Why should my streamer sound better than my CD transport?

[struth]

You could try another cd transport and see if there is any improvement thus allowing you to decide if the problem lies with the cd player

[synsei]

Have you tried playing CD's on your OPPO via the DAC? If not give it a go and report back with your findings. I have a hunch but keeping quiet about it for now

[synsei]

You could try another cd transport and see if there is any improvement thus allowing you to decide if the problem lies with the cd player

We are thinking along the same lines, must have posted together

[Andrei]

Have you tried playing CD's on your OPPO via the DAC? If not give it a go and report back with your findings. I have a hunch but keeping quiet about it for now

Not only that but have a go with your Oppo direct and use its ES9018 Sabre DAC.

[Clive197]

Funny I tried that. I much prefer the sound of the Cyrus over the Oppo when using a digital connection. The Oppo is closer to the Cyrus when using the analog interconnects as the 32bit DAC in the BluRay player is excellent but something in the Cyrus is still doing a better job.

[John]

To get the best out of the Oppo use the external USB input and try on DAC. You maybe suprised by the results

[sq225917]

The honest answer is, unless you've tested your assumption that one sounds better than the other blind, not knowing which was playing until after the fact then all you have is a sighted preference for one solution over the other. You have to remove those bias before you can realistically state one sound better than the other. Chances are they might well sound different, but assuming such is the mother of all f_ck ups.

[magiccarpetride]

The honest answer is, unless you've tested your assumption that one sounds better than the other blind, not knowing which was playing until after the fact then all you have is a sighted preference for one solution over the other. You have to remove those bias before you can realistically state one sound better than the other. Chances are they might well sound different, but assuming such is the mother of all f_ck ups.

Blind listening is unavoidably wrought with all kinds of insurmountable problems. It is a big audio myth that blind listening tests, including double-blind tests, are more 'objective' than sighted listening. It is relatively easy to trick the 'blind' testers into reporting significant differences in repeated reproduction coming from the identical sources. In other words, you make them expect that you'll be changing the components, while you keep everything exactly the same. And yet, some testers tend to report hearing 'huge' differences.

[pjdowns]

Personally I like Magic's theory best... It has to be said in my instance the Naim CDI still sounds better overall than the Squeezebox Touch and Beresford Caiman combo but not a lot which is saying something rather impressive considering the difference in pricing originally

[Macca]

Blind listening is unavoidably wrought with all kinds of insurmountable problems. It is a big audio myth that blind listening tests, including double-blind tests, are more 'objective' than sighted listening. It is relatively easy to trick the 'blind' testers into reporting significant differences in repeated reproduction coming from the identical sources. In other words, you make them expect that you'll be changing the components, while you keep everything exactly the same. And yet, some testers tend to report hearing 'huge' differences.

You are actually making an argument for blind ABX testing - It can show up expectation bias (if desired) as easily as it avoids it. I agree that the concept is flawed when it comes to audio, but that is not the reason why.

The differences that we discuss as enthusiasts are mostly very small and certainly nothing that the man on the street would worry about. But if you are listening seriously to your system, at home and relaxed, over time and with different material you will begin to notice differences in presentation. Slight, but enough to have some impact on you either positive or negative. Since no bit of kit is perfect it will probably be both.