The Pioneer PD65 is a very good transport and it was used by Wadia and Theta. If you are planning to buy a used transport, check with the manufacturer to see if they still have spare transport parts. Philips stopped making the transport that's used in the Sonic Frontiers SFT1 a couple of years ago.
Why upgrade transport???
My front end is a Pioneer PD65 used as a transport via illuminati D60 to an Assemblage D2D-1 jitter reducer/upsampler, via I2Se cable to an Assemblage DAC 3.0, which has upgrades including the Burr Brown DF1704 24/96 filter and OPA 627 op amps. The rest of my system is run balanced out of the 3.0.
My question is, since the D2D-1 does both reclocking and upsampling to 24/96, would there be any benefit to a transport upgrade, and what could I expect? I was looking at a moderate upgrade such as to the Sonic Frontiers SFT, or maybe a Meridian. The setup will be used only for CD music, and not for SACD or DVD.
As a second option, are there relatively simple mods to the PD65, which would provide a sonically better front end, such as disconecting the D/A portion of the circuitry, improving the power cord, sound coat, or others?
As always, thanks for your comments and help,
Tim
My question is, since the D2D-1 does both reclocking and upsampling to 24/96, would there be any benefit to a transport upgrade, and what could I expect? I was looking at a moderate upgrade such as to the Sonic Frontiers SFT, or maybe a Meridian. The setup will be used only for CD music, and not for SACD or DVD.
As a second option, are there relatively simple mods to the PD65, which would provide a sonically better front end, such as disconecting the D/A portion of the circuitry, improving the power cord, sound coat, or others?
As always, thanks for your comments and help,
Tim