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Transport Advice

post #1 of 16
10/19/10 at 9:59am
Thread Starter 
My current CD transport is on the fritz, and I'm weighing the cost of repair (and the fact that it has proven to be somewhat fragile) versus replacement. I just need a transport, since my Meridian 861v6 will handle everything else, so I'm wondering if folks here have any suggestions for a 'short list'.

I like the PS Audio PerfectWave transport - any opinions here?

thx!
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post #2 of 16
10/19/10 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ca1ore View Post

My current CD transport is on the fritz, and I'm weighing the cost of repair (and the fact that it has proven to be somewhat fragile) versus replacement. I just need a transport, since my Meridian 861v6 will handle everything else, so I'm wondering if folks here have any suggestions for a 'short list'.

I like the PS Audio PerfectWave transport - any opinions here?

thx!

Forget transports. Rip your collection to a harddrive and get a very good USB to S/PDIF and AES converter (hiFace EVO of the upcoming Emprical Audio Asynchronous USB Off-Ramp) and play from a computer. Total outlay will be less than a PWT, and sound quality will be at the same level.

At some point Meridian will release their own USB card, or a network based interface to the 861 like the PS audio bridge, and you'll be even happier you made the move.

If you must have a transport, make Steve an offer on his soon to be obsolete PWT.
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post #3 of 16
10/19/10 at 11:45am
I too use an 861v6.

Second going to a computer based setup.

I use a pretty basic Dell laptop (Windows 7) with a solid state hard drive and 4gb of RAM, with music files on an attached external USB drive. Player software is J River MC15 bit perfect output via WASAPI. CDs were all ripped to lossless FLAC format using DB Poweramp.

Feed the 861 with an Empirical Audio USB to spdif converter, preferably with an Ultraclock. (Wavelength also makes good converters.)

I replaced a Meridian 800 with the above setup for the simple reason that it performed better ... and that was before Empirical Audio dramatically improved their devices.

Performance will beat PS Audio, and you'll be in a position to use computer based audio as it very rapidly advances.
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post #4 of 16
10/19/10 at 11:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brucemck2 View Post

I replaced a Meridian 800 with the above setup for the simple reason that it performed better ... and that was before Empirical Audio dramatically improved their devices.

Note that Empircal Audio will soon replace their synchonous 96/24 offramp 3 with a new model which licenses asynchornous USB from hiFace and supports 192/24. Throw in a Superclock/Ultraclock (and battery power) and you probably improve quite a bit over the converter device you are using.

Bruce, if you want to control the music library remotely from an iPhone without actually having to go to your laptop to select tracks (huge convenience factor), you would need to switch to MediaMonkey and get their iPone app. Works like a charm - you cannot do this with J River, because the Rivermore iPhone app sucks. I tried both before getting the PS audio bridge and TagNPlay.
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post #5 of 16
10/19/10 at 12:13pm
Edorr, yes the Ultraclocks and battery power (my supply is from BPT) make a big difference. As soon as Steve's got his new asyc available I'll upgrade to that, along with some Paul Hynes regulators.

I don't mind using my laptop, hence J River works fine. The laptop is small and silent. I tried feeding it via my ethernet network (still using J River and mapping the network drive), but it didn't sound as good as keeping everything local. The software geek in me says that shouldn't happen, but it did.

I may try Media Monkey. I've used it in the past to reorganize my file structure. Does their iPhone app also work on an iPad or iTouch? (Can you include a good link?)

I'm hopeful that at some point Sooloos will come down to a reasonable price, but until then I'm mixing and matching on my own.
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post #6 of 16
10/19/10 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brucemck2 View Post

Edorr, yes the Ultraclocks and battery power (my supply is from BPT) make a big difference. As soon as Steve's got his new asyc available I'll upgrade to that, along with some Paul Hynes regulators.

I don't mind using my laptop, hence J River works fine. The laptop is small and silent. I tried feeding via my ethernet network (still using J River and mapping the network drive), but it didn't sound as good as keeping everything local. The software geek in me says that shouldn't happen, but it did.

