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Author Topic: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?  (Read 7861 times)

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Anaxilus

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2015, 03:57:44 PM »


 :D You're here already!

I can't remember if the qa350 has a digital out. Otherwise it'll be very dependant on the internal dac.  :-[


It does, that's why I got it. It's still dependent on other things anyway...
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Anaxilus

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2015, 04:12:25 PM »

Assuming the platter or whatever else induces jitter on a transport, why wouldn't it on your crappy plastic PC drive during a rip? So yeah, your checksums mean jack shit. So much for just '1's and '0's. Interpolation FTL.

If people would see what goes into a ToTL CD transport and ToTL DAC, you'd never think it possible to do a one-box solution unless it was HUGE! Multiple big ass transformers, tons of damping, tons of shielding, discrete components. My transport is close to 30lbs. Marv's Theta is around 40ish I think.

Ask Jason too why he doesn't make all-in-one desktop boxes...
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"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu

"The Claw is our master. The Claw chooses who will go or who will stay." - The LGM Community

"You're like a dull knife, just ain't cuttin'. Talking loud, saying nothing." - James Brown

audiofrk

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #12 on: August 14, 2015, 04:27:59 PM »

Assuming the platter or whatever else induces jitter on a transport, why wouldn't it on your crappy plastic PC drive during a rip? So yeah, your checksums mean jack shit. So much for just '1's and '0's. Interpolation FTL.

If people would see what goes into a ToTL CD transport and ToTL DAC, you'd never think it possible to do a one-box solution unless it was HUGE! Multiple big ass transformers, tons of damping, tons of shielding, discrete components. My transport is close to 30lbs. Marv's Theta is around 40ish I think.

Ask Jason too why he doesn't make all-in-one desktop boxes...


I don't understand stand who your responding too.  Jason?
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Anaxilus

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #13 on: August 14, 2015, 04:29:29 PM »


I don't understand stand who your responding too.  Jason?

Xen and Thad...

A few people have been complaining about using quotes in replies. So much for that.
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"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu

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audiofrk

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #14 on: August 14, 2015, 04:30:02 PM »

Gotcha will reread
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audiofrk

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #15 on: August 14, 2015, 04:34:12 PM »

Question

Any recommendations for a coaxial cable
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BassDigger

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #16 on: August 14, 2015, 04:37:55 PM »

Assuming the platter or whatever else induces jitter on a transport, why wouldn't it on your crappy plastic PC drive during a rip? So yeah, your checksums mean jack shit. So much for just '1's and '0's. Interpolation FTL

I'm probably misunderstanding something, here. But anyway, isn't it about whether the device is playing the media, or just moving 1's and 0's? A transport is playing the media, and reconstituting the data in realtime. That's what makes the process so tricky.
If you're just copying/moving data files, it doesn't matter if it's a craptastic computer drive, your ToTL transport or a download from the interweb; it's just data; it doesn't become music (a real time digital data stream) until it's 'played'.
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Azteca X

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #17 on: August 14, 2015, 04:38:54 PM »

Any recommendations for a coaxial cable

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/digital-audio/index.htm

Any further cable talk is probably better for the cable or all purpose advice thread.
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Thad E Ginathom

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #18 on: August 14, 2015, 05:10:36 PM »

Um, nope. The transport mechanism itself is the biggest source of jitter--by far. If you have 1X variation in DACs (due to component variations, etc), you'll have 10x variation in transports. Transports also go off-frequency with age and have dramatically increasing jitter with age. And yes, internally as well as via the digital outputs.

Oh. OK... Education received!
I guess the ideal (modern) solution would be a single box R-2R WAV (flac, etc) file player. (Does anybody know of such a thing?) QLS do the QA860, but it's got a DS dac (AD1955). I guess it'll be interesting to know how it compares to other devices with a similar dac. But, as it even includes an amplifier section (quite reasonably specced @ 2 watts into 32ohms), I don't think that it's quite endgame.

I fear that all you get if you buy a "media player" is a PC at hifi prices. Feel free to call me cynical!
A few people have been complaining about using quotes in replies.

Always pressing the quote button, like most people do on a site we all know well, leads to a huge percentage of scroll-down-age being repeated noise. I try to use quotes selectively and meaningfully.
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DaveBSC

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Re: Alternative transports to USB/PC or 'Spinning a disc'?
« Reply #19 on: August 14, 2015, 05:20:14 PM »

Most CD players did not use in-house transport mechanisms, they are far too expensive for small operations to produce. They bought one from Philips, Pioneer, Denon etc. Linn had their own, but that was the exception to the rule. The best AFAIK is Esoteric's VRDS, which makes the others look like toys.

The single box CD player was never superior to a transport/DAC combo. Integrated CD players are like integrated amps. They are compromises. The transport mechanism itself and the associated hardware to run it takes up quite a bit of room in a chassis, even if you're using one of the little guys. That means the DAC board must necessarily be far smaller than could be in a stand alone DAC, there's less room for independent power supplies, etc etc etc.

At this point I have no interest whatsoever in CD players or any other kind of disc spinning transport. The headless Linux box connected via USB is just too good, when you have instant access to hundreds of albums and can make playlists with a few taps on your phone, searching through a wall of 5" plastic cases seems about as modern as shoving coal into a steam engine. You might argue that a transport would sound better (vs. a LPS powered box outputting via  JCAT USB card, that's a tall order) but the lack of convenience is too much to ignore. Never mind the fact that if I'm interested in the best sound I'm going to be spinning my records rather than CDs anyway.

The latest DR5 piece of garbage won't sound any better on a $40K Esoteric Grandioso P1 transport than it will through my little Vortexbox.

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