Why should my streamer sound better than my CD transport?

[Clive197]

I rip my CD's via a HP laptop to my Western Digital 2Tb NAS drive using EAC flac @1411 KBPS. The CD transport uses the same make, model and length digital cable as my streamer connected to the pre-amp, so how or why does streamed music sound better?

[AlfaGTV]

Because you have already ripped the information from theCD to harddrive?
TheCD-transport needs to do that in real time, with interpolation when missing or corrupt data is encountered?
Regards Mike

[Clive197]

Because you have already ripped the information from theCD to harddrive?
TheCD-transport needs to do that in real time, with interpolation when missing or corrupt data is encountered?
Regards Mike

The flaw in that argument as I see it is the cd reader in the transport is significantly better than the cd reader in the laptop. Both have to read the cd. I understand about the missing or corrupt data but that will affect both transport and laptop in one way or another.

[AlfaGTV]

The flaw in that argument as I see it is the cd reader in the transport is significantly better than the cd reader in the laptop. Both have to read the cd. I understand about the missing or corrupt data but that will affect both transport and laptop in one way or another.

Whether the transport mech is "better" than the data drive is arguable, but the major difference is still that the ripping process has the advantage to 'go back to the source' and re-read sectors where information is missing/inconsistent.
The transport have to treat the audio as a 'stream' where the data drive can treat tje audio as the very files they are stored as?

At least that's my theory!
Regards Mike

[purite audio]

Are you playing both files through the same dac?
Keith.

[StanleyB]

The flaw in that argument as I see it is the cd reader in the transport is significantly better than the cd reader in the laptop.

Can the CD reader in the transport play a DVD? And can the CD reader in the laptop play a DVD?

[Clive197]

In reply to both questions.
1. Both files are playing into a Cyrus PreXdQx pre-amplifier and DAC.
2. My CD transport is a Cyrus CDXtSEII which does not play anything else but red book cd's with it's dedicated Cyrus transport and software. Cyrus make their own mech which is not a Chinese DVD/CD reader. The laptop on the other hand plays both CD & DVD's.

[DSJR]

Might it be anything to do with error correction, which is far better dealt with in computer audio rather than real-time working as in most 'red book' systems? Probably a load of cods on my part, but I thought I'd chuck it in anyway...

[magiccarpetride]

I rip my CD's via a HP laptop to my Western Digital 2Tb NAS drive using EAC flac @1411 KBPS. The CD transport uses the same make, model and length digital cable as my streamer connected to the pre-amp, so how or why does streamed music sound better?

My Mickey Mouse theory is that the biggest challenge for the digital transport resides with the ability to accurately interpret zeros and ones. This challenge sounds brain dead easy, and at first you'd think that nothing could be easier than that, but in reality it would appear not to be that simple. Really good CD players are good because they do a good job converting the information read by the laser beam into a series of 0s and 1s. Lesser players are more prone at messing this up a bit, which results in degraded overall performance.

With a streamer (such as Squeezebox Touch, for example), the spinning disc/laser beam part has been removed from the equation. That part is pre-processed (i.e. ripped) at computer's leisure. Meaning, as the computer is ripping the CD, it takes its sweet time making sure that all the checksums check correctly. You end up to the close-to-bitperfect recording on your computer's hard drive.

When the computer streams the bits into the digital streamer, the quality of the bits has already been assured. The only thing remaining for the digital transport to do is to preserve this accuracy without throwing in any unwanted artifacts that are typically sourced from RFI or the mains power noises etc. Of course, not so good digital transports are capable of royally screwing up at this stage; that's why we've seen such huge leaps forward with EDO mods for the Touch etc. By tweaking the Touch (i.e. the mini computer that acts as a digital transport) we can significantly improve the quality of music reproduction. In other words, digital transports seem endlessly tweakable. Which is not something we could say about CD players.

[Macca]

I think you should send your theory back to Mickey for a refund, Magic

I did some experiments using different transports into a DAC and they all sound different, and in theory they shouldn't. But it's nothing to do with the laser not reading the disc very well. It's all a bit of a mystery.