New to dac/cd transport concept

You might very well get some improvement on CD with a separate DAC, but I would try to borrow one before taking the plunge. There have been steady improvements with CD over the years and some current budget players can equal or exceed the top DACs of yesteryear. With respect to SACD, forget about an outboard DAC. The digital signal is different and requires a special transport and DAC. EMM Labs makes such a combo but you're talking many thousands. Other campanies may be producing similar, but they are still expensive.

>>There are no outboard DACS that will decode the DSD datastream of SACD.
>>You will not find a high end Transport DAC combination that will play SACD as it is a proprietary format.

Where did you get this from? There are several transport/DAC combos that play SACD, including but not limited to EMM Labs, Esoteric, dCS, MBL and you'll find many others by searching around in here.

Osgorth,

What connections are these manufactures using from the transport to DAC. I am interested as my DAC is DSD capible but only has RCA and optical inputs.

Thank you

I can't answer you there I'm afraid, since I have no experience with any of them. :) I play only regular CDs for now.

Check out the thread called "Reference DACs - an overall perspective"-something and ask the guys in there, they are very knowledgeable.

Am resurrecting this thread in the hope of getting some advice for my system. I hope Russe41 won't mind. I'm thinking about trying an outboard DAC to improve sound on playback of redbook CDs from a Cambridge Audio D500SE. The D500SE has a BNC digital out jack but no RCA digital out which I gather can limit choices. Is it realistic to expect improvements going to an outboard DAC with a max. budget of $600? Willing to buy used. The motivator here is that, I've been so impressed with the effect of upgrades to TT & pre-amp on vinyl, I'm wondering how I might get my CDs to sound better. Thanks in advance for your time and advice. (Equipment: JoLida 502B, Totem Forests, JPS Lab Ultraconductor speaker cables (bi-wired), Superconductor FX Interconnects).