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How good of a DAC is the Logitech Transporter

I have a Squeeze Box 3 digital out to a Tri-Vista 21. I am considering upgrading to a transporter main reason to get HI-RES native 96/24 FLAC download music which the transporter supports.
My question is the transporter a great sounding stand alone DAC and will I hear a difference between 48/24 through my present up sampled Tri-Vista 21 vs. 96/24 native supported transporter.
Thank you in advance for your feedback.
audiogalore
richlane
167 posts
 
Hi Jglim,

Quote from Jglim: "From my reading of other people's reviews (no personal experience with transporter myself), the use of the transporter seems to outperform a DAC in the 2-3K region."

In my experience this has not been the case. As stated above, I feel that although the Transporter DAC was no slouch and it may certainly be considered pleasing, it was not able to outperform the $1000 Benchmark DAC1, nor the $2500 Bel Canto DAC3.

In other words, I feel that the Dac in the Transporter is good enough to allow an audiophile who doesn't own an external DAC, to live with it happily for a year or so, until they may be able to upgrade to a stand-alone DAC.

However, when the Transporter was used as a stand-alone Transport, I felt that although it lost the shootout, it did hold it's own against the 10 times more expensive MBL 1621A Transport.

I hope that helps you.

Rich
richlane
167 posts
 
Hi Audiogalore,

I'm glad I was able to help. You are exactly right!

With the Squeezebox used as the Front-End the sound was abysmal and with the Logitech Transporter leading the way as the Front-End the sound was phenomenal, even though both front-ends were hooked up to a top-notched DAC, during the shootout.

Rich
audiogalore OP
70 posts
 
Rich, I also take it that you were streaming 96/24 as your test when you had performed your comparison of the two units this morning.
richlane
167 posts
 
No I didn't, because the Squeezebox can't handle 24Bit/96khz, it max's out at 24Bit/48Khz and I don't have any 24/48 music files.

I should also point out that I always keep the Digital Volume Control all the way up, on the Transporter and so I did the same for the Squeezebox. Both were ultimately running through an MBL 6010D Analog Preamp that controls the volume.

Rich
audiogalore OP
70 posts
 
Okay Rich fair analysis, I am curious with the thought, when I spoke to a tier 2 Logitech technical rep. they mentioned the only difference in sound would be 96/24 domain. As a Electrical Engineer, I follow your process of elimination and trust your integrity as a end user and the real world with the associated in-out circuitry that you based your test on.

Again thank you for your support on this issue.
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