The top digital players are manufactured by dCS and their "ring DAC" is pretty much the king. For redbook only, the Naim CD-555 is world class. Those and many, many other players (excluding the many outboard DACs) have sound quality that will surpass the sound quality of the Transporter by a huge margin. Here's a shortlist:
dCS "Ring DAC" (Scarlatti, Paganini, Debussy, Puccini) Naim DAC (CD-555) CH Precision C1 DAC APL DAC-M (Designer: Alex Peychev) Light Harmonic Da Vinci Playback Designs MPD-5 MSB Diamond DAC IV EMM Labs DAC2 Burmester (069, 089, 113) Wadia 9 series Audio Research Reference DAC Simaudio 750D (built in transport but mainly a DAC) Zanden 5000S Note that the next level down includes players such as the Cary 306 SACD Pro, which is now my reference player. The leap in sound quality over the Transporter was shocking. My speakers are very high resolution, so that's part of the equation, but nonetheless I would not have recognized the sound of my system by ear with the Cary replacing the Transporter. And that's no hyperbole. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jh901's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18175 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96407 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
