Will a good external DAC make an Average Transport sound fantastic? (1 Viewer)

[Lee Scoggins]

FWIW, Dunn's general position regarding CD players was that adding outboard DACs or 'low jitter cables' was not monies well spent. Of course, he was likely thinking along the lines of where products are today.

He changed his mind on these things as well. We even discussed the Meitner DACs as being amazing. A lots happened since 1992.

 

[Chu Gai]

yes, a lot happened, and he was well aware of the Dolby paper which was well past 1992. However his work and posting dropped off significantly due to illness. well I think it's a good idea what you're doing Lee as it'll have some bearing on the recording aspect of things. i'll stick my hand out for a random one. heck put it on kazaa!

 

[Craig_Kg]

Elso Kwak has been kind enough to send me a schematic for his latest low-jitter oscillator, which I should soon get around to building and installing in my Denon CD player. While I might form a stronger opinion then (or reverse it entirely), I will never be able to substantiate any difference in sound quality from the upgrade. Isn't that great?

This is easy enough to test. You just need to find someone with the same model CD player and DBT beforehand to make sure they sound identical. Then repeat the DBT after the mod has been applied. SBT is probably good enough if the switcher is clever about it.

I think this topic need to be revisited after Lee's recording jitter test CDs have done the rounds. Wish I could be there :frowning:

 

[Chu Gai]

Don't see why one wouldn't be sent to Australia..a small payment for your country's support and all. Now if you just didn't happen to have all those poisonous snakes! It's a tough nut to crack Craig. Let me know if you want the link on a test CD to evaluate error recovery.
BTW Lee, since earlier you'd posted something about high & low jitter cables, do you have any info regarding the cable manufacturers or the jitter #'s for those cables?

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Okay guys... I will settle this once and for all..

Forget Jitter and Cables and all that stuff... If a CD Player
has Blue lights it will sound better.. End Of Story..

 

[Chu Gai]

LOL...hey if I told you it was designed poorly and could document it, would you still buy it?

 

[Brett DiMichele]

No I wouldn't buy something that was built poorly out of
a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball parts

I don't think the Shanling is poorly built though. I am all
for bargains.. Compare the $1500.00 Shanling to something
from Krell.. With the Shanling you get true craftsmanship
real tube output stages, HDCD Encoding and loads of other
real features. $1500.00 isn't cheap and you could pick up
quite a few good used players much cheaper that I am sure
have just as good internals. But sometimes you don't mind
paying for the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into
building something.

That's like comparing my Corvette to a Lamborghini Countach.

My Vette will obliterate a Countach in every measureable
category so why would I spend more money to get a used old
Countach when I could have a new Vette? Because the Countach
is something that conjours something emotional not something
measureable. It may measure the same as cars costing 2X Less
but it still retains something that makes you just "gotta
have it".

Yes No?

Passion I guess... You pay for passion. In some respects I
am level headed when it comes to my purchases. Then again
something inside me sways me to certain designs.

*Shrugs* I dunno...

 

[Mike_Ch]

Brett,

Caught onto this thread a tad late, but to answer your original question, I tried using my 2 year old budget Pioneer dvd player as a transport to my new Accuphase DP-55V cd player (that can double as a processor with 2 digital ins), and the difference between using the Accuphase's own transport (which is a pretty complex system using a tray lock and servo motors) is not big. If I did a DBT, I doubt I could tell the difference. However, the difference between the Accuphase and Pioneer alone is very, very big (as you'd expect for the cost difference). But I compared the Pioneer with an Arcam CD72 and the difference was not subtle either.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Scott Oliver]

Brett,

You could of saved us all from three pages of jitter and DBT rehash by just giving into the blue light!



Shanling!!!Shanling!!! Shanling!!!

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Scott,

LOL I *must* resist!

I think the Shanling is a gorgeous piece and I bet it
sounds nice. But I think I am sticking with a non tubed
transport/player..

What's a *really* good player (good interal DAC) that is
well built and in the $1000.00 or less price range?