Low Jitter CD Player/Transport

Knightshade

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Hi All,
I'm looking at a sensibly priced CDP/Transport. What, in the sub £1500 market, has the lowest Jitter rate? It will be used solely as a CD transport but if there is a DVD player that will do the job just as well?
I'm not worried about the quality of the on board DAC's but it must have a COAX/BNC Digital output. Short and uncluttered signal path would be good. Front loader as well. Build quality is important.
Don't want much do I? :)
 
Knightshade said:
Hi All,
I'm looking at a sensibly priced CDP/Transport. What, in the sub £1500 market, has the lowest Jitter rate? It will be used solely as a CD transport but if there is a DVD player that will do the job just as well?
I'm not worried about the quality of the on board DAC's but it must have a COAX/BNC Digital output. Short and uncluttered signal path would be good. Front loader as well. Build quality is important.
Don't want much do I? :)


You might want to check out an Apogee Big Ben master clock before you change your transport, it's made a significant difference with my transports.


http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/bigben.php


http://www.f7sound.com/gear02.htm
 
The Arcam CD33 has very low jitter levels, i use it as an integrated player but I can imgaine it making a great transport. Check out the results here.

CD33 Test Results
 
Knightshade said:
Hi All,
I'm looking at a sensibly priced CDP/Transport. What, in the sub £1500 market, has the lowest Jitter rate? It will be used solely as a CD transport but if there is a DVD player that will do the job just as well?

I'm not worried about the quality of the on board DAC's but it must have a COAX/BNC Digital output. Short and uncluttered signal path would be good. Front loader as well. Build quality is important.
Don't want much do I? :)

Knightshade

Being the very happy owner of a DVD-V based CD transport Ive long felt the importance of the DAC is more a concern ie its ability to deal with jitter, thus getting decent reclocker designs Ive been lucky not be be afflicted with the jitter concerns that litter [no pun] this hobby, I guess Im very lucky in that respect, but If I was to select a few DVD-V based transports the one that fits your criteria perfectly is the Theta Carmen (available second hand for £1-1500) has BNC & XLR/AES, Another DVD-V based transport with RCA/XLR-AES is Classes DVD-1 IIRC, but there is a Universal spec player about now that offers :

SACD/DVD Audio/DVD-Video and can be used as a high-end CD transport via its XLR/AES Digital output, I refer of course to the new Primare DVD-30. RRP £2000

http://www.primare.net/swwwing/app/cm/Browse.jsp?PAGE=19763&PARENT=1072 DVD-30 Primare

http://www.playhaus.co.uk/bargains.html One going cheap @ £1450 with 2 year warranty

Now to my mind this player covers everything, Hi-res formats and for use (for concerned jitterophiles) as CD transport the XLR/AES output.

Of course you could chill out and get a Toshiba SD-900 or 2500 and use a RCA-BNC cable, these players have vanishly low amounts of jitter in transport terms. As I said Ive been more than happy with my old Pioneer DVD-V player used into a couple of DACs, my inability to guage digital/analg cable differences has made me even more sceptical about jitter effects, the DAC either works or it does not IME, if jitter is so bad the DAC will not lock onto the signal. There is a moving momentum towards £500 Universal DVD-V players and decent DACs like the one you own already, Im not that fully convinced that the concerns of jitter in DAC terms is as bad as made out by some audiophiles. As Ive said before audiophiles concerned with such worries IMPE usually go to the FEOAF with : cables, supports, mains isolation and other snake oil cures – but are they truly satisified at the end of the day ?

Connection wise there is a rub of course, because one set of Audiophiles namely DAC 64 users love Toslink, others wear XLR/AES is the best, then BNC squad bring up the rear claiming its sent from god. Of course YMMV in each of these respects, but call me old fashioned RCA SPDIF works fine for me, dare I say it with stunning results to my ears.

ATB and I hope Ive given you some food for thought.
 
Crustyloafer said:
The Arcam CD33 has very low jitter levels, i use it as an integrated player but I can imgaine it making a great transport. Check out the results here.

CD33 Test Results

From the Sphile lab test for CD33 :

the jitter level was a low 195.5 picoseconds peak-peak, with a sideband pair at ±15.6Hz contributing a third of that total. Lifting the AC ground caused those sidebands to disappear, reducing the measured jitter to 171ps. However, a pair of sidebands appeared at ±120Hz (fig.8, blue "2" markers), contributing 38ps to the total.

Interesting stuff about the CD33 for use as a CD transport Crusty but Maybe its just me but I would assume 171ps + 38ps = 209ps not 195.5ps as mentioned, maybe Im reading something wrong in the link above, but to digress there was a post recently where jitter specs were mentioned in passing for cheap DVD players read Kish Kash’s posts in here for some info :

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154350&page=1&pp=15

The Toshiba 330 measure 220ps & the Pioneer 565 measures just 185ps of jitter, now a serious question here, are these sub £200 DVD-V players a better options to use as CD transports than an Arcam CD33 ?

FWIW Knishtshade Im sure all these jitter measurements will be from the audiophile derided RCA SPDIF outputs. Yet still jitter so low.
 
Some combos not using SPDIF are certainly the best (Rhodes would kiss me now , I guess).

I wouls not put Arcam here, by no means, they have great products but absolute top CD transport, no it is not. Crusty is simply recomending Arcam to anyone recently, sort of fan of Arcam he is (sometimes I ask myself if he's payed from Arcam).

(I was jut watching Star Wars, sorry , jut watching Star Wars I was ... )

I also saw that monster Teac transport going pretty low recently.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

good day is today
 
Thanks for the replies.
The transport I'm looking at possibly changing is the exposure 3010. Reason is this. I was in a shop the other day and heard a Densen Beat 400+ A £1200 retail CD player.
I hooked up a DAC 64 to it and was very impressed with what I heard. Side by side with the 3010/DAC64 there was a big difference. I've always found the DAC 64 (although it's a bit fussy) to be quite transport independent. Most transports either for £100 or £1000 sounding very similar. The Densen was notably smoother and more detailed with a better sense of timing. I don't know whether this is down to good design and short signal path or what but i'm sure if one company can do it so too can others.
CJCross, I'm going to take a look at some of the £200-£500ish DVD-V players that you suggest and see what they're like. I'm not really up for spending any more than I have to on a second system. Would be nice to find a really good cheap giant killer....
ATB
Knight
 

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