Best transport for a Rega DAC

Good idea.


I'm under the impression that this Rega is designed to have lots of built-in jitter rejection, so it should sound great with just about anything with a digital output.

If you want to spend that much.

Seriously, the DAC does the work. All you need is something that can read ones and zeroes. A $50 DVD player will function just as well.

Because people who don't understand how audio works can be sold anything.


All DACs "reject" jitter. Some do it marginally better than others. But almost all do it so well that jitter is, or should be, of no concern.

Bottom line is, you have a very capable DAC, and it does not need anything special in a transport to sound its best.

Click on "Search" tap at the top and type "power cord" in the "Keyword(s):" box and pick "Search Titles Only" just below that. Then pick "Audio Related" section in "Search in Forum(s)" at the lower right side. Then click on "Search Now". You'll get all the necessary info on it.

Of course it's irrelevant.

Good question. I suspect that one reason a transport can still make a difference if the data is completely reclocked is that digital noise associated with the low-to-high and high-to-low transitions (i.e., the risetimes and falltimes) of the signal that is received from the transport can to some degree couple past the buffer circuitry and contribute to jitter at the point where D/A conversion is performed. The coupling occurring via grounds, stray capacitances, and other possible paths through the circuitry.

The magnitude and character of that kind of effect figures to be dependent on unspecified and/or unspecifiable design characteristics of both components, and also the interconnect cable, and to not have a great deal of predictability.

Looks
Ergonomics
Reliability when used heavily (pro grade transports)
Degree of being radically overbuilt

If the DAC is competent...

This is a bad suggestion. DVD players do not have the functionality of a cd player. Scanning through a track, repeating a track, random play, it's all much more complicated to operate on most DVD players. A 50 player probably won't last as long either due to bottom dollar parts, but that's another issue.

Often true, but if that's the kind of functionality you want, you're better off streaming than spinning disks.
My 9 y.o. Panasonic DVD player (orig. $80) seems to be working just fine. A $50 off-brand model might not stand up so well. But spending 10 times as much for even four times the lifespan would be a lousy deal.