Transporter v. Squeezebox 3 w/ DA10?

[blessingx]

Anyone have any thoughts on this battle? Have the opportunity to pick up a Transporter discounted, but curious if others have compared?

[boomana]

Anyone have any thoughts on this battle? Have the opportunity to pick up a Transporter discounted, but curious if others have compared?

How much of a discount?

[jp11801]

if you want to hear the transporter stop by, I'll have it another week or so and then it's off to a-gon to finance the new turntable. I'd go SB and a better dac over the transporter but that's just me. The tp sounds a little thin to me although it's got great detail it lacks body

[granodemostasa]

if you want to hear the transporter stop by, I'll have it another week or so and then it's off to a-gon to finance the new turntable. I'd go SB and a better dac over the transporter but that's just me. The tp sounds a little thin to me although it's got great detail it lacks body

that's pretty much what I heard, slightly better than the DA10, but not something that justifies it's hype or price. personally the Stello MKII would be far more likable, same thing with a DP200 if you need a pre.

[blessingx]

Discount would be $500. So it would basically be $1500 v. $1300 for the combo.... which I already have. If I sold the SB3/DA10, probably $400-500 to "upgrade". jp11801 thanks for the offer. Unfortunately, I leave on vacation Sunday so won't be around.

[philodox]

Just thought I would paste the communication I received here in case anyone else is interested in the information.

RE: The new 'Truth' mods for the Transporter.

Q - Do you put in your own clock, or use the stock one? The tubes look great, and I bet they sound nice as well.

A - We keep the stock clock as it is already excellent and has a dedicated Jung Super Regulated supply already.

Q - You said that the balanced output is from two transformers. Do they convert to balanced from an unbalanced output stage?

A - Yes.

Q - Any way to have a balanced output straight from the DAC? The 6CG7 is a great tube, I use it in my amplifier, the 6GU7 is another variant and is a slightly lower gain version. The RCA 6GU7 is the best tube I've found in this family and can be had for very low prices.

A - Thanks for the tip RE 6GU7. The circuit type used is SE only. It is possible to run a dual-diff. circuit from the DAC, but the transformers also serve to reduce tube circuit gain by 4:1 and subsequently the noise floor. They also reduce the output impedance to a VERY friendly 110ohms, from the 600ohms otherwise from the tube circuit without OPT's.

Thanks and I hope that this reply is still relevant at this late date. Interest is certainly increasing in this product and those that have it, REALLY are enjoying our modified unit.

Take care,

Dan W.

[slwiser]

SB3 for ~280 plus the Lavry for ~ 925 is much less than a Transporter from what I have seen.

[xand1x]

I'm not too sure how the Lavry DA10 compares to the Stello DA220, but just to chime in I thought the Transporter was a better overall performer than the DA220.

[tkam]

FYI looks like APL is now modding Transporters as well: http://aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=688

[philodox]

Sounds cool, but single ended outputs only.

[tkam]

Yeah thats a bit of a bummer but it's also probably why the cost is only $1200 for the mods.

[postjack]

Yeah thats a bit of a bummer but it's also probably why the cost is only $1200 for the mods.

still looks cool, basically its just some brand new DACs in there. Must completely change the sound.

[tkam]

If you read the thread it's bit more than that . 4 dacs per channel + new output stage and I guess maybe some power supply changes?

[grawk]

Someone needs to crack open an airport express, and see if you can take the I2S signal from the board and feed a dac. Imagine combining a pico style dac section with an airport express.

[immtbiker]

My transporter dac output is definitely a bunch of notches above, when compared to my ex-SB3>Ack dAck! 1.3 using a real good Stereovox coax digtal cable, but pales in comparison to the output of a DV-50 using CD and lossless, switching with matched volume.

[justin]

Someone needs to crack open an airport express, and see if you can take the I2S signal from the board and feed a dac. Imagine combining a pico style dac section with an airport express.

Are there analog outputs on the Airport express and also an optical output? Open one up and take pics

edit: here's a pic

how does this work, do you need USB plugged in, or will it work over wireless ethernet?

[shokunin]

The airport express is wireless 802.11/b/g sync'd with iTunes. As an apple product it is tied to iTunes, so I doubt it will work with any other media player like Foobar.

[grawk]

The airport express is wireless 802.11/b/g sync'd with iTunes. As an apple product it is tied to iTunes, so I doubt it will work with any other media player like Foobar.

google airtunes

[shokunin]

I had the lavry DA/10 and a stock transporter and thought the tranporter was better in terms of overall musicality. It was a stock SB3 w/ an Elpac PSU into the lavry with either a Stealth Varidig, VH Audio pulsar, or Dodson digital cables were used between the SB3 and the Lavry. The Lavry was a bit darker and slower than the transporter. I dunno, the digital out the squeezebox was disappointing for me. I don't think it was the Lavry per se, but rather how bad the digital output was on the stock SB3. The Lavry sounded better driven off the transporter but the squeezebox's digital out sounds slow and bloated.

The transporter itself is rather mellow in my opinion, not very aggressive anywhere and a bit thin in the all so important midrange. I don't think it's really that bad as some bash it to be. Neither were in the EMM labs league that I had at the same time.

My transporter is now at APL awaiting surgery.

[shokunin]

google airtunes

Stand corrected! I should have known someone would hack into it (like everything else Apple) to make it work with something other than crappy itunes.

Glenn

[grawk]

Stand corrected! I should have known someone would hack into it (like everything else Apple) to make it work with something other than crappy itunes.

Glenn

Airfoil rather. But I'm a big fan of itunes anyway. I've tried most other music management suites, and I still always go back to itunes.

[immtbiker]

I have my transporter running digital Mogami XLR out into my Dac 6e and it is the shit.

In hindsight, I should have stuck with the SB3 using a Cardas RCA>XLR converter and saved $1200.

[shokunin]

You'd need more than a cardas RCA to XLR adapter, you would have needed a special cable with a transformer to change the impedance from 75 ohms of SPDIF to 110ohms of AES/EBU. I wondered why Ed Meitner didn't put SPDIF inputs on the Dac6's.

Have you tried word clocking on the Dac6e? With my DCC2 it actually sounded worse word-clocked from the transporter \, which is one of the reasons I bought the transporter (word clock input). Not only did sound worse, I'd get pops and clicks randomly, maybe it was trying to emulate vinyl ..