If you use MediaMonkey and the iPhone app on the network you don't need to run your music data from the network. You would still use the same USB storage and a local machine to feed the Offramp. All the iPhone app does is control the instance of MediaMonkey on your laptop (two way data stream - you get cover art on the iPhone). So you would never have to walk to your PC to select and change tracks.
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post #7 of 16
10/19/10 at 12:35pm
Edorr ... will MediaMonkey support bit perfect WASAPI playback?

If not I'll stick with J River until it does.

Feel free to PM so that this thread can get back on track with ca1ore's original question
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post #8 of 16
10/21/10 at 5:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by edorr View Post

Forget transports. Rip your collection to a harddrive and get a very good USB to S/PDIF and AES converter (hiFace EVO of the upcoming Emprical Audio Asynchronous USB Off-Ramp) and play from a computer. Total outlay will be less than a PWT, and sound quality will be at the same level.

Well, you're not the first person to suggest that; but, at the risk of being branded a 'luddite', I'm just not all that interested. I reject claims that somehow ripped CDs sound better than the actual CD itself - at least, I've not been able to tell any difference - so it's a measure of convenience that, for me, is questionable. I have over 3,000 CDs that I listen to primarily at home - I have neither the time nor the inclination to rip even a subset of that collection and computers interest me not at all. Further, harddrives are an inherently awful storage mechanism - given their propensity for mechanical failure - so I'll stick with my spinner for now.

You like the term 'obsolete' I see. Until such a time that a full catalog of CDs are no longer available, CD players will continue to be useful, therefore NOT obsolete. I don't doubt that I may be forced to move to downloading music at some point (pretty clear that it's the future), but even then it may still be prudent to burn the music to a physical CD. Regardless, CD has many years of life left in it.

Rant ended!
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post #9 of 16
10/21/10 at 6:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ca1ore View Post

Well, you're not the first person to suggest that; but, at the risk of being branded a 'luddite', I'm just not all that interested. I reject claims that somehow ripped CDs sound better than the actual CD itself - at least, I've not been able to tell any difference - so it's a measure of convenience that, for me, is questionable. I have over 3,000 CDs that I listen to primarily at home - I have neither the time nor the inclination to rip even a subset of that collection and computers interest me not at all. Further, harddrives are an inherently awful storage mechanism - given their propensity for mechanical failure - so I'll stick with my spinner for now.

You like the term 'obsolete' I see. Until such a time that a full catalog of CDs are no longer available, CD players will continue to be useful, therefore NOT obsolete. I don't doubt that I may be forced to move to downloading music at some point (pretty clear that it's the future), but even then it may still be prudent to burn the music to a physical CD. Regardless, CD has many years of life left in it.

Rant ended!

If I had 3000 CDs to rip and had to do it myself I'd probably feel the same - at 5 minutes per CD this amounts to about 30 8 hour days of work. If you're a lawyer like most people on this forum, this represents a billing opportunity cost of $75,000 - $100,000.

I had a 1000 and found someone that did the ripping for me for free. I still ended up a day or 2-3 looking up cover art, and tagging and organizing. So it is a monumental effort. I fully realize this is not something someone heavily invested in discs will undertake so, my comment about obsolete CD players was not a generic statement. For ME a CD player is now obsolete, and in the unlikey event Steve ends up ripping his collection it will be for him as well. CD players (and CDs) will be around for a long time.

Reliability of disc strorage is a function of how much you spend. You can get a few TB worth of full RAID NAS for a few hundred bucks - reliability is not an issue at all.

However, since you clearly and understandably are not going to jump on the computer audio bandwagon anytime soon, a PWT should probably be one of the main contenders to take a coveted space in your rack.
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post #10 of 16
10/21/10 at 7:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by edorr View Post

If I had 3000 CDs to rip and had to do it myself I'd probably feel the same - at 5 minutes per CD this amounts to about 30 8 hour days of work. If you're a lawyer like most people on this forum, this represents a billing opportunity cost of $75,000 - $100,000.

