What is wrong with Cary as transport?

[Patrick82]

It buffers the data from a DVD drive before sending it through the digital outputs. Isn't that good enough? Why doesn't everyone use it? What does it do wrong?

Is it because the disc doesn't rotate smooth and the current draw from the power supply isn't consistent?



Here's my 303/300:

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 Why doesn't everyone use it?

Maybe because they don't have $4000 to spend on a CD player!?

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis Maybe because they don't have $4000 to spend on a CD player!?

I mean why do people spend $10 000+ for a transport if something cheaper is good enough? Is it because they want the transport to be slaved to the DAC?
Benchmark DAC1 doesn't have slaving capability, so is a buffered transport the best match for it?


Edit: Ever since I connected them together there was instant synergy, warmth + speed, no problems. How can it get better?

All Cary CD players should have the buffering, so it's very cheap to buy an old model.

 

[BrianS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 I mean why do people spend $10 000+ for a transport if something cheaper is good enough? Is it because they want the transport to be slaved to the DAC? Benchmark DAC1 doesn't have slaving capability, so is a buffered transport the best match?

they dont have money, they dont think they will hear difference, they dont value sound quality that highly, they want something else, they want a transport only, the list goes on

 

[Garbz]

Ummm buffering means squat. It really only eliminated jitter caused during read errors, and ECC. There's still grounding induced jitter, jitter caused by the buffer itself, oh and the clock. It's a DVD player. I can only see one clock and chances are it's not an audio clock! On top of that there's a giant FPGA chip under that heatsink, that adds jitter too

.

It may be a good transport, and work well in your system, but it is very far from perfect.

 

[shplorgh]

Have you ever even tried another transport? (or any dac other than the dac1 and cary for that matter?) The claims you make about the dac1 beign better than every other dac based on just one comparison is ridiculous.

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 I mean why do people spend $10 000+ for a transport if something cheaper is good enough?

Valhalla anyone?

I echo hungych's statement, have you even tried a dedicated transport like a Theta before? A better DAC? I find it hard to believe that something like a Theta Gen VIII could be bested by the DAC1. Sure it's the Theta is an $8k DAC but if you can afford $25K on cables, what's an extra eight thousand.

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hungrych Have you ever even tried another transport? (or any dac other than the dac1 and cary for that matter?) The claims you make about the dac1 beign better than every other dac based on just one comparison is ridiculous.

At least I have one reviewer who agrees with me now: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue27/benchmark.htm
He used a cheap "treatment" for it and it's almost as good as a $20 000 source with the same treatments. Imagine what better treatments do. I have tried it, and it works, the improvements just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Cables, power and vibration are all that matter. There are people who think you get better sound the more you pay, but what you pay for is coloration that may sound little "better". The cheaper gear are the closest to neutrality and also show the biggest differences when tweaking the system. The colored Burr Brown DACs showed very small differences between cables. But the Benchmark DAC1 showed HUGE differences. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which one is better...

Someone says $2000 budget source is almost as good as $13 500 EMM Labs DCC2 SE (Burr Brown). The truth is coming, people are getting more open-minded... More expensive is NOT more neutral. How neutral sounds like is not warm or heavy, which is how most gear sound when you plug it in. Neutral sounds thin, bright, cold, harsh, fatiguing, lifeless and annoying until the problems have been solved, that's right, cables, power and vibration!
So after the problems are solved the more expensive gear will sound worse just because of the added colorations! They give way too much smoothness, warmth, heaviness and muddiness that is unrealistic. I had to downgrade my gear and lost thousands of dollars! But the improvements were HUGE! Taking the step back was a bigger step than upgrading from the "unsolved" cheaper component into the more expensive component in the first place.

If you want to save some money, get Benchmark DAC1 and $30 000 worth of cables instead of cheap cables and a million dollar source. It will also sound better!

