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Transport - does it matter to the sound at all?

I wanted to start this thread, to gain some insight into peoples experiences on this subject.
My view: From the outset of CD and digital media, we were force fed the view that 'its digital so always sounds the same whatever' ideology. Remember the jam on the cd, and it doesn't skip. Since these naive beginning we quickly found out it did matter, and the quality of components, interconnects (its wire isn't it so doesn't affect the sound?) and design DID affect the sound. So I firmly believe that a transport does affect the signal quality and final sound output in a big way. There are transformers, capacitors, boards, wires, all the components that have such a bearing on quality output on all the other components in a system. And the motor, the bearings, the transport mechanism, jitter correction, noise, damping, vibration from itself and speaker interaction ALL will affect the sound.

My question, what are the views on this balance between cost on a DAC and the transport. Are many of us getting it wrong bolting on Sony DVD players to high quality DACs? And are many of the 'quality transports" out there just re-boxed philips units. It does appear very few manufactures build their own transports aka Meridain, Linn and Naim to mention a few.

It would be great to see a high quality transport kit out there, which would allow a full transport and kit DIY project, with mods and part upgrades available at an affordable price.

I haven't the money at present to upgrade my DAC, which is an upgraded Audio Note DAC 1.1 and Zero transport, but I am very happy it at the moment as it was a huge jump over oversampling units I had owned previously.
astrostar59
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
JSadurni the benchmark uses an ASRC (asynchronous sample rate convertor) to "remove" jitter. It is well accepted that this method does not remove jitter effectively, and so it does not surprise me that the DAC1 is sensitive to the transport.

"This is high end, we need the best transport and the best DAC with the best reclocking available!!!"

Maybe a brute force and ignorance approach is needed, but I am not convinced that this is the case.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Jsadurni wrote:
"Are you saying that the only difference between a good transport and a bad one is in the High frequencies?"

No, the jitter is the difference. The HF are the most noticable effect of jitter.

Steve N.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Alex - You claim that ther are other "Factors" than jitter. What are they?

The ability to read disks without error is a capability of even the cheapest $50 transports. What else is there than jitter?

I suppose one other thing could be galvanic isolation, such as with a pulse transformer, but again, even cheap transports have transformers on the digital out.

Edge-rates vary quite a lot between transports, but again, this is manifested as jitter.

Steve N.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Zaikesman - I would be wary of drawing conclusions about jitter reduction from a Monarchy DIP. It certainly helps, but as you say, is far cry from elimination of jitter. Even the expensive Big-Ben, which incidently works much better is not jitter insensitive. A true re-clocker with good ground isolation should make even the cheapest DVD player sound like a million bux. Unfortunately, it does not exist.

Steve N.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
Steve, the closest to what you suggest "A true re-clocker with good ground isolation" would appear to be the genesis digital lens. (I've never used one, but would like to have a play with one).
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