Cd Players...DAC's....Transports (1 Viewer)

[PhillipC]

Okay...here's a newbie question.

I've been looking to upgarde my Marantz CC3000 CD player. After looking on this and other forums, I confused. I hear people talking about getting a DAC or a transport. Are these add on's that I need. Can someone explain to me whether I need all this? Thanks

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Phillip,
OK- here's a quick explaination that might help you understand what you're reading.
Basically- a standard CD player could be broken down into two functions: The part the physically moves the disc and reads the data- and the part that turns that data into analog audio. In the case of your current CD player- you probably use that single unit to perform both functions (as 90% of people do).
The function of simply reading the disc is sometimes known as transport. The function of actually converting the data into audio is DAC (for Digital Audio Coverter, or Digital-to-Analog Converter).
In the modern era, CD players are often connected to a receiver type unit via a digital connection cable. In this case, the CD player serves only as a transport- as it just reads the data and passes it out to the receiver to perform the conversion to Analog. As such, a whole new standard of how to judge CD players has kinda sprung forth- judging them as strictly trnasports because they will do no real audio conversion.
So, when you read these posts- just realize that they're using one unit to actually read the disc (the transport, usually a basic CD player) and a second unit to actually turn the digits into audio (the DAC, often a converter built into a receiver or pramp-- but sometimes people buy dedicated converters for their CD audio).
Hope that helps a little
-Vince

 

[PhillipC]

Thanks Vince

That helps a lot!