[bridge8989]

Im not exactly sure what the purpose of a transport is.  From what ive read it seems like it takes a digital signal and reduces the jitter and outputs out a cleaner digital signal?  My main system is in my sig and was wondering whether something like the musiland montor 02 or m2tech hiface would be worth the upgrade. my flac rips are all 44.1Hz 16bit
 
Or should i save $ for a m^3 build+akg701? haha ive spent like $800 since joining the forums already.

 

[khaos974]

A transport is the device that will output to digital signal, in you case it's your computer ie. the combination of Foobar + Realtek.
In theory, once you get to bit-perfect, you can't get a "purer" signal, also, whatever jitter you find at the Realtek outout should be cleaned up in the DAC.
Every well designed DAC has a jitter rejection system, PLL usually, Crystallock for Benchmark, etc. Any jitter before that would be unimportant.
Some will tell you that getting an unjittered signal at the DAC's input is important, others will follow the theory, it's up to you.
 
Personally, I think your SQ will benefit a lot more from the M^3 than from changing your transport.

 

[bridge8989]

thanks for the response! yea im pretty happy with my current setup right now.  Ill just save up for the m^3 build

 

[plonter]

I have a question regarding using the computer as a transport.  I am currently using a cd player as a transport to my dac and i am very happy with it.  I thought about starting to use my desktop computer as a transport but this rather noisy enviorement is making me a little paranoid about this.  are those of you using a noisy desktop computers as transport can say if the noises can be transmitted thourgh the usb ?  did anybody ever experienced noises of some kind with this kind of setup?  should it be a reason for concern?

 

[khaos974]

It should not be a issue, at least I haven't had any problems with my Foobar + Wasapi setup, but if you really fear electronic noise, simply use an optical out.
It's guaranteed to insulate your DAC from any thing from the computer that might affect it.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

It should not be a issue, at least I haven't had any problems with my Foobar + Wasapi setup, but if you really fear electronic noise, simply use an optical out.
It's guaranteed to insulate your DAC from any thing from the computer that might affect it.

thanks.  I don't think i have an optical connection in my computer,and even if i do have one..i really don't count on my onboard optical out.  but i don't have one anyway... so usb is my best option,or getting another built in soundcard with an optical out.
 

 

[Fidelity Castro]

Quote:

Im not exactly sure what the purpose of a transport is.  From what ive read it seems like it takes a digital signal and reduces the jitter and outputs out a cleaner digital signal?  My main system is in my sig and was wondering whether something like the musiland montor 02 or m2tech hiface would be worth the upgrade. my flac rips are all 44.1Hz 16bit
 
Or should i save $ for a m^3 build+akg701? haha ive spent like $800 since joining the forums already.

The Transport ( and a dac ) can´t clean anything wich is introduced by the recording, if the recording is jittered that this will remain. The same happens to clock jitter when your onboard pll derives it´s clock signal from the computer > use a soundcard or device with it´s own masterclock like juli@, hiface etc.
 
 
 

 

[ROBSCIX]

There are many higher quality S/Pdif sources that people prefer over normal "plain" S/pdif output devices such as found on soundcards..etc.  Units such as the HiFace and Teralink X2..etc are very popular around here for sending high quality low jitter signals to external gear.

 

[plonter]

Quote:

There are many higher quality S/Pdif sources that people prefer over normal "plain" S/pdif output devices such as found on soundcards..etc.  Units such as the HiFace and Teralink X2..etc are very popular around here for sending high quality low jitter signals to external gear.

hiface..teralink..  what are those?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

hiface..teralink..  what are those?

Basically, USB to S/Pdif converters.  Some like them some frown on them...same as anything in audio.
 

 

[plonter]

Quote:

Basically, USB to S/Pdif converters.  Some like them some frown on them...same as anything in audio.
 

Ah..thanks.  i thought those are some kind of media transporters or something..

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Transport seems to have a couple of meanings, but I think the thing you're getting at is a digital transport that converts one kind of digital signal to another. I have one, for example, that takes USB and puts out optical, coax and AES/EBU. It re-clocks as well, though the usefulness of that is dubious. Most engineers seem to believe that most modern DACs reduce jitter (clocking errors) to below audible levels. Some audiophiles and high-end designers believe otherwise. And some just further reduce jitter that is already below audible levels because they can. 
 
p

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

I have a question regarding using the computer as a transport.  I am currently using a cd player as a transport to my dac and i am very happy with it.  I thought about starting to use my desktop computer as a transport but this rather noisy enviorement is making me a little paranoid about this.  are those of you using a noisy desktop computers as transport can say if the noises can be transmitted thourgh the usb ?  did anybody ever experienced noises of some kind with this kind of setup?  should it be a reason for concern?

I have had no noise issues with USB to either of my two DACs from various laptops. I think that some of the 'noise' issues are ground loops as there is an electrical connection between two items, which if they are not earthed in the same way, you can get noise. This can be solved by a ground loop isolator that goes between DAC or source and amp and can be found easily on ebay or Amazon.
 
I was getting some extra background hiss when I switched from a Dell to Sony laptop as PCs are notorious for putting noise back into the mains. I bought a Tacima mains conditioner and that cured the problem (which was not very noticeable anyway).

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Quote:

Transport seems to have a couple of meanings, but I think the thing you're getting at is a digital transport that converts one kind of digital signal to another. I have one, for example, that takes USB and puts out optical, coax and AES/EBU. It re-clocks as well, though the usefulness of that is dubious. Most engineers seem to believe that most modern DACs reduce jitter (clocking errors) to below audible levels. Some audiophiles and high-end designers believe otherwise. And some just further reduce jitter that is already below audible levels because they can. 
 
p

The idea of transport came about when some companies made two box CDPs where the transport spun the CD and the other box was the DAC. Separate DACs had appeared as a means of upgrading the DAC in CDPs, making those CDPs transports.
 
As PCs came into use in audio, they in effect became like CDPs. You can either use them with their own DACs, or soundcards as they are called, or as a transport outputting a digital signal to a separate DAC.
 
The transport 'makes' the digital signal from a CD or music file and then sends it to a DAC to do the conversion to analogue.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

The idea of transport came about when some companies made two box CDPs where the transport spun the CD and the other box was the DAC. Separate DACs had appeared as a means of upgrading the DAC in CDPs, making those CDPs transports.
 
As PCs came into use in audio, they in effect became like CDPs. You can either use them with their own DACs, or soundcards as they are called, or as a transport outputting a digital signal to a separate DAC.
 
The transport 'makes' the digital signal from a CD or music file and then sends it to a DAC to do the conversion to analogue.

Ah you beat me to it.  When I see a CD player with just a S/Pdif output and no DAC, I usually term that as just a transport.  As the device allows control of the CD, such as play, stop,fast forward which are also called transport controls! 
So as you say many people that have a PC with a S/pdif output can term this a "transport" as you have control over the media and a S/Pdif output.  Some also call PC with add in S/Pdif outputs like the HiFace as transports..etc
As digital audio evolved to include the PC the term evolved to some to encompass a few different meaning.