[dudlew]

I was just wondering,what makes a pcdp with an optical out a bad transport?

To me, it should be a good (affordable) one. I thought that stability was a big issue with transports.
A pcdp without antskip of some sort is still less prone to bumps than alot of home cd players which to me shows stability in the transport.

Is the problem the laser assembly or the motor? what makes them bad transports.

I am sure that I read somewhere on these forums that a pcdp even as a transport cannot compare to using a cheap ($150 -$200) cd player.

THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME!!

Someone please explain

( I'm a newbie...... I need the knowledge )

 

[Luvya]

What's pcdp? I am the newest newbie @_@

 

[elnero]

pcdp=portable CD player

 

[Squalish]

I've heard that PCDPs generally have output componentry(ooh, a new word). The issue is not that it is a bad transport, it is that getting a clean signal out of it is difficult. Most PCDPs don't have 'true' line outs, they just go through the opamp/headphone out circuitry at a static volume. The output circuitry usually costs the company <$1. Even if you were to get a true line out(uncommon, but they exist) you have an analog signal, based off a cheap, crappy DAC. I don't think that you can get PCDPs with digital outs(that would defeat the purpose of it being portable, wouldn't it?). In addition(This is just me talking out my ass, though, so don't trust this), generally IDE CDROMs are better transports because of the fault tolerences that they need. If you have an uncorrectable error on a CD, you miss a second or two of detail, if you have an uncorrectable error on a CDROM you probably will corrupt whatever data that that section of the CD is a part of, possibly rendering the whole CD useless. This is what the music companies base their noise-added encryption*cough* technology on. Its not actually encryption, its just small errors(scratches, if you will) added to the disk to prevent any CDROM drive from using it.

 

[dudlew]

Squalish,

There are pcdps with optical outs, and I hope to own one soon. So we're not talking about the analog line out but a digital out that bypasses the internal DAC to allow use of an external DAC or for digital recording ( I think the intended purpose of a digital out on a pcdp is to record to MD).

So what I want to know is about the transport itself....... what makes the lens assembly and motor and other parts of the transport of a pcdp worse than a cheap home cd player??

 

[HD-5000]

dudlew,

The transports used in PCDP's are much more prone to vibration than a component or "home" type CD player. See all that plastic used making up for the majority of most newer CD players? The antiskip (that also degrades audio quality) which compensates for the skipping is not a vibration control mechanism. Also, the circuitry of a PCDP is an inferior design with fewer and usually, cheaper parts. In short, the PCDP is designed for portability in mind and not sound quality.

 

[andrzejpw]

I think one of the reasons pcdp aren't good transports is because of their high jitter output. I may be wrong though. . .

 

[Pepzhez]

Agree with the quality issues, but is jitter really a problem here? I don't know - I'm also asking the question.

Remember the Optimus PCDP (I forget the model number) that so excited audiophiles all those years ago? Wasn't it because the mechanism supposedly reduced jitter? Or am I wrong about that?

Anyone know?

 

[dudlew]

I dont know much about jitter. If you can, in layman's terms give a brief explanation?

But what about this vibration thing? Even without antishock, arent pcdps less prone to vibration? Or is it the internal parts that vibrate more than they should?

Even with my small B&W speakers, if I turn them up to the point just before I start to hear distortion, they cause ( rarely but still cause) skipping to my sony cdp and these are not very heavy bass speakers!! Does that mean that the transport on my cdp is really bad? Is it a lack of stability in the transport ar is that a regular thing?

Granted, the same thing happens to my portable now after it has seen a couple world wars (dropping of shelves, being tossed around like a judo student, sat upon, dropped umptine times, left in hot cars, got wet a few times, and it still works. Its 5 years old and has just started to make some funny noises, but still works).

New, this player was harder to skip than my current sony changer without anti shock!!