Transports and Streamers - Am I Missing Something?

[ThomOfYorke]

I'm a member on many audio forums, but I've found this place to be one of the most straight-shooting. Some places seem to be filled with people who cook all their meals with snake oil, and others are so obsessed with measurements and specs that they appear to think spending more than $50 for anything is for suckers. I've got my own list of audio-related things I'm pretty convinced are snake oil, but there's a few things where I've not settled the question one way or another.

Anyway, I want to ask those more technically inclined than I am: can disc transports and streamers make any appreciable difference to sound quality? I'm talking about dedicated transports and streamers without internal DACs.

I have a transport and a streamer each going into an external DAC, but I haven't spent big bucks on them. I have the Cambridge Audio CXN v2 streamer and Cambridge Audio CXC transport. These were each around 1k when I bought them new a few years ago.

The reason I ask this is because I've noticed transports and streamers seem to split fairly hard into two camps: those around a few hundred to ~1k, and then those anywhere from 5-20k! I'm under the impression that a transport simply spins a disc at the correct and constant speed, reads the disc and outputs the data to a DAC, and a streamer sends the data to a DAC. So long as each is designed properly and doing its job, wouldn't one transport/streamer be as good as another in terms of sound quality?

On other forums, I'm swarmed by people who insist that each of these components makes an appreciable difference to the sound quality, though usually this is supported by anecdotes about them 'hearing two streamers in a shop and the more expensive sounded better'.

Is there anything that can justify a 5-20k streamer or transport that isn't related to the 'bling' factor (expensive, heavy chassis, huge touch screen interface, brand prestige, etc.)? Am I missing something as regards how these components operate or what they do?

This is a genuine question. I'm not a tech so I'm really trying to figure out whether these are components I should want to upgrade at some point in the future, or if I should pretty much always prioritize other component upgrades over these (speakers, subs, (pre)amps, sources).

Thanks in advance for the clarification!

 

[mr_rye89]

I use a higher end Pioneer Laser Disc/DVD player as a CD transport (has spdif out) and a Schiit DAC. I can't tell the difference between it and FLACs from my laptop. The LD player also has a decent display for the CD tracks/time and a remote.

A lot of guys here also use Oppo blu ray players for CDs

 

[rs1500us]

Most transports and streamers are enough to satisfy a demanding audiophile. Jitter used to be a big discussion topic but apparently it results in broadband noise at several dbs below what's audible and shouldn't really matter.

If you can afford and like good looking equipment, spend big bucks. I wouldn't expect any sound difference between a 200$ transport/streamer and a 1000$ unit.

Folks on ASR chase SINAD and multi tone distortion metric but anything more than 70db SINAD and 15bit dynamic range is enough for me.

 

[derek92994]

100% happy with cheap chinese DACs and a modest Denon CD player transport, not interested in spending big bucks to hear the tiniest difference.
Jitter? never heard it, but heard so much about it.
External DACs can transform the sound of a CD player if it has a crappy sounding built in DAC. I found what I liked and stuck to it, just move the DAC to the appropriate transport/stream source as required.

 

[mr_rye89]

If you got 5-20k to burn then get the biggest, most imposing, and impractical speakers with the listening space/amplification to match. Your existing CD transport and DAC are probably already at the point of diminishing returns.

 

[J!m]

At this point in time, a key “feature” of a transport is serviceability. A beautiful transport “box” with a non-functional drive inside is worth less than dental floss at a Willie Nelson concert.

And for me, the early swing-arm drives by Philips are the ones to go for. They were designed around the development of the disc format itself and I feel, right or wrong, this is the way to go. The CDM9 PRO was the last version of this swingarm drive. Krell , PS Audio and Theta (my choice) all used them. Full drives and parts are plentiful. Gears for the drawers by several vendors. It’s a solid choice.

The CDM1 is sought after as well but quite old at this point (not than the 9 isn’t).

 

[Bob Boyer]

Spent last Friday at another party at Stratdoc's house listening to his system with the $400-ish iFI streamer feeding his all-Benchmark system and can't say I missed anything compared to Louis' $2500-ish ModWright/Oppo tube streamer. I'll probably purchase the Pro-Ject streamer to get rid of the computer' umbilical cord as it has the same form factor as my Pro-Ject DAC. Also, it's about $500, IIRC correctly.

I understand bits aren't exactly bits but I think the technology is now far beyond the capability of these 70 year old ears to discern digital interference. And the conversions render most of my lower resolution copies (think 16/44.1 CD rips) better than listening to the CD. At this point, the only disc that sounds better than my digital copy is an SACD disc on my SACD player. I've never had the gear to rip a 1-bit file, so my digital copies are all recorded through the preamp's analog circuitry at either 24/96 or 24/192 when I can use the work computer with Adobe Audition. As I refuse to pay Adobe's ongoing licensing fees, I could only record at 24/96 with Amadeus Pro on my Mac Mini.

And it all sounds a bit better than my not-too-shabby vinyl rig. Especially the rendering of bass lines.

Edit: as far as trasnports go, fortunately, the drive in my Sony ES-9000 is holding up. Bought it in 2002, IIRC, so I've gotten my money's worth out of it. It replaced an excellent Acurus CD deck whose drive crapped out at about 3 years of use.

Edit: and a correction on the Pro-Ject Stream Box - it's a bit more at $900. But I still like the fact it matches the other Pro-Ject boxes I have.

 

[rs1500us]

I completely got out of streaming. I am disillusioned and disturbed by the choices that streaming presents. I decided to just listen to local FM and use YT if I want to listen to something new.

Streaming is a great option though but it isn't for me at the moment.

 

[Bob Boyer]

I completely got out of streaming. I am disillusioned and disturbed by the choices that streaming presents. I decided to just listen to local FM and use YT if I want to listen to something new.

Streaming is a great option though but it isn't for me at the moment.

Let me clarify - I only stream files from my computer that I have purchased in hi-res form or ripped/recorded from music I've previously purchased. I basically just have a digital jukebox. I won't pay for streaming services; as one artist to another, I won't support anything that won't pay artists a fair fee for usage. And none of them do.