 

[skyline889]

I'm sorry but I'm roflmao right now. Has anyone else read through that review yet? One of the best pieces of writing I've seen in a while. Has that reviewer tried the "Brilliant Pebbles" yet?

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz Ummm buffering means squat. It really only eliminated jitter caused during read errors, and ECC. There's still grounding induced jitter, jitter caused by the buffer itself, oh and the clock. It's a DVD player. I can only see one clock and chances are it's not an audio clock! On top of that there's a giant FPGA chip under that heatsink, that adds jitter too . It may be a good transport, and work well in your system, but it is very far from perfect.

What do you think of computer as transport with EMU0404 soundcard?

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 Taking the step back was a bigger step than upgrading from the "unsolved" cheaper component into the more expensive component in the first place.

That's the problem because people don't want to try something cheaper for fear of destroying their pride. They want to own something expensive and brag about it, it's an ego thing. They want to own a certain coloration few people can buy:

Ego man: "Oooh check out my $50k source, it has so much coloration you can't hear what vocalists are singing! Sounds great huh?".
Truth boy: "But..."
Ego man: "No buts, it can't get better than this, you see the price tag?"
Truth boy: "I hear more detail with my $1k DAC."
Ego man: "Hahahha, $1k DAC! Hahaha, get a real source and then it sounds better!"
Truth boy: "But it already sounds good."
Ego man: "No it doesn't noob! Impossible, see the price of your DAC? Now look at mine, $50k, see this? This is how it's supposed to sound like. You hear the warmth?"
Truth boy: "But I have fixed it with $30k cables."
Ego man: "Lipstick on a pig! You are insane and should be committed!"

 

[jbloudg20]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 "Lipstick on a pig! You are insane and should be committed!"

Hey you said it

 

[mysticaldodo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 Someone says $2000 budget source is almost as good as $13 500 EMM Labs DCC2 SE (Burr Brown). The truth is coming, people are getting more open-minded... More expensive is NOT more neutral. How neutral sounds like is not warm or heavy, which is how most gear sound when you plug it in. Neutral sounds thin, bright, cold, harsh, fatiguing, lifeless and annoying until the problems have been solved, that's right, cables, power and vibration! So after the problems are solved the more expensive gear will sound worse just because of the added colorations! They give way too much smoothness, warmth, heaviness and muddiness that is unrealistic. I had to downgrade my gear and lost thousands of dollars! But the improvements were HUGE! Taking the step back was a bigger step than upgrading from the "unsolved" cheaper component into the more expensive component in the first place.

Never had this problem before. It could be the material you used to test it with is harsh and thin (I remember reading that you listen to trance only or somthing). You should be able to differentiate between recordings, not make them sound all the same, thats the ground for neutrality for me

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mysticaldodo Never had this problem before. It could be the material you used to test it with is harsh and thin (I remember reading that you listen to trance only or somthing). You should be able to differentiate between recordings, not make them sound all the same, thats the ground for neutrality for me

When I used HD590 and Audigy2 it didn't sound thin, it sounded too heavy! But K1000 does sound thin, why? Because it doesn't add colorations, it shows all the problems in the system.
The recordings aren't the problem, which is what most audiophiles usually complain about. My worst albums sounded better than my best albums after some upgrades.


EDIT: After I bought the K1000 all my albums were completely unlistenable to, I searched my collection and only found a couple albums I could listen to. I was using Benchmark DAC1 and solid-state amp. Everyone recommended tube amp to hide the problem.

A year later of tweaking the problem was gone (same amp), all my albums were listenable to from beginning to end, there was only a slight hint of sibilance but it didn't bother me because it almost sounded perfect. And after I got the Valhalla digital cable, there was no hint of sibilance anywhere in ANY album, it sounded too warm! So I started modding my cables and it just gave more detail and no sibilance. I focus on finding sibilance but can't find it! It's completely gone!
Cables, power and vibration!

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 What do you think of computer as transport with EMU0404 soundcard?

personally, i like it.