I have struggled with this same question. I won't muddy things up by mentioning any specific brands of equipment but here is my take. I like the concept of a good quality CD transport because of the level of control you have over the process. First, you have the ability to select different issues of the same recording. I usually reference the Steve Hoffman forums for feedback on the best source material. I then search for those recordings and try to find new unopened CD's if possible. Then you can control the DAC. Using a transport allows you to switch out various DACs to tailor the sound to your liking. With streaming audio, you have no control over the source material. I think streaming audio is very good but I consider it a secondary source for those recordings I really don't care to own. I also use a DVD player for audio but since the unit costs far less than my CD transport I consider this a good source for music with video but certainly not my reference player. This is my subjective look at it, right or wrong.
Is a CD Transport the Best Digital Source?
So I’ve gone back and forth between CD players/transports, Blu-Ray/DVD players, computers, phones, and more for my digital source, but I always seem to end up going back to CD for the best sound I can get out of my system. I find that I enjoy mixing it up and enjoy the sound of each source, but when it comes down to what is the absolute best in my system, I just keep going back to a CD player or CD transport.
For awhile I though my laptop streaming digital to a DAC was my best source until I went back to a CD transport and realized that everything was “crisper,” especially the bass. The bass and midbass seem like they are more in unison, hit harder and hit quicker (less mush).
Does anyone find this to be the case and why is this? Is it just an economics problem, e.g. dollar for dollar a dedicated CD player has more of its costs sunk into music playing compared to a computer which is also built for running an OS, playing video, etc.?
Bonus question: Why does bass get better with better gear? It seems to me that bass would be the easiest to reproduce for a DAC. It’s this big, slow wave that is massively oversampled for what is needed. I would think any improvements would be up in the treble where you are near the Nyquist frequency and have to deal with phase-effects of low pass filters, etc.
For awhile I though my laptop streaming digital to a DAC was my best source until I went back to a CD transport and realized that everything was “crisper,” especially the bass. The bass and midbass seem like they are more in unison, hit harder and hit quicker (less mush).
Does anyone find this to be the case and why is this? Is it just an economics problem, e.g. dollar for dollar a dedicated CD player has more of its costs sunk into music playing compared to a computer which is also built for running an OS, playing video, etc.?
Bonus question: Why does bass get better with better gear? It seems to me that bass would be the easiest to reproduce for a DAC. It’s this big, slow wave that is massively oversampled for what is needed. I would think any improvements would be up in the treble where you are near the Nyquist frequency and have to deal with phase-effects of low pass filters, etc.