howlndog;343560 Wrote: > Hi - first time poster. > > I'm trying to decide whether to buy a transporter or a boulder modded > duet with a monarchy audio nm24 dac. The transporter, with its top > notch looks and sound was my immediate first choice... but the duet / > monarchy combo gives me a great dac, pre-amp and headphone amp to > boot(I'm a big headphone user)... so in trying to decide I was hoping > there might be some concensus in which would sound better with my flac > files... or asked in another way - would the modded duet / monarchy > combo be killer? > > Warm regards from the Canadian prairies, > > hd
Hey Howling and welcome to the Forum. First let me voice that in my opinion Boulder is not a good investment. It is way over priced and the modifications do little to improve the Duets performance. More importantly if you are willing to pay that kind of money for little or no return, you are smarter and way better off buying a Transporter. If quality and being able to play 24/96KHz files is important to you, then Transporter is the player for you. If you just want to listen to music through headphones (just to have music or simple listening) then buy a Squeezebox Classic (SB3). You could even add a nice headphone amp to the SB3 if you like. Robin Bowes is correct in that there are two drastically different camps for the Transporter DACs sound. I like the Transporter DAC using the Balanced Outputs and I own a Dodson DA-217 MK2-D Digital Processor. I think part of the issue is what people are used to hearing and more importantly the sound people like. There will be no "Perfect" reproduction of sound until we find a way to eliminate all electronics! So in my humble opinion, it all comes down to what type of electronics one prefers and what colorations one enjoys added to what they hear/call proper music/sound. Since everyones brain and ears are different, there will never be a one NMP fits all (or even DAC). You will like what you like and everyone else will like what they like when it comes to hearing music reproduced (excluding content choices). If you have the money to buy a Transporter, buy one and listen to it for 25 days. If you dont love it, send it back before the 30 day trail is up for a full refund! If you send it back, then get a stock Duet or Classic and add you favorite DAC to get the sound you prefer. My opinion of the Transporter is that it is very neutral/nature. It neither adds or subtracts from the musical experience. So I feel this is why some folks feel it is flat and lifeless just because it is not coloring the music. -- iPhone *iPhone* 'Last.FM' (http://www.last.fm/user/mephone) Media Room: Transporter, VTL TL-6.5 Signature Pre-Amp, Ayre MX-R Mono's, Vandersteen Quatro, VeraStarr 6.4SE 6-channel Amp, VCC-5 Reference Center, four VSM-1 Signatures, Runco RS 900 CineWide AutoScope 2.35:1 Living Room: Duet, ADCOM GTP-870HD, Cinepro 3K6SE III Gold, Vandersteen Model 3A Signature, Two 2Wq subs, VCC-2, Two VSM-1 Kitchen: Squeezebox BOOM Bedroom: SB3, GFR-700HD, Thiel 2.3, Second Boom Home Office: SB3, NAD C370, two VSM-1 Home Gym: SB3, Parasound Vamp v.3, Thiel PowerPoint 1.2 Mobile: SB3, Audioengine A5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ iPhone's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13622 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=52999
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