Apologies if this has already been done, but nothing really discussing this came up when I searched. The question is simple, but I don't have enough technical knowledge of SPDIF etc. to say whether it is even possibly the case, or not. But my thoughts are that it sounds very unlikely anyway and that all CD transports should sound the same, and that if anything is going wrong between the transport and DAC it's more likely to result in dropouts or "digital garbage" noise rather than subtle differences in soundstage or things of that nature.
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By the way, this is why I'm asking the question. Funnily enough, it came through as a recommended video after I watched one of Amir's videos... This chap (who I don't know, have never seen any of his videos before, so I have no preconceptions about whether he's knowledgeable, or not) claims that doing blind testing (but not he admits, double blind) he was able to reliably pick out the difference between a cheap Blu-Ray player, a middle of the road CD transport, and an expensive player - when played through the same DAC connected through a Coaxial SPDIF connection. He heard a "nicer soundstage" "more detail" etc. on the more expensive items, and described the cheap BR player as sounding "congested".
Thoughts appreciated.
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By the way, this is why I'm asking the question. Funnily enough, it came through as a recommended video after I watched one of Amir's videos... This chap (who I don't know, have never seen any of his videos before, so I have no preconceptions about whether he's knowledgeable, or not) claims that doing blind testing (but not he admits, double blind) he was able to reliably pick out the difference between a cheap Blu-Ray player, a middle of the road CD transport, and an expensive player - when played through the same DAC connected through a Coaxial SPDIF connection. He heard a "nicer soundstage" "more detail" etc. on the more expensive items, and described the cheap BR player as sounding "congested".
Thoughts appreciated.