Yes, sorry, another DAC reccomandation thread. This week I bought a Transporter and was very much looking forward to having it. I expected to hear a better sound stage than my DUET or SB3 and was hoping for more natural highs and maybe a bit more warmth and *some* bass.
The unit had some serious issues with a high frequency pop, scrathing sounds and stopping play. It would stream Internet Radio *almost* flawless, but wouldn't play flac's or m4a files at all without the before mentioned issues. I was going to return it for a replacement, but decided to listen to it as much as possible (1-4 minutes at a time) to see how it sounded compared to my favorite Revox CD player. Even without direct comparison it was obvious that it wasn't up to the task so I did a direct comparison to the SB3. Better? Maybe different is a better description. The soundstage seemed about the same, bass was maybe even less than the SB3. Highs may have been more defined, but the trade off in warmth and bass left me liking the SB3 better or about the same. I might pay $500 for the Transporter (love the looks), but not $2k. Next, I did a direct comparison to my Revox B226 Signature player. After listening to parts of 5 or 6 songs that I am very familiar with, I quit listening to the Transporter and spent the rest of my time listening to CD's on the Revox. The Revox has a great two dimensional sound stage, nice round bass and lots of warmth. The highs are very clean, but not un-natural. Not sterile at all. It's not perfect, but for my tastes it was the best player or transport I listened to at the time. So now you know what I like to hear when I listen. Warmth, nice two dimensional soundstage, nicely rounded bass and natural highs. That's my personal preferences and I'm looking for a DAC that I can run either the DUET or the SB3 through that will lean more towards that sound. It doesn't make sense to me to pay for the Transporter and then not use the DAC. Basically, it seems like your paying for all the nice outputs, of which I'd either use the RCA or balanced. That and the DAC. The SB3 sounds close enough to the Transporter where I think a nice DAC might give me what I'm looking for. Something close to the Revox with the convenience of the SB's. Don't blast me because I don't like the Transporter. To each is own. I love my SB's (4 of them) and the Transporter seems like a nice box, but the fact is (problems aside)it still isn't my cup of tea. Any ideas? Howard -- Howard Passman Can I go home now? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Howard Passman's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16674 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=64335 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
