggy?
.

Building a new CD transport will be constrained by what is available for the mechanical/optical transport, and whether or not the manufacturer will sell them to you at a reasonable price. Teac, Sony, and Philips are [I believe] the current drive producers. Designing and building a new mechanical transport is economically unfeasible, so a mechanism must be found and purchased. I believe that most drives today are of the tray variety. Mike has probably researched this, but I wanted you folks to know that this is not as simple as designing n amp or even a DAC.

 

[Ripper2860]

For me, the technical argument is that I have thousands of CDs and I don't want to take the time to rip them.

On the other hand, I have thousands of FLAC files and do not wish to burn them all to audio CDs.

 

[bobfa]

Product candidate number 1 is a CD transport. It has been built as an alpha. It works and sounds fine - I feel content with respect to its performance. It should be a $300 to $500 product. The dependencies of a workable production product are our ability to source a transport assembly in the thousands of units, and our ability to design packing and ship production quantities of fragile items, which we have not yet done. I am convinced that CDs (many/most of which can yet be easily found at a dollar and under) will become popular and enjoy a resurgence of popularity once most realize that streaming is seldom, if ever, the best possible digital source. The original Solti Ring cycle on CD (not the remaster) is by far and away the best sounding. (I know, Bosie, you hate the Solti Ring – the fact remains that is a sonic miracle and one of the two or three best recordings of the last century.) I maintain now is the time to acquire CDs before they suffer the price inflation of California coastal real estate or vinyl records.

I am very interested in what you might do with a transport. I am waiting on my first product from Schiit a Yggdrasil and I would love a "matching" transport. I think that the CD market is in a pretty great place to buy used right now. But as I have been purchasing used CD's and I am starting to see some price inflation.

 

[DoubleIPA]

Building a new CD transport will be constrained by what is available for the mechanical/optical transport, and whether or not the manufacturer will sell them to you at a reasonable price. Teac, Sony, and Philips are [I believe] the current drive producers. Designing and building a new mechanical transport is economically unfeasible, so a mechanism must be found and purchased. I believe that most drives today are of the tray variety. Mike has probably researched this, but I wanted you folks to know that this is not as simple as designing n amp or even a DAC.

Yesterday I was pooh-poohing top loaders and then after thinking about all the tray loaders I've had where the tray has stopped working I thought, perhaps, I should reconsider.

 

[rkw]

I believe that most drives today are of the tray variety.

I would think slot loading is the most common, because of car audio. I wonder whether a mechanism for car audio might actually offer some advantages, because of more rugged build.

 

[FLTWS]

I would think slot loading is the most common, because of car audio. I wonder whether a mechanism for car audio might actually offer some advantages, because of more rugged build.

I wonder if the mechanism for slot loading is more complex and expensive than a tray or the other way around. I would guess top load is the simplest of the 3 but then it's a question of how much room and at what angles does one deal with placing and removing the disk. Might sound like a silly question but with 9 trigger finger surgeries and the inevitable increasing arthritis after 7 decades it's the kind of thing us old guys might consider.

 

[liamo]

I was thinking some sort of tourbillon mechanism driving the platter with a clear window to view and still keep it under five bills.

 

[fianbarr]

Just my 2 cents. But let's assume ripping to a lossless file and playing the file is better than a cd transport. Could you not simply have the cd transport (or whatever it would then be called) rip lossless to an internal buffer and play that file from buffer to DAC?

 

[JamminVMI]

My collection is lowballed at around 6000 CDs, definitely more. So I started the process of digitizing them. Given my that the classical metadata out there is crap, I realized that I was spending a lot of time just to be able to listen to whatever CD I wanted to hear. What's more it would probably take a lifetime to digitize all those CDs.

And it's not just that the metadata is crap, it's "what system are you using to FIND your music" and "how do you tag it" in order to locate your music in a semi-logical manner. Classical is the albatross of my digital collection - I've gone through two methods of tagging, not sure yet if a third might be the charm. But at the moment, I'm running through squeezebox server, so my tags are different based on how that code can search/display my files.

I know, crying in my (Ellie's brown, CO) beer (naturally, with a cat in my lap and a glass of barolo in hand). Cheers!

 

[Mike Foley]

A few pages back Cambridge Audio was mentioned as an alternative to Oppo. Unfortunately the CA player is based on an Oppo platform, meaning it probably won’t be around for much longer.

 

[Ripper2860]

Just my 2 cents. But let's assume ripping to a lossless file and playing the file is better than a cd transport. Could you not simply have the cd transport (or whatever it would then be called) rip lossless to an internal buffer and play that file from buffer to DAC?

Sign me up. I'll take a $6,000 player's technology for $500 ...

https://www.psaudio.com/directstream-memory-player/

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Sign me up. I'll take a $6,000 player's technology for $500 ...

https://www.psaudio.com/directstream-memory-player/

My jaw dropped when I looked at that DEVICE. And the price... um... yeah. No.