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 Master Reference Anniversary CD Transport Elimination of CD’s Manufactured Imperfections All CDs come with timing errors buried deep within their digital data. The elimination of these timing inaccuracies is essential for the faithful reproduction of an original performance. If these timing errors and any generated by the CD replay system are allowed to reach the precise point of conversion within the dac, they will create additional signals in the analogue domain – signals which were not present in the original recording. Transcend Decade replaces these imperfect timing waveforms read off the CD with immaculately formed originals. Mechanical Quality From a Bygone Age In common with turntables for replaying vinyl records, the design of the suspension and isolation mechanisms in a CD Transport will ultimately be responsible for a significant proportion of the resulting sound. To avoid compromise in the design of the suspension system, TRANSCEND Decade uses a top loading motor, in which a heavy die-cast mechanism is suspended by means of lateral and vertically nested, mechanically tuned filters. Isolation from acoustic effects is achieved by encasing the delicate mechanism and electronics in 17kg of precision machined non-ferrous mass. The Master Oscillator – Transcend’s Heartbeat Transcend Decade is driven by an ultra-stable, fully enclosed, vibration resistant master oscillator which is entirely powered from its own multiple-regulated supply. The digital output is re-timed to this oscillator using extremely fast timing circuits separately powered through a total of 16 regulated supplies. A calculated degree of pre-compensation is applied prior to the output interfaces to correct the anticipated pulse spreading expected within the transmission medium. Digital Output Connections There are no additional options for TRANSCEND Decade since all five serial digital audio interfaces are fitted as standard. The most popular quality connection is by 75ohm coaxial on a precision BNC socket and a separately buffered WBT RCA socket. A 110ohm symmetrical AES/EBU output is supplied on Neutrik XLR. The wideband glass optical ST/AT&T provides total electrical isolation and eliminates the impedance matching requirement of all the electrical interfaces. For convenience and completion a regular coded Toslink output is included, permanently coded in SPDIF. Proprietary ‘N-Code’ Interface In addition to the usual AES/EBU/SPDIF coded output, TRANSCEND Decade has included two alternative and proprietary codings for improved sound quality The first of these is C-Code, which reduces frame related jitter and is compatible with all DAXes and the majority of commercial digital to analogue converters. More radical solutions to the problem of maintaining isolation, and thus low jitter between clock and data along the interface, are addressed with N-Code. N-Code additionally offers almost total elimination of audio band data related jitter but does require a custom decoding module within the dac – all DAX Decades include this module. Both C-Code and N-Code completely preserve all original data to ensure full compatibility with HDCD and 24 bit data paths. © 2010 Audio Synthesis |