EricJ

I think there are 2 issues here: 1. Extracting the correct information from the CD so that the Wav file is as close to the original as possible. 2. Subsequent playback of the Wav file. I'm really only interested in the first issue. DVD Rom drives are not optimal for extracting data from an audio CD so I think using the Cyrus as the source will give me better quality recordings. Now if they will sound as good when played back through the Mac is another story :-)

I still need to get hold of a suitable cable to hook up the Cyrus transport and the Mac. But its on my list of things to do :-)

The Cyrus has a clock jitter < 70pS so I don't think so. I'm still waiting on a co-ax interconnect to arrive so the testing will have to wait :-)

Sounds like there's a few tests I can do but this will be an interesting experiment. I will try Souptin's test with a suitable CDR. And I will test the playback through iTunes of a track recorded from the Mac's CD ROM and compared with a track recorded from the Cyrus CD transport. If I can find a suitable source that's copyright free I will share the recorded wavs so you can give it a listen and make your own minds up :-)

Hi Brian, please exuse me but I'm new to this. What I'd like to do is record from a CD transport using a digital signal into my Mac to create a wav. The thinking behind this is that a £1500 CD transport has to do a better job of reading audio CDs than a £600 Mac. There is no analogue stage involved.

Please ignore my previous post on this thread.

I'm new to all this so please excuse my ignorance. My understanding of error correction is this: The ripper will read a sector several times and come up with an "average" which is not alway correct - by it's very nature it is an approximation. So, using your analogy, reading something correctly the first time has to be better than reading something 10 times and coming up with the average - which might be "rice" instead of "mice" or "nice". Cdparanoia introduced more stutter and distortion than using no error correction. Using the Comparison Ripper in Max was even worse. I get delivery of the new Cyrus transport at the weekend so the proof will be in the pudding :-)

Think I'll get M2Tech's HiFace as that also solves the issue with my Mac only having one digital optical out (which is currently used by my TV via a HDMI adapter). Also, it means I wont have to select the sound card each time when I switch outputs. Can you recommend a reseller in the UK? I still think I will get better results creating my wavs using the Cyrus CD transport than that in the Mac and am looking forward to testing this out. It's interesting what you say about multiple reads and error correction etc as when I did my research it was suggested that is what affects sound quality negatively. Too much interfering with the source signal is a bad thing - or so the theory goes. And from my own tests so far using a ripper with no error correction (on a brand new CD) sounds better than using the ripper with cdparanoia error correction (I used Max). Here's some info (but remember this is off the Cyrus web site): http://www.cyrusaudio.com/content.asp?ContentID=100

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and advice. I didn't think that playback of wavs could be a factor when it comes to sound quality. I will have a look at the amarra software. I still think the dedicated CD transport will prove to be an improvement over the standard CD/DVD burner in the Mac mini when it comes to ripping from the source CDs. I don't think a high speed rip using the Mac's internal CD drive will ever be bit perfect. I've noticed that using error correction (eg cdparanoia) can in fact degrade the sound quality. A CD transport that is built to do one thing really well - that is read all the bits from an audio CD with the minimum about of re-processing - has to do a better job. I will do some testing over the weekend and report back. :-)

Thanks! Up until know I didn't know that such a thing as a USB bridge even existed. That's something to consider. I've been told the DAC will take 24 bit input via USB but I haven't tried this out yet - the system is all still very new.

Hi, is the USB on the far right when you're looking at the unit from the front or the back? Thanks, Eric.

Hi again. So are you saying that if you have the choice of both interfaces and both are of good quality a USB connection is better than SPIDF? The DAC I have is high-end, it's the Cyrus QX DAC that is an option on their series 8 integrated amplifier. I was referring to the inputs coming in from the 2 sources. The DAC is actually 24 bit and also upsamples from 16 to 24 bits. Eric

Hi Blueixus, I'll try the other players you mentioned. Interesting that you say the best output is USB as the advice I have been given is that USB is the least favoured. The best type of connection is digital co-axial followed by optical digital (although for cables over 10m optical is better than co-axial). The digital co-axial is supposed to have the greatest bandwidth.

The DAC is connected via USB to the Mac mini. The device is listed as a USB audio device under settings in OS X. The Cyrus CD transport is connected to the DAC using digital co-ax. Both outputs are at 16 bit PCM 44.1KHz going into the DAC. I haven't tried ripping CDs from the transport yet - that's why I posted the question. It will be interesting to compare the quality of an audio file ripped from the transport with that from the internal CD ROM.

Thanks for your response. I have tried ripping CDs to 16 bit wavs using Max and iTunes and experimented with and without the cdparanoia error correction. Hooking up the Mac and and CD transport through the same DAC/amp/speakers and comparing the sound from both. The CD transport was sonically way ahead compared with the ripped version on the Mac. I was very surprised at the result. I have always been sceptical about the differences between CD transports - after all its all just ones and zeros. But not all CD transports are equal. On a slight tangent I have also noticed that music recorded using Apple Lossless codec still does not sound as good as wavs. Eric