Just a side note: I unsoldered the line cord from my Pioneer Elite projection TV and soldered a female IEC connector right onto the circuit board at that location and added a good power cord. I could see the difference. If I had a component I wanted to keep that didn't have an IEC connector, I would add one. If you can't do that yourself, there might be a local audio/video repair shop that would do it. The female IEC connectors cost less than $5.
My experience with using a DVD as a transport
Last week, I had some free time on my hands, so I decided to unplug my CAL Delta and use my Technics DVDA10 dvd and dvda player as the transport. The transport goes to a Merdian 518 digital preamp, and that connecs to an Alpha. My amp is an Aragon 8002, speakers are KEF 103/4, and all cables are audiotruth.
My initial impressions were:
The DVDA10 sounds decent. The sound is very open, a bit more than the Delta, and the details are a bit more apparent, but they are also tremendously edgy at the same time. But I blame this on the DVDA10's lack of iec powerchord input, so I can't use the LAT International powerchord I have installed on my Delta.
The DVDA10 also has a 'remastering' function that upsamples the regular 16khz cds to above 96khz. Stereophile did a 7 page write up on it. I read it long ago and don't want to read it again, so my info can be off. Anyways, I engaged the remaster on the dvd player, and the sound greatly improved. The soundstage opened up even more, but its the gain of airy presence around the instruments and vocals that most impressed me. HOWEVER, the sound is VERRRRRY fatigueing. I wouldn't say the sound is bright, but my ears started to hurt after 10 minutes. My best subjective description is that the sound is very "technical".
After plugging my Delta back, guess what?, the "technical"ness is still there. I got very frustrated. My once dreamy sounding system sounds like cold metal that could not be warmed up. This lasted for about 3 days before my sytem gradually regained its palpability. I was going to murder someone.
I can't explain what went wrong. Maybe it is not a good idea to use a front end that would produce frequencies higher than what the rest of the system is designed to handle. Or maybe it is not a good idea to use a front end that isn't using a good power chord.
I also want to add, I used the DVDA sampler disc that came with the Technics, and they sounded very smooth, clear details, and extended soundstage, but they have absolutely no soul.
My initial impressions were:
The DVDA10 sounds decent. The sound is very open, a bit more than the Delta, and the details are a bit more apparent, but they are also tremendously edgy at the same time. But I blame this on the DVDA10's lack of iec powerchord input, so I can't use the LAT International powerchord I have installed on my Delta.
The DVDA10 also has a 'remastering' function that upsamples the regular 16khz cds to above 96khz. Stereophile did a 7 page write up on it. I read it long ago and don't want to read it again, so my info can be off. Anyways, I engaged the remaster on the dvd player, and the sound greatly improved. The soundstage opened up even more, but its the gain of airy presence around the instruments and vocals that most impressed me. HOWEVER, the sound is VERRRRRY fatigueing. I wouldn't say the sound is bright, but my ears started to hurt after 10 minutes. My best subjective description is that the sound is very "technical".
After plugging my Delta back, guess what?, the "technical"ness is still there. I got very frustrated. My once dreamy sounding system sounds like cold metal that could not be warmed up. This lasted for about 3 days before my sytem gradually regained its palpability. I was going to murder someone.
I can't explain what went wrong. Maybe it is not a good idea to use a front end that would produce frequencies higher than what the rest of the system is designed to handle. Or maybe it is not a good idea to use a front end that isn't using a good power chord.
I also want to add, I used the DVDA sampler disc that came with the Technics, and they sounded very smooth, clear details, and extended soundstage, but they have absolutely no soul.