I had a 1000 and found someone that did the ripping for me for free. I still ended up a day or 2-3 looking up cover art, and tagging and organizing. So it is a monumental effort. I fully realize this is not something someone heavily invested in discs will undertake so, my comment about obsolete CD players was not a generic statement. For ME a CD player is now obsolete, and in the unlikey event Steve ends up ripping his collection it will be for him as well. CD players (and CDs) will be around for a long time.

Reliability of disc strorage is a function of how much you spend. You can get a few TB worth of full RAID NAS for a few hundred bucks - reliability is not an issue at all.

However, since you clearly and understandably are not going to jump on the computer audio bandwagon anytime soon, a PWT should probably be one of the main contenders to take a coveted space in your rack.

All good points!

I'm not a complete dunderhead (nor a lawyer ) when it comes to computers, but the allure is simply not there for me - although I did have to teach myself how to 'bit torrent' a few years ago, so all hope is not lost I suppose (one of my guilty pleasures is collecting Genesis bootlegs).
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post #11 of 16
11/1/12 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ca1ore View Post


Well, you're not the first person to suggest that; but, at the risk of being branded a 'luddite', I'm just not all that interested. I reject claims that somehow ripped CDs sound better than the actual CD itself - at least, I've not been able to tell any difference - so it's a measure of convenience that, for me, is questionable. I have over 3,000 CDs that I listen to primarily at home - I have neither the time nor the inclination to rip even a subset of that collection and computers interest me not at all. Further, harddrives are an inherently awful storage mechanism - given their propensity for mechanical failure - so I'll stick with my spinner for now.


You like the term 'obsolete' I see. Until such a time that a full catalog of CDs are no longer available, CD players will continue to be useful, therefore NOT obsolete. I don't doubt that I may be forced to move to downloading music at some point (pretty clear that it's the future), but even then it may still be prudent to burn the music to a physical CD. Regardless, CD has many years of life left in it.


Rant ended!

I looked at the "computer" solution and ripping for several years and for basically for the same reasons rejected it. About six months ago, wanted to upgrade my transport and while doing research, started reading about the Bryston BDP. Bought one and couldn't be happier. Ripping wasn't that big a deal, just do it while doing other things and with no "dead line", it eventually get done.

Steve
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post #12 of 16
11/1/12 at 12:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vandevantersh1 View Post

I looked at the "computer" solution and ripping for several years and for basically for the same reasons rejected it. About six months ago, wanted to upgrade my transport and while doing research, started reading about the Bryston BDP. Bought one and couldn't be happier. Ripping wasn't that big a deal, just do it while doing other things and with no "dead line", it eventually get done.
Steve

Agreed. I converted to digital about 2 years ago and haven't looked back. The initial ripping is a chore (and I only had about 1000 CDs), but if you approach it as something that doesn't have to happen overnight it's not that bad. I used an Escient Fireball to rip my collection to FLAC, which made the process easier than using a computer (which I do now with EAC): just insert the disc and the Escient takes care of lookup, etc. I got into the habit of putting a disc in the tray everytime I walked by it, while watching TV, etc.
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post #13 of 16
11/1/12 at 5:50pm
I am all "ripped" and like having my library on my iPad3 at my fingertips, plus the sonics, its a WIN WIN!
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post #14 of 16
12/17/12 at 10:26pm
Resolution a
Quote:
Originally Posted by ca1ore View Post

My current CD transport is on the fritz, and I'm weighing the cost of repair (and the fact that it has proven to be somewhat fragile) versus replacement. I just need a transport, since my Meridian 861v6 will handle everything else, so I'm wondering if folks here have any suggestions for a 'short list'.


I like the PS Audio PerfectWave transport -
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post #15 of 16
12/17/12 at 10:31pm
Resolution audio cantata you'll love it it ink you will ditch the meridian. I'm using it. And streaming using iPad with pure music best digital I've ever heard
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post #16 of 16
12/22/12 at 4:51pm
Using ipad as remote
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