Critical elements for hi-rez music streaming?

Don't worry, the good news is that the Transporter is very capable of competing with some of the best SOTA Transports available. I have compared it directly to an MBL 1621A Transport with very favorable results. The MBL was marginally better, but the Transporter did not disappoint at all. I would equate the difference to upgrading an inexpensive after-market power cord to an expensive power cord.

The Transporter sounds much better through a high quality AES/EBU Digital cable to an external DAC as opposed through the SPDIF. I have spent numerous hours verifying this, unfortunately after a quick check, I believe that your Meridian processor doesn't have an AES/EBU Digital Input.

The AES/EBU Digital output of the Transporter provided a quieter noise floor, with a very black background, that provided better low level resolution, with greater transparency, and a wider and deeper soundstage.

The Meridian has great Internal DAC's and this piece was originally designed for home theater and audio, therefore that investment is spread out over the entire device, to do many things well, but not entirely focused on the best 2 channel Redbook playback available. If Meridian were able to provide the best of everything in one product and one chassis, then what would be the point of them selling other products? The fact is that no company can make one product that does everything well. FWIW, Meridian would be my Processor of choice for Home Theater.

Depending on the level of financial pain and commitment that you can endure, you may want to consider another external DAC that has an AES/EBU digital input. That's how strongly I feel about the improvements that I had experienced with the AES/EBU Digital Output on the Transporter. I hate to spend your money, but you may want to consider buying a stand-alone DAC that has an AES/EBU Digital Input. I had wonderful results with a Bel Canto DAC3 that sells here for $1500 used. As you are aware, there also many others to choose from, such as; Wadia, Esoteric, Weiss, Berkeley, Meridian, EMM Labs, dCS, Playback Designs, and Benchmark in no particular order. In this day and age when some of us spend $5000 on a Cable, I don't think my suggestion is unreasonable.

Obviously a better spdif digital cable will improve your current sound, but based on my experiences there is a ceiling there via the Transporters' spdif digital out. Keep in mind that when you choose the AES/EBU interface, you not only get the benefits of the Digital out of the Transporter, you also get the benefits of the AES/EBU Digital in of your DAC. Although, I have not tried all of the digital cables available, I have tried some expensive digital cables from; Tara, Kharma, Kubala, Wireworld, and