To Dac or not to Dac

To change the thread very slightly, is there an argument to going separate DAC and transport, because of the transport. There was an interesting letter in this months HiFi World(sensble and DIY based UK mag), bemoaning the declining quality of transports. The gist was that many expensive players(mentioned Meridian), use cheap CD Rom transports and compensate with quality reclocking and jitter circuits. The demise of many sources of transports has forced this on small, high end manufacturers. The discussion talked glowingly of older, high quality transports from TEAC in particular. It mentioned in passing than Teac still support all their old units, some newer units can't be repaired after 2 or 3 years. This route would only work for Red Book of course.
The argument is then, to use a quality, heavy duty transport from the 80's, early 90s, with one of the many, modern, quality DACs. The best of both worlds, any comments?

I agree the Arcam is a terrific player! I've spent a lot of time with one myself. I also agree you'll get a different sound with the DAC. Whether you like it will depend on your taste. I've put my $350 Audio Sector DAC up against the Arcam DV27. The owner and I both prefered the DAC over the player. We used the Arcam as a transport. The Dac was more fluid and natural than the players analog outputs IMHO. Also there was just more definition and focus between acoustic instruments. So cost isn't an issue..it is the design of the product. FWIW.. the commercial version of the DAC does retail around $1200.

Good Luck

That Arcam is a pretty damn good sounding unit. You may find that it will take a pretty expensive DAC to get meaningfull improvement. Then of couse you'll need a cable. Then you might have issues with jitter and might decide uou need another device to deal with that. In the end you might discover that you have a different sound, but, not necessarilly a better one. Then there's the coming Hi Def video thing to consider. Lastly, digital gear doesn't seem to hold its value as well as other gear.

Bigkids
Do you have any experience with any particular SS DAC that you think might enhance my system?

Using a good digital cable is very important. Most of the DACs that I tired in my system made a difference over the stock players. There are many different DACs and they all have a sound. You need to pick one that you like in your system. There are plenty used on Audiogon that you can buy and resell for about what you pay for. Tube vs solid state is your first decision and then the amount you want to spend to get better sound.

Happy Listening.

Ed

because I use 2 channel only in my video system to listen mostly to concert dvds, I run my DVD player into a Timbre TT1 dac...the audible difference is not subtle....I am also using good quality main speakers...

You appear to have a system with enough resolution to apprecitate a DAC. In most cases adding a DAC will be an upgrade, but of course you'll have to audition carefully between your CD player and DAC/CD player. You will also need to purchase a high quality digital cable or your purchase will be in vain. I've heard good things about the Musical Fidelity stuff, but haven't auditioned it myself. There are many DACS to choose from on the used market. I'd look at Levinson,Theta, Cary, and many others you can research here on Audiogon with a little bit of searching.