Originally posted by CJROSS
Jeff
Well lets look at that seprarating out the power supplies and keeping the DAC circuitry away from the transport gubbins improves the sound in 2 box scenarios (however cheap the transport BTW IMO) as long as attention is paid in getting a decent feed (ie coaxial) from the Tosh to the DAC 20 then it will be fine, OK not up to dedicated CD tranports at 5 times the cost (or with better jitter reducing socketry) but more than adequately IMO for giving a slice of hi end audio (& being in place for future transport upgrades BTW).
I can only talk about my (& others reaction on the HFC forum) about the Dac 20 and its wonderful ability with various transports, from £150 DVDs up to £1500 CDP transports. Now back to the CD82 or any other £700 CDP FTM, well I used to run a £300 MF X-24K DAC (The same section as the £800 MF Xray) off my £500 DVD Transport and for the same money the 2 box DAC combo was much better, I demod the Xray and preffered the DVD-DAC combo, so using the same vibes lets see what we could do with the same money of the CD82, £250 for a transport (especially when you see what you can get these days for£250) & a DAC 20 would still IMO blow away the CD82. Are we really saying that the DAC technology in the TAG DAC is inferior to the Arcams? Remember a lot of attention has been paid to the design of this product so that it can handle lesser quality transports with high jitter levels, so dont lose sight of that. You cant even compare the DAC section in price terms of these 2 items. A huge dollop of that £700 price is going on the transport dude, now lets give it the benefit of the doubt & assume if it would be sold on its own (Which the Ring DAC should BTW John D if your reading) what would it sell for ? £300 ish now that wont happen as many CDP manufaccers make huge mark ups selling Int CDPs, but a £300 DAC up against a £1250 DAC then thats how I would lay out my stall.
The guy above has 2 transports in place, and you would have him buy another one, which might possibly stuff up in future so he would have to buy another CDP with a new DAC section, in this case it is clearly safe to see what the best route for the money available is IMHO. For the record guys Im sure there are plenty of very good sounding sub £1000 CDPs on the market but are they valuie for money when you see what can be achieved adding DACs to your system ?
Edd
I hope from the reply above to Jeff that you can see I am inn fact a subscriber to transport quality, I for example would always opt for a 24/96 DVD transports of very good build qulaity - Pioneer 737 or Denon 2800 (it might not make much difference to jitter levels but I personally feel these are good criteria in a transport for me) So I would not say all transports are the same, in fact If I could afford a Theta David or Tag 32R these would be my spinners of choice. But the truth is that a product like the DAC 20 can deal with lesser quality transports.
Your point about why dedicated transport costing as much if not more than the DAC section, there are many reasons : power supplies, more circuitry for better signal reclocking to hinder jitter, same case work, better connection types than standard spinners. They are not in lot of cases just knocked up CD players, you should check out Creeks latest £1100 CDP to see what I mean (the additions over a standard CDP), they have optimised it with proper attention to XLR socketry & jitter reduction on the digital output for use as a CD Transport at a later date with an offboard DAC. I cant comment on the Tosh (I know some cant read CDRs for example) but most DVDs have dual optical pickups (one for DVD & one for CD) for reading so Ive never encountered much problems with my Pioneer. If your DVD is skipping with CDs then it has problems IMO.
Finally dude If you have any doubts about what someone is suggesting always go with you gut instinct you will be happier with that in the long run. Im only suggesting why a DAC is the best suggestion in financial terms from where I stand, you have to consider all apsects. Oh your spending break down is spot on IMO the classic source/amp/spkr 3:2:1 scenario, the best way to get a system off the ground then upgrade later to get all comps at the same level.