Are Transports dead?

[dallasjustice]

Hi, if you're ever in Austin, swing by. I think you might be a little bit surprised and your conclusion may not apply to all transports by all makers in all systems...and I suspect there is something more going on than just reading the digits off a hard drive, memory chip or optical drive...or "some types of jitter that can be euphonically pleasant"

Guess I am Mep's digit head...

That's right. It doesn't apply to all solutions. I used to own the totaldac monobloc. It used AES. However, there is a lot that must be done after the AES receiver to mitigate jitter caused by the interface. Same is true for the DCS gear.

I would say my conclusion applies to almost solutions in the 4 digits and less.

 

[amirm]

Whether we as uses think transports are dead or not is secondary to manufacturers thinking that and shrinking their investment in those devices. I think this is already happening and will accelerate. The market *size* is shrinking and it simply follows that investments will shrink too.

 

[Al M.]

Whether we as uses think transports are dead or not is secondary to manufacturers thinking that and shrinking their investment in those devices. I think this is already happening and will accelerate. The market *size* is shrinking and it simply follows that investments will shrink too.

Not all manufacturers appear to follow your business advice. In your anti-transport zeal you may have missed my post on page 1 of this thread:

If they thought the market for standalone transports or all-in-one CD players were dead, Simaudio Moon would not have come to market recently with a new Neo series of transport and player. I am happy they did; it was timely for the demise of my 20-year old Wadia 8 transport (trouble finding tracks). The Neo 260 DT transport sounds great and costs only $ 2K.

 

[DaveyF]

Whether we as uses think transports are dead or not is secondary to manufacturers thinking that and shrinking their investment in those devices. I think this is already happening and will accelerate. The market *size* is shrinking and it simply follows that investments will shrink too.

That may be true, however, IF we as users are still using transports and are planning on doing so into the near future, then I would believe that manufacturer's would need to be aware of that. The question becomes...does the consumer set the trend or does the manufacturer? In high end, probably like elsewhere, the answer seems to be difficult to track.

 

[Al M.]

That may be true, however, IF we as users are still using transports and are planning on doing so into the near future, then I would believe that manufacturer's would need to be aware of that.

Apparently they are. By the way, current poll score:
Transport, only source, 13; transport secondary source, 4; no transport, 5.

Certainly, this poll and the responses here present only a small slice of the audiophile universe, but more and more it appears the anti-transporters live in an alternate reality where ideology based on perceived facts trumps actual facts on the ground.

 

[amirm]

Not all manufacturers appear to follow your business advice. In your anti-transport zeal you may have missed my post on page 1 of this thread:

On example of one product does not make for a trend. Of course there are some manufacturers still introducing new products. I didn't say the market size was zero. But that it is shrinking.

My data is also anecdotal but has more foundation than one company. When I go to CES high-end shows, I talk about the business side of things. Wearing a "dealer" badge gets me a lot more information on what the manufacturers think is "hot" and what is "not." When they are showing a CD Player, they invariably mention that it is last of its kind and are not promoting it anymore.

The message as far as I am concerned is loud and clear. When the market shrinks to almost nothing is hard to predict. It is hard to argue against the trend.

 

[Al M.]

By the way, current poll score:
Transport, only source, 13; transport secondary source, 4; no transport, 5.

Make that:
Transport, only source, 15; transport secondary source, 4; no transport, 5.

Things are changing fast. By the way, apparently not by manipulation since you can vote only once.

 

[Al M.]

My data is also anecdotal

That seems quite obvious by now.

 

[c1ferrari]

We have an Oppo, Esoteric, and Forsell to spin CD's

 

[BlueFox]

I believe Wadia stopped making CD players a couple of years ago. They were just a bit ahead of the curve.

 

[DaveyF]

Apparently they are. By the way, current poll score:
Transport, only source, 13; transport secondary source, 4; no transport, 5.

Certainly, this poll and the responses here present only a small slice of the audiophile universe, but more and more it appears the anti-transporters live in an alternate reality where ideology based on perceived facts trumps actual facts on the ground.

So far, the poll results are very interesting. Not what I would have expected at all.

 

[rbbert]

Perhaps Choice should be : transport primary digital source, or that could be added as another choice? I mostly use my transport, but I do have a server as well.

 

[ipadasher]

Sorry for the noob question:

1 - What is the best program to rip my cd's (Mac user)?I have a lot of rare cd's and do not want to loose quality on the process.
2 - Is it possible to rip SACD?

 

[Jazzhead]

I believe Wadia stopped making CD players a couple of years ago. They were just a bit ahead of the curve.

And the quicker to sink into oblivion for it ....

 

[rbbert]

Sorry for the noob question:

1 - What is the best program to rip my cd's (Mac user)?I have a lot of rare cd's and do not want to loose quality on the process.
2 - Is it possible to rip SACD?

1-XLD
2- http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=95396.0
or ask BruceB

 

[dallasjustice]

So far, the poll results are very interesting. Not what I would have expected at all.

I can think of several other forums where the same poll would have yielded a very different result. If i am wrong, then there's a shortage of CD transports and someone here could make a lot of money selling them.

 

[mep]

Are we confusing pure transports with CD players used as a transport?

 

[rbbert]

I can think of several other forums where the same poll would have yielded a very different result. If i am wrong, then there's a shortage of CD transports and someone here could make a lot of money selling them.

At least a couple of pretty big ones (SH Forums, Audiokarma, Audio Circle) where I suspect the percentage of votes for choice #1 would be even higher.

 

[rblnr]

And I don't dispute their findings. There are some types of jitter that can be euphonically pleasant to some folks.

Don't know that it's that so much as expectation bias and/or just straightforward hearing what one wants to hear. There's just no real science behind why a transport to DAC or CDP would be better than a properly setup (not difficult btw) server/DAC arrangement.

And as for high end companies selling them and the poll results -- well that is indicative of the age of the customers/forum members more than anything else.

 

[audioguy]

Just read about a guy on another forum who got rid of his server/Lampi DAC and now plays CDs on his Aesthetix Romulus.

Looked at your system, do you really think the $269.00 Emotiva XDA-2 sounds better then the dCS DAC you had?

I don't use the Emotiva for my main system. I'm currently have a Datasat RS20i SSP in the rack. And while the DACs in the RS20i May or may not be as good as the dCS DAC, the combination of the audio coming from the server to the SSP is as good as or better than the combination of the audio from the dCS transport to the dCS DAC.

I can't explain why that is the case but that decision was made in a very blind test - the server solution was selected 100% of the time. So put a great server with a great DAC, and stand alone CD players are no longer relevant if your goals are convenience and great audio.

YMMV!