Amen Brother!
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Tonight: Battle of the CD Transports! (Redbook Edition)
Music: The Embassadors - Coptic Dub (Recommended)
Full scientific mode with Extras.
Played first four songs on each. While listening to the Jay’s transport I was thinking that poor PST.
Slid the CD into the PST and it said and I quote “Biatch please!”
No contest, it’s the PST.
I plan extensive testing.
Round two:
Music: Danny Frankel - The Vibration of Sound
I played two tracks:
03 - I Remember Gabor
08 - The Birdcage
I played it first on the PST. It made me think of the Spinal Tap song “Big Bottom”.
Big Bottom, Big Bottom
Talk about mudflaps my girls got em
Big Bottom going out of my mind
How can I leave this behind?
The PST is a notable champion in the lower reaches of the audible spectrum. Noice!
But I have to give the nod to the Jay’s on the strength of the sound stage exceeds 180° and everything seems a bit clearer.
This may only prove that I prefer the last thing I heard. But I don’t think so. I do believe there are strengths to each transport. It would be lovely to own both.
Up to now, a tie.
Now I am going to listen to the same two tracks with Roon on the MU1 and see where that takes me.
Ahhhhhhhhhh Heaven! Major step up. Clearly.
( but I could just be hearing what I want to hear )
(Naaah!)
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You’ve got to rip the discs and compare them to each transport too!
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A suggestion, if I may…
Keep whichever transport you think might have the overall edge in the system for a while (long enough that you listen to it over the course of many days at different times of the day).
Just listen to it to enjoy the music at you leisure.
Then, after a couple of weeks or so, swap the other contender back in and do the same - enjoy the music over a couple of weeks (No A/B-ing allowed!). See if you are prepared to make any judgments on a preference after having heard both over an extended time (but don’t swap back to the other spinner just yet).
Finally, when a track is sounding particularly spectacular while listening to the second contender (you will know it when you hear it), swap the first transport back in and give that same track a listen. IME, you will immediately “know” which one you prefer - at least for that track at that time of day and from your then frame of reference, etc…
I find that a preference tends to form over time at this level of quality kit and it is difficult to choose when doing relatively short A/B comparisons.
YMMV, as we like to say.
Anyway, thanks for letting us come along for the ride. Enjoy the toys.
SEE
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Oh great, Al. Conclusively inconclusive.
A couple scientific questions regarding your “Full scientific with Extras” methodology:
- Were both sets of cable jackets free of dust?
- Did you use the baby Panda Bear bone thingy with the Jay’s?
- Were the fuses, regardless of mfr, both optimized for directionality?
- Why is my laptop telling me that “directionality” is misspelled?
Your friend and mine
Ronald (I’m trying out multi-syllabic today, see how I like it)
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Al,
Thank you for you report and I hope it will spur others to offer more insights. I greatly appreciate everyone’s thoughts.
My take away from your comments, and impact on my system building is: in my system I would use the PST for “pleasure” listening and the Jay’s for “critical” listening. I use those two terms in a broad sense. One specification, I use I2S with my transport.
My music psychology, no matter which playback I hear, I will always choose the present component. I am not conflated, I am happy; “its a good life”.
I wish I could afford both. 
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I’d be happy with either, especially considering both are beyond my reach at the moment. Based upon all I’ve read here, the Jay’s is quite a nice piece and something I could see myself owning in the near future. Either way, my current set up is the best I’ve heard/owned. It should only improve from here.
I appreciate all the insight that you all provide. I’ve been at this for going on two years after being away from it for nearly two decades. Come a long a way in such a short time. Thank you all.
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I think it has become quite clear that both the Jays Audio and the PST are great CD transports. The real issue becomes what role SACDs play in your music collection. If you do not have any interest in SACDs, you will likely be very happy with the Jays Audio player. If SACDs are important to you, then the PST is a the way to go.
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I agree, more or less, since $6500 is a lot of dough—enough for 2 Jays with money left over for cables! But since when has this hobby, er, addiction, been rational?
I have just 3 SACDs, so a Jay will replace my aging NAD when the time comes.
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Agreed! I can appreciate the price issue and that is a personal decision for all of us. PS Audio does have a very generous trade-in offer. Most of us here have been in the hobby awhile and likely can come up with some old gear to trade-in to offset about 30% of the cost. The PST is still more expensive than Jays Audio unit with a trade-in, but within reach for most people dealing in this level of gear.
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I’m sure if PS Audio makes a CD only transport, it will cost about what the Jay cost, but the main event on the PST is the SACD capability, double rate DSD, and Hi-Rez files. It is built to extract the best sound you can get from a disc, which means the DSD layer from a SACD. Forget CD’s, it’s not in the same ballpark.
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I’ve heard great sounding sacd and great sounding cd. On the other hand… I’ve heard poor sounding sacd and poor sounding cd. The best recordings of either format are what make ones system shine…not just one format over the other.
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Absolutely correct my dear fellow !!
I have a 16/44.1 reg. cd of Brian Bromberg “Downright Upright” and it always sounds better than the Octave SACD’s
If you compare the CD layer and the DSD layer from the same disc, you will see which is better. In my mid-fi bedroom system, it didn’t really matter, but in my higher end main system the DSD layer definitely gets the nod.
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I’m sure the dsd layer on said disk has a much more improved mastering compared to the cd layer…Why else would there be a premium price payed for a sacd layer over the redbook layer.
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You make it sound as if I’ve been con to be paying a higher price for this higher resolution disc when I could get the same quality sound with the regular CD discs.
No…not at all. You are paying for a better mastered disk.
I totally totally totally disagree that the mastering is different between the CD layer and the SACD layer. It should be but I doubt very much the creators of such discs even bother with different mastering. I’d love to be wrong about this.
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I second that notion. Anyway, I am ripping some of my SACD’s and playing it on my Esoteric streamer and I have to say, this is some of the best digital I have ever heard!! I have ripped plenty of CD’s and they don’t even come close.
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Do the SACD’s sound better being spun in the player or in the form of a rip through the streamer?