The outboard DAC argument via SPDIF is *so* old now it'll never die. Bottom line I think is that a modern CD transport will get the data off the CD effectively error-free, and that stream fed into a good modern DAC over SPDIF (perhaps using a FIFO buffer and/or re-clocking) should be pretty close to a perfect signal. Not as simple as a one-box solution over I2S, but plenty good enough.
However, a strong WiFi feed doesn't have the inherent weaknesses of SPDIF and is therefore technically the "easier" solution to achieve better results. Music may be a creative endeavour and therefore highly subjective, but audio is basically an engineering exercise. My guess would be that under a level-matched blind listening test there would be very little to choose between the two approaches but if any of the options would prove to provide a cleaner signal it would be over WiFi straight to the Transporter. It's just data. I would say those Hifi reviews that prefer the sound of a CD transport are subtley biased against the network solution. The only way to put that bias to the test is to do it blind, horror-of-horrors, otherwise those findings are interesting to read but ultimately valueless. -- GeeZa ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GeeZa's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5563 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33276 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
