Why use CD Transport instead of computer source

I'm curious, because of the recent discussion in one of the audio rags concluding that high-end servers sound better than transports.
Also, is the Transporter an advantage over the SB run through a high-end DAC?

Ncarv, I read this too. I will not for a minute say that my modified SB3 is not musical, or that I am not happy listening to it. I am pleased with how it sounds, but in this world of "something has got to be better than something else" audio, it is still not quite as good as my PDT3.

As for the digital out of the Transporter vs. SB3, I'm not sure. I understand the Transporter has (I think) linear power supplies all the way around. The SB3 has one switching regulator. The Trans supplies are also very tightly regulated Jung types. That may be enough to make for some improvement (if possible) to the digital out.

Folks at slimdevices say that the digital out is the same.

I own both and I use the AES EBU digital output from the Transporter and this works well.

Still, who am I to second-guess the guys who made it all happen......?

I own an SB3 with a linear PS and use it via its digital out. I also have have had the opportunity to compare it to a stock Transporter also just using digital out in my system. While I felt the Transporter did sound better (more relaxed and refined, less edgy), IMHO it wasn't enough to warrant the the substantially higher price. Then again, for my critical listening I still use my turntable or Oracle transport.

I'm considering adding a SB3 or Sonos to my Bryston BP-25DA, which allows for two digital sources. I've been researching for a couple months on this topic and found several reasons why CD transports may sound different from streaming sources:

- Power supplies: Better power quality = better sound. The stock SB3 may have an inferior power supply to a high end transport. Even modified linear SB3 power supplies may not fully match the careful planning and routing of power in a top transport.

- Impedance matching: Poor matching = reduced performance. It's possible that the transports have an isolation transformer to better match to the recommended 75 ohm impedence. Impedance mismatches can cause jitter.

- WiFi - WiFi is great as a wireless convenience solution, but it is certainly not an optimum signal transfer mechanism. Almost always better to use a hard-wired Ethernet connection for streaming files.

- The computer. If the data source is not a dedicated music server, it's possible to get an audio performance hit if the CPU is nearing the multi-tasking limits. Network attached servers seem to be the best current solution.

What I have not seen as a plausible source of difference is the use of a hard drive vs. an optical drive. Optical sources are inherently less reliable than hard drives, that's why CD encoding contains so much inherent error correction. But, a hard-drive with an overworked CPU could be a problem.

A friend and I compared/blind tested a 12k CD player vs. a Mac/USB DAC combination and in most cases, we were unable to determine which was which. This was a blind test which was conducted within a cost no object system.

Like someone said above, the cost of a beloved transport perhaps can affect someone’s opinion.