Does CD player cost matter when you are using Digital connections?

[jhbodle]

This ones been bugging me for a while - if you are using a digital connection between your CD player and amplifier, it doesn't matter if your CD player costs £100 or £1000, the sound quality will be the same - is this right? After all, it's just 1's and 0's going across the cable to the amp, how can a more expensive CD player do this any differently from a cheap one?

[Knyght_byte]

it can help for the transport (ie the disc spinning device) to be very heavy and well damped, this simply means that all the data is retrieved the first pass.......PC's get around this by spinning discs up far faster and rereading if any errors occur....whereas the conventional hifi based disc spinner reads at single speed....so it can be worth investing in a good quality transport rather than a full CD player which is both transport and DAC as because you are using the digital output, essentially the DAC in the player would be come redundant...

some of the older Technics CD players made excellent transports i understand for not much money......im not aware of what models work well in more recent times as Im still waiting to win an MF A5 from the review competition, using my Denon 3910 DVD player in the meantime

[alexs2]

Originally Posted by jhbodle

This ones been bugging me for a while - if you are using a digital connection between your CD player and amplifier, it doesn't matter if your CD player costs £100 or £1000, the sound quality will be the same - is this right? After all, it's just 1's and 0's going across the cable to the amp, how can a more expensive CD player do this any differently from a cheap one?

Unfortunately yes....this debate has been done many times both here and across many other forums,but whilst it is true to say that bits are bits,a cheap transport,or one with a poor PSU,or with plenty of interference from other digital components in close proximity,can be prone to timing errors etc,with the end result being high levels of jitter,and often a rough,ill-defined sound by comparison with a more expensive transport,engineered to better tolerances.

I've tried everything from cheap DVD transports,both in cheapo players and in HTPCs,to decent Cd players,and dedicated transports such as my TEAC and TAG...the differences are very obvious.

Obviously over time,the quality and attention to detail in lower cost DVD players especially,has improved the CD replay quality markedly,but it would be unreasonable to expect say a £100 DVD player to do CD as well as even a £100 dedicated CD player in some cases.

[Mr_Sukebe]

My own experiences are very similar to those of Alex. Better transports certainly can make a big difference to absolute sound quality. Teac make a few variants of their VRDS unit, what is probably the best CD transport around. Having said that, some of the well implemented philips transports can get close, particularly when upgraded with better internal clocks and power supplies. I find it amusing how many people focus their attention so much on DAC chips, often ignoring what is usually even more important, i.e. the power supplies to the unit.

[Thekop]

I agree with Alex and Mr_Sukebe.. The source is the most cruical aspect of system building... And that starts with the CD transport. Which is a better method of CD replay than using a DVD drive for instance. In my opinion of course

[krishen]

i am also quering this.cureently i hav analog connections from cd to amp. however after buying a processor i will need to buy digital interconnects is it better to use digital rather than analog ones.

[deaf cat]

So errr... how easy do you think it would it be, for say a plumber, to knock up something like this http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...er-3-2000.html (probably of a much lower psu/electronics standard) with just a digi coax out ?

[deaf cat]

Originally Posted by krishen

i am also quering this.cureently i hav analog connections from cd to amp. however after buying a processor i will need to buy digital interconnects is it better to use digital rather than analog ones.

I'd say try both, and see what You prefer the sound of

[krishen]

i think i can only connect digital ones not analog. would digital sound better and wat does the sound depend on

[deaf cat]

Originally Posted by krishen

i think i can only connect digital ones not analog.

Ah, you don't have a choice then made simple for you.

It would depend on build quality (read above in this thread) in your processor/cdp, and which bits you are using of what.

[jon_mendel]

Jitter is measurable from some CD transports - I've tried the digital outputs from a few CD/DVD players, though, and there's no difference I can hear (unless the CD is really trashed). It might be possible that a really, horribly badly designed CD transport might have a digital output so bad I could hear the problems caused - but haven't heard one yet...

[welwynnick]

Yup, transports do sound different.

Try plugging a CD player and a DVD player into SPDIF connections on the same amp and play the same CD. They won't sound the same.

The reason is that it's not just bits that are retreived. It's timing information as well. Unfortunately, this comes from the transport, and since it's analogue rather than digital in nature, it is easily corrupted as many have described. Jitter is insidious in digital audio systems, and should be kept aout at all stages of the system. It defocuses everything. Horrible.

Nick