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Hi,
Just interested in what CD transport's are being using for the Beresford TC7510 (assuming some are using CD's).
I currently use a squeezebox but would like to try a cheap and cheerful transport into the Dac to compare.
I would also like to test out the theory that all transports are basically the same and it's the Dac that does the bizz ;).
Hope that you can help.
Chris
The benefit that computer audio brings tells me that transports and how the data is read makes a HUGE difference. Driving my 7520 from a Meridian 588 brings little benefit over the internal DAC. WAVs read by Foobar using ASIO4ALL - now that's what I call an improvement.
Stable platter CD players are very good value second hand. I use a Sony one but others swear by Pioneer. I only use mine to see if the cd is worth ripping.
Might be worth trying a Philips cd 104 have not tried it with the Beresford but very good results on other DACS and you can pick one up for about £40 to £50 so a real bargain
It would seem logical that transports don't make any difference at all. You would think that the DAC chip itself acts as a reclocking device and only the dacs clock has to be accurate.
However this does not seem to bare out in practice. If you read one of the online reviews of the DAC64 you see that the data buffer that reclocks the data before it goes to the DAC chip makes a hugh difference. This reclocking can be compared to using a very good transport with excellent low jitter and noise. This means that it seems that the quality of the data from the transport has a large impact
I looked into clock jitter a while ago and while good topologies are a factor it seems the most important thing is a very high quality low noise power supply. Pretty much all DVD players use very poor quality power supplies.
CD transport means nothing. What is important is the quality of the signal being generated by the laser pick up. A quick look at the eye pattern of the signal coming out of the laser PU is the only trusted way to judge how good the digital signal from the transport is going to be.
I could mention the 15 years I spent testing and fixing literally a few thousand CD players of various brands, or the hundreds of thousands of CD pickup my previous place of work sold. (Together with Konig we were the largest laser PU suppliers across Europe). So I tend to read with some level of amusement all the attributes heaped upon transports, when the laser PU is what makes or breaks the data accuracy.
If money is no object, aim for a 3 beam laser PU. Make and model of the CD player is not so important in those cases. Pioneer and JVC are however the main well known manufacturers of those types of players.
Stan
Stan, I think there is a misunderstanding of terminology (if you are referring to my post). Usually when people (I) say transport they mean a the complete piece of equipment: CD transport mechanism, laser pickup, electronics and the pretty box, pretty much a cd player sans audio output stage.
You are right that it is not just down to any one part of any transport and the laser pickup is going to be a very important part. However so is the electronics and the mechanism. The mech not so much as sound quality but longevity. A good solid mech will perform as good as new for many years so the quality of the transport will be maintained for a long time.
I use both a Pioneer DVD 565A and a PC with ASIO drivers and an optical out with my 7510 and cannot hear any difference, even in back to back testing with the same music (CD vs FLAC playback ...)
(The DVD is supposed to be low jitter and pretty good as a transport - <£50 2nd hand ...)
Maybe my gear isn't good enough to distinguish the difference ...
The 7510 sounds as good as my Karik with either ...
another 2p's worth ...
tim
Cambridge 340C - £150 at Richer Sounds.
Actually has a perfectly good dac inside if you want to use that as well.
Not sure about the number of laser pick ups on it, but I have really liked the Oppo DV players. Can play almost any format you throw at them on a disc, which is nice. The 980H and some others even have a USB input. The BDP-83 Blu Ray player is getting rave reviews, but if you don't care about that format and/or want to save some cash look at the 980H and some of the earlier models. Should be a lot for sale used, now that the BDP-83 has been released. And a 7510 certainly improved the sound of my earlier Oppo 970. Haven't had a chance to hook the Oppo up to a 7520 yet. Looking forward to that.
And on the DVD side, the non-BluRay Oppos can be converted to region free with the push of a few buttons.
I found the Beresford Dac 7510 to respond well to better Transports and digital cables. Each time I tried a different one the sound quality changed. The best results were with an Audio mecca Mephisto mk2 (a dedicated French design from TT maker and designer Pierre Lurne).
You can read about it here Link (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1919)
The nub of my experience was that a cheap transport will not IMHO/E reveal the full potential of the Beresford Dac. Now the current one might not be the same...I haven't tried one yet.
Regards D S D L