How good of a DAC is the Logitech Transporter

logitech offers a 30 day money back guarantee on the transporter. just do a head to head in your own system so you don't have to rely on other's opinions. it might be a bit of a hassle to have to ship it back, but you'll gain firsthand knowledge which is far more valuable.

When I tried it, the characteristics of the DAC in the Transport fell on the refined side with good detail. While I think it performed quite well, I prefer a more vivid sound and went with a modified PS Audio since almost all my digital collection is redbook. If you are willing to shell out an extra couple grand, you can get the output moded by Modwright with a tube stage. I heard it at RMAC and it was superb, but out of my price range at the time.

That said, I just plunked down my deposit on the new PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC - which is essentially the same thing as the Transporter once the bridge is added. Again, I prefer the more vivid nature of PS Audio products and am getting good money on my trade in.

All things being equal, the performance of the Transporter was exceptional in my opinion. Here is the stereophile review if you want more detail.

That is just the point and thank you for your opinion, however I would appreciate some feed back and hear experiences and thoughts that would lead me to that direction. Like you rightfully said it could be a hassle trying to have Logitech to take back product. So that being said is the reason were it would be nice hearing some experience.

Thank you Shazam for your feedback, I also heard that the transporters DAC sound was more analytical. I have a Tri-Vista 21 tube DAC that I like very much and find it very musical. I guess I was hoping to have both worlds using the Logitech also as a stand alone DAC with the digital input to my Mark Levinson 37 transport. Than it would be ideal and I could replace it with my present TRI-Vista 21.
The PSAudio PWD with the generous $1000.00 trade in offer seem great. However after some research on that device, I found that the features are great but the benefits less.
1) The bridge will not be wireless and for me that is very important.
Good Luck with the PWD when it arrives.

Hi Audiogalore,

I have a Logitech Transporter and it has a good DAC, but not a great DAC. The sound may be described as a bit analytical as you've mentioned above. Although I have never listened to the Tri-Vista DAC, I doubt that the Logitech DAC will satisfy you, especially since you're use to listening to a tubed DAC. I have compared the Transporter DAC to a Benchmark DAC1 and a Bel Canto DAC3. I preferred the Bel Canto, then the Benchmark and then the Transporter. All comparisons were done using Apple Lossless files.

However, I will still wholeheartedly recommend that you consider purchasing the Transporter to use as your Music Streamer, as it is a big step up from the squeezebox which I also own, and especially since the Transporter will natively handle 24Bit/96Khz, which the squeezebox will not.

The Transporter is a great front end for the money, especially when hooked up to an external DAC. I'm currently using an MBL 1611F DAC, that can handle 24/192. I recently downloaded a few test tracks at 24/96 that sound amazing. I certainly plan on expanding my 24/96 collection, heavily in the next few months.

For what it's worth, I also compared the MBL 1621A transport to the Logitech Transporter and although the MBL 1621A was clearly better and 10 times the price, it certainly wasn't embarrassing for the Logitech, nor was it worth me getting up off the couch to change songs every few minutes. I would equate the sonic difference to, upgrading your stock power cables to high-end power cables.

Rich