Hi, I happen to owned both the Transporter and a Naim DAC. Since then I have "upgraded" to dCS Debussy driven by Mac Mini and Pure Music.
I never made a comparison between these DACs, but I still miss the Transporter for its excellent display and interface. And my memory of it, not having made comparison side by side, is not too shady either. Question for below, have you tried mating the Transporter with one of those DACs, especially the Debussy? Will I reap the full benefit of the improvement? Or is USB/Pure Music or Amarra the connection of choice. I am about to order a Transporter SE before they disappear from the face of the earth, which it seems is the direction it is heading. thanks in advance. jh901 wrote: > 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. Anyone who suggests that DACs sound pretty > much the same either (a) have never heard a great one (b) have other > weak links in their chain (c) have such a poor set up that no system > will sound good or (d) have limitations with hearing. There's a good > reason why many seeking the very best pay $5, 10, 20 thousand or even > much more for a digital front end. > > Note that dCS is set to release Vivaldi soon. Priced at over $100 > thousand. I'm betting it will be worth it for those with "statement" > speakers and amplification. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ agentsmith's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1838 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96407 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
