Which would be best to use as transport? The Sony or the Arcam? would there be much difference between the two? If I could use the sony then I could sell the Arcam and put towards a dac and also not have to make way for an additional box (ie remove the arcam to make way for the dac)
My budget would be around £700 (plus any money from selling the Arcam if I can use the sony's transport) for a DAC or CD player upgrade.
I would actually go for the Sony NSV900 as my transport Hawklord out of the 2 : with aproviso : You are choosing a DAC that has an eye on low jitter recovery as part of its design, for example MFs or TAG are quite well known for this. Why would I choose the DVD-V based player as my transport, well the one you have in place just now is 24/96 compliant in spec terms its of a high spec than the Arcam. Why limit your self to SACD & CD from the 900 when you can get hi quality stunning stereo playback from the DVD-V format with many 16/48 LPCM soundtracks and even 5.1 DD music soundtracks sound awesome to my ears via my stereo DAC. Live concerts on DVD-V are becoming a huge part of my stereo collection. FWIW a dude over on the HFC forum used to have a CD72 bought a second hand DAC for £200 IIRC (a Rotel RB970 again IIRC) fed from a Sony 305 DVD player and perfered the Sony-Rotel DAC combo quickly sold the CD72.
I'm not sure which would give me the best performance hit for money spent. Would it just be more beneficial to upgrade my arcam to the CD82T for £200? or are there major benefits from getting a dac over a designated cd player?
The benefits of a DAC are quite large IME for the very simple reason that you separate PSUs to the transport & isolate the DACs circuit board in their own casework with their own PSUs. As for money spent V performance ratio, you have a transport already, and are about to consider a mediocre DAC section as an upgrade, when you could be upgrading to a whole new DAC section is the best sound per pound use of money in CD terms. A DAC section is also a better upgrade item in that it can be upgraded via transport spec for as far as you want to go (some of us settle with lower spec transport like DVD-V players because we are happy with the DACs contribution) but the option is there if you wish. A CD82 has a shelf life that will meanselling to buy another integrated at some point.
Any pointers about makes and models of DACS in my price range would be much apreciated and the pro's and cons of having one over a standard cd player set up. I'm also well aware of the limitations of my current integrated amp (A75+) and this will be the next likely candidate for upgrade.
I assume we are talking here of £700 well that can buy you a plethora of digital replay that would blow a sub £1000 CD player into the weeds, for example a few months ago there was a TAG DPA-32R 24/196 Khz Digital Pre amp with 24/196 DACs for sale for £750 would also help with the limitation of your A75 ie addiing a PA to that combo. The PT P1=P3 is available second hand for £800 ish, MFs A3.24 is available for £4-500 and you can get a TAG DAC 20 for £300-400. There are loads more BTW. I would heartily recommend you going down to a 7Oaks and comparing a £800 MF A3.24 fed off any DVD player and compare it to a £800 Int. CD player, you may well prefer the £800 CD player BTW but I never have been comapred to equivalent DACs.
Pros :
Sound per pound a better DAC section than a Integrated based system
Simple separation offers sonic benefits over integrateds.
*** Using a jitter capable DAC offsets transport quality.
Multiple digital sources : DVD-V, PC, CD-R, MD, Digital Radio from Freeview or Sky, or even the lower quality DAB ?
One set of ICs from DAC to Amp for all your digital processing.
One less transport to die and be replaced in future, especially aparent once you have a DVD-V player in your system.
Cons :
Jitter introduced from the transport will effect CD playback ***
Extra digital leads if you use extra digital sources mentioned above.
Ehhh ? thats it I think.
The Arcam should definitely make a better CD player/transport than the Sony,as I've yet to find a sub£1000 DVD player that's as good as a CD player costing half that.....I also think that the upgrade to the Arcam would be a worthwhile propostion,although you may have better luck with that as a separate post on the Arcam forum.
Alex I agree that as a CD player in its own right my money would be on the CD player, but as a transport fed into a DAC ? Why should definitely the Cd82 be a better transport does it not suffer jitter from its digital output already its not a dedicated transport IMO. If reasonable care is taken from the Sony into a suitable DAC I think jitter cocnerns drop somewhat.
Hawklord here is a thread that may interest you if you are condiering DACs : Page 3 FYI.
http://forum.hifichoice.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8792
there will be far less clock jitter than with most outboard DACs (which have to recover the clock from the inherently dodgy SPDIF data stream) and in most cases the CDP will give you a more musically satisfying result.
John I have long been lampooned for finding DAC playback from the humble old RCA SPDIF format accpeptable there are many audio companies who can create a DAC with such an input, that satisfies some audiophiles (not all I would add), some ones that spring to mind are MF & TAG, using MF as a case in point, its funny that many reviews in the mags & from MF DAC users would prove this point out, quite a few preffering the new £1200 Trivista over the Chord 64 for example. In fact that lofty DAC is also finding a kind of rennaisance with its lowly Toslink SPDIF connection for a few of its users. So inherently dodgy SPDIF may be but a lot of DAC have no problems in recovery as it were. The DAC design being more important or in the first order than a jitter laden data stream from a transport.
Best regards
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