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Different Transports with Same DAC

Pelikanyo

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Oct 31, 2020
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Okay, so in theory, all CD transports just read info and spit it out. For now, forget servos, power supply and jitter etc.

I play a CD thru the same DAC with the same cable using two different "transports" and they sound different. One is a 30 year old Cal Audio Delta transport, and the other is the CD drive in a Tascam SS-CDR250N...both using the coax digital outputs. Granted the Cal Audio is a playback transport and the Tascam is a player/burner...enough to account for the difference in sound?

Are burner drives as good as "transports" for playing music...sending music to a DAC for playback?
Any other thoughts as to why the difference in sound? BTW, the one that sounds better to me is the Cal Audio Delta.

Thanks much!
 

Tks

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Okay, so in theory, all CD transports just read info and spit it out. For now, forget servos, power supply and jitter etc.

I play a CD thru the same DAC with the same cable using two different "transports" and they sound different. One is a 30 year old Cal Audio Delta transport, and the other is the CD drive in a Tascam SS-CDR250N...both using the coax digital outputs. Granted the Cal Audio is a playback transport and the Tascam is a player/burner...enough to account for the difference in sound?

Are burner drives as good as "transports" for playing music...sending music to a DAC for playback?
Any other thoughts as to why the difference in sound? BTW, the one that sounds better to me is the Cal Audio Delta.

Thanks much!

Either placebo or busted Coax implementation.
 

egellings

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Feb 6, 2020
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Don't DACs take the digital information from the disc and re-clock it, so that the transport does not need to be especially accurately timed? I remember once seeing a CD transport in which the disk spun erratically but the music came out steadily. I'm guessing that the transport just loaded a memory buffer as needed.
 

Cbdb2

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The bits are buffered in ram. If they get there the transport makes no difference. If They dont you get drop outs. Modern players can hypotheticaly put an entire song into the buffer in 20 seconds and then the transport can be turned off till 20 seconds before the next song. If the disc is in bad shape a player could reread the tracks multiple times. If the laser reads the bits, which has been a no brainer for 30years the transport does not effect the sound.
 
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