Mr Peabody
Well-known member
- Thread Author
- #1
In my experience transports have always made a difference on sound quality. I say "usually" because someone I trust to know and hear any difference had an older Levinson DAC with a re-clocker in the input stage and he says transports didn't make a difference for him with that DAC. I attribute that to the re-clocking.
When I first got my hands on an outboard DAC I played with CD players as transports. I was shocked to hear the character of my Krell CDP imparted itself on my DAC. I had an inexpensive TDK CD player/recorder hooked it up to the same DAC and it sounded anemic like it couldn't drive the DAC.
One of my most incredible sounding matches, synergy, was an EAD transport hooked up to an Audio Note DAC. I loved that combo. Maybe a bit too romantic but it was so nice to listen to. The EAD died and I couldn't get it fixed. I moved on from there to a single box T+A player. 180 right? Just a sidenote I used that T+A to show another friend that sources makes a difference. He had a very expensive system and using like a $1200 player, the T+A showed him he needs to do some upgrading.
I found the same with streaming transports. I started with HEOS, then Node, then a $4k streamer. My goal was to find a combo that matched or beat my former #512 Levinson SACD. My Aurender got me there which I purchased after hearing it not being happy with the former $4k unit.
I'm amazed at how many people still say "it's only 1's and 0's". I've learned not to get involved in trying to convince them. As most things in audio you have to try; and hopefully learn.
Feel free to share one way or the other. Like my friend my experience may not be yours.
When I first got my hands on an outboard DAC I played with CD players as transports. I was shocked to hear the character of my Krell CDP imparted itself on my DAC. I had an inexpensive TDK CD player/recorder hooked it up to the same DAC and it sounded anemic like it couldn't drive the DAC.
One of my most incredible sounding matches, synergy, was an EAD transport hooked up to an Audio Note DAC. I loved that combo. Maybe a bit too romantic but it was so nice to listen to. The EAD died and I couldn't get it fixed. I moved on from there to a single box T+A player. 180 right? Just a sidenote I used that T+A to show another friend that sources makes a difference. He had a very expensive system and using like a $1200 player, the T+A showed him he needs to do some upgrading.
I found the same with streaming transports. I started with HEOS, then Node, then a $4k streamer. My goal was to find a combo that matched or beat my former #512 Levinson SACD. My Aurender got me there which I purchased after hearing it not being happy with the former $4k unit.
I'm amazed at how many people still say "it's only 1's and 0's". I've learned not to get involved in trying to convince them. As most things in audio you have to try; and hopefully learn.
Feel free to share one way or the other. Like my friend my experience may not be yours.
