I’m wondering if anyone has done comparisons of CD and/or DVDs transports via toslink or spdif?
What are your experiences? Any surprises? What make and models were involved?
I’ve tried countless models from £10 to £700 and the winners when used as transports over SPDIF were the Cambridge Audio DVD89/99 that I picked up for £30 apiece. CD, SACD and DVD-A playback all outstanding, performance preferable to models from Audiolab, Leak, Arcam, Yamaha, Marantz, Cambridge’s own CXC V2, etc.
YMMV, but my recommendation is that if you see one of these beauties (the difference between the two being that the 99 has a USB input, whereas the 89 does not), grab it!
Cambridge Audio DVD89/99
Man I’ve been on the lookout for a 99 for a while and never found one in good condition. Any idea how the 300 compares? It’s currently on ebay.
I don’t mean to be weird but are there people that think cd transports that give digital data to a DAC sound different? How would that work? I know about jitter but really how much could it do?
Incorrect. 2.3mm of a scratch can be error corrected. Up to 10 to 12mm is interpolated, (I don’t have the data numbers as yet) which is a guess, not music. What does this interpolation sound like? And we haven’t touched on RF noise entering the optical head, PSU noise, effective jitter reduction (noted in your link). Dutchclassics.nl noted both Philips and Sony engineers saying scuffs, scratches and fingerprints caused issues with the CDM. In 1982.
This. People need to accept that digital is digital and that’s more or less all there is to it.
J.i.t.t.e.r.
I got downvoted for a very similar comment too. If there is any audible difference between Transport A and Transport B for the same DAC then one of them is doing more than transporting.
Exactly. Should be the same.
I have a Lyngdorf CD-2 that matches my TDAI-3400.
You can use it as a player and I’ve tried both modes, transport sounds so much better, digital domain all the way from laser through amplification is wonderful and clean.
But I know in my heart that any transport would sound exactly the same. It’s bits.
When I’m sitting there, glass of red in hand, CD spinning knowing it sounds and looks as good as it possibly can, I’m ok that I paid over the odds for the aesthetic, but transport is transport and the bits arrive or they do not.