Differences between cd transports?


Howdy,I borrowed a dedicated CD transport (Musical Fidelity) from a friend. I have found that music sounds much better with his transport than with the CD player I’ve been using to spin CDs. In both cases, I am using exactly the same DAC via the optical out connection from the transport and the CD player. So: is there any rational reason that, using the same digital to analog converter, one CD spinner should sound much better than another?Thanks!  
rebbi

Showing 20 responses by astelmaszek

@dobnbav Of course that a DAC can improve things coming out of a transport in one simple way: memory buffer can entirely eliminate jitter and correct few other aspects of the signal. It cannot make up for missing data, but generally that's not the problem. And whether coax or optical is better once again entirely depends on the DAC. I'm fairly positive that a $500 Chord Mojo is not going to sound any different with either transport due to its immunity to jitter and/or signal quality (squareness of the incoming wave).
@geoffkait Cables are directional. LOL. Settling time. I'm in the wrong business but of course I can't bring myself to that level of detachment from reality. 
@tweak1 What audio tweakers fail to understand that not a single of these things make a damn bit of a difference at audio frequencies. You have to start moving into microwave frequencies for any of this to have measurable effects and even then it doesn't affect anything. The entire world is running on cheap ethernet cable and even cheaper fiberoptic cable with bit perfect data making it across oceans.

As to directionality, more often than not, it has to do shielding only being connected on one end. I assure you not one cable used to wire the entire new Stratcom operations center was tested for directionality. How in the world would the cable manufactures have any idea which way the cable was originally pulled through a die considering it was spooled and respooled many times before it ever arrived at their "manufacturing" facility where they slap fancy outer jackets on them and call it hifi audio cable.
@tweak1 directionality resistance with AC current? I assume you rapidly flip your cables...

@tweak1 Clearly you missed my point. Being that current (AC) constantly flows in two directions in audio, even if such a thing as directionality existed, it would make no difference. 

I'm going to start selling the latest audio tweak. You can be the first to sign up, for only $500K I'll transplant you ears of a one year old rat terrier, so you can now hear the difference between 6inch cable and a 6.5inch cable as well as too much dust having collected on your tweeter. 

In the mean time I'll enjoy my system, all connected by Canare cable, a cable used on something like 99% of studio microphones. If it's good enough to record, it's good enough to play back.
@tweak1 And how do you think that "signal" gets transferred? Let me help you out: current. It never ceases to amaze me that the biggest proponents of all this voodoo have the least amount of understanding of basic principles of electronic design. Actually, it makes perfect sense.

@geoffkait I really hope the electrician in house didn't pull NM in the wrong direction.
@tweak1 Powered by, yes? Driven/controlled by, no? Power by DC, driven/controlled by AC in case of audio signal. Basic transistor theory.

Are you planning on ripping apart all your components, measuring resistance across each and everyone of them and switching them around if you find one with resistance higher in one direction. I'll save you some time: you won't find one like that just like you won't a piece of wire like that either. Basic physics prevents that from occurring, I don't care what you claim. 

And yes, it can all be rather easily measured with a laser pointed at each speaker driver. Just ask Devialet. I wonder why not a single cable manufacturer has ever done this to support their claims. I can tell you why. Cause they'd go bankrupt.

@geoffkait Clearly not. 
@geoffkait 

Take the case for two wires connected to a speaker, + and -. When the current travels toward the speaker on one wire it travels the opposite direction on the other wire. And vice versa.


