If you have a "kick booty" DAC, does the transport

Does the transport really matter? In my experience, yes, at least as much as the DAC itself. Even with a jitter-reduction box in between, and a balanced connection, and extensive power conditioning all around. And my admittedly limited experience has been that the mere fact of taking the data off a hard drive, rather than disk, is no panacea or guarantee of superior results either. Every change to the digital front end I've tried was clearly heard at my ears, including digital interconnects, power cords, and transports/players. But my Theta DAC was a hot ticket 10 years ago, and while my tests during interim have comforted me that it's not obsolete by my own standards, take my observations for what they're worth in light of your definition of "kick-booty". Still, if transports didn't matter today, then why would the world's latest and greatest disk-playing gear continue to place a premium on their functional integrity?

My DAC is pretty old, (Counterpoint DA-10a)....still, I could clearly hear the difference between the three players and one dedicated transport I have tried with it.

There would be cases I'd think where you may hear little or no difference for other reasons, ie...your system, or...the two transports are very equal in build...just guessing here?

To be honest, I was surprised myself. The player I had intended to use as a transport is a fairly heavy and well built Technics DVD A-10 that I had no other use for...a cheap little Pioneer wiped the floor with the Technics?

I'm now using an old Kinergetics dedicated transport...it added some meat to the bones that I thought was the Pioneers biggest weakness...kick drums, ect. now have the proper heft.

Dave

Like anything else here it will boil down to do you feel it WILL help, you may not hear a diffrence and it certainly wont be night and day....but maybe you will hear a better sound, or atleast think you do. I know guys that use Sony DVD players as transports and they sound awesome into a DAC.

Yes it matters very much.
It all starts at the Extractment of the Data.
A DAC's limiting factor, is the quality of the data its fed.

Anthony