You have no idea what you are talking about. How do you think the woofer moves back? Which way do the electrons "flow" then? Take a quick look at a audio wave. Ever noticed it has a negative side? It's called AC for a reason. Ever heard of balanced amplifiers: there is no ground.
@tweak1 

You can't have it both ways. The current either flows both ways without which cable capacitance wouldn't exist, another one of your major concerns. This is 7th grade physics for those of us that actually went to school.
The Blue Meanie is neither a damper nor a resonator so it's location on the wall, unlike dampers and resonators, is not critical whatsoever. A Blue Meanie can be placed anywhere on the wall; it can even be hidden behind a picture or bookcase. Four white 3/4" removeable paper stickers are provided to cover the blue dots if desired, making them less conspicuous. Codename Blue Meanies operates via mind matter-interaction. The subconscious mind interacts with room boundaries, i.e., closed-in spaces, producing a claustrophobic reaction that interferes with and degrades the listener's sensory perception. It's like putting in a better set of interconnects. Price $99 for set of 4 Blue Meanies.
Dude, you sell bags of rocks to attach to interconnect cables. I'm done here. For a while I thought I was just dealing with a few misinformed/undereducated individuals. Now I realize I'm dealing delusions.
I want to see that factory where they make Artificial Atoms. I suspect it's some sort of metal shop where they punch holes and Geoff buys their waste. Might even be from China.
@geoffkait 

Actually, sunshine, in case of a regular amp, there is a ground. Go grab a multimeter and test between "-" speaker terminal and the case. You'll get a reading close of zero. But what do I know, having only have designed, produced and coded hundreds of different devices. Anybody here can do this with their amp.

And why do you think I put flow in quotes. 

Now, there will be no case to "-" connection on for example Luxman M900 amp, as it is a fully differential amplifier.

Now, I looked you up, I finally realize why you spew this crap: you sell magic to believers.
The subconscious mind interacts with room boundaries, i.e., closed-in spaces, producing a claustrophobic reaction that interferes with and degrades the listener's sensory perception.

Now that's rich...Next time I make a donation to local orchestra I'll make sure they spend at least a portion on some Blue Meanie.
@tweak1 No, my head would not explode when visiting Synergistic Research. If they have more than $1K of instruments in that two garage spot "warehouse" of theirs. If a single cable company ever published a study, I'd buy into their BS. And please don't tell me you can't measure this. I own a laser doppler vibrometer good to 100kHz. I'm sure your ears are more accurate than that. But no matter how many times I've pointed it at a tweeter, no matter what cable, it always shows the same thing when fed same wave. Funny how not one cable company seems to own a device like that. I suspect most of them don't even own a decent multimeter.
@geoffkait Since not a single high end wire company I know has an electron microscope and since you freely admit they don't make their own wire, how would they know the directionality of the cable? Cable is spooled and respooled so many times before it arrives there. Each time this happens, the direction get reversed. I spent my Friday evening playing with cables. I tested Cardas, Kimber, Canare with a $1K Fluke AC ohm meter good to more zeros than would make any difference to a human ear. Zero difference in either direction. None. As in zero difference. Always shows same numbers, down to .5 digits.

Let me guess, the ancient cables weren't burnt in enough. 

Only way to figure out which way the cable was pulled via the dies would be an electron microscope. At one point in my life, I had an Elionix sitting in my basement, but I highly doubt a single cable company would be willing to compromise their marketing department by throwing a cool half a million just to figure out which way the spool was run.
@geoffkait Canare makes wire, that's what they sell. They are not a cable company.
I wish this forum would allow pictures. Cleaning up the basement collection this weekend. I have multiple spools of speaker cables, canard microphone cables, etc. I also own quite a bit of measuring equipment. I just tested a spool of Canare L4es6 cable. About 250ft left on the spool. Same resistance in both directions to 5 digits. Must be them crafty Japanese. Oh and Canare actually does make their own wire.
I'm going to make a video later on this week with a GOM-804 on a 250ft spool of canare l-4e6s and post it here. Why the GOM-804? So Geoff can't argue the meter wasn't accurate enough. Can't get my hands on it until Thursday morning.
It's not a matter of believing. There will be a video. Now, of course you don't care. You never let facts get in a way of a good story. But I assure you, the measurements will be the same, they have to be. I only have a nice $500 Fluke multimeter at home, so I know you'll claim it's not accurate enough. I'll save my energy until I can checkout the GOM out of the lab on Thursday. Ohm meters don't get much more accurate than that. 

I really don't care if you believe or not. I'm not trying to change your "mind" or whatever is left of it running a particle accelerator in your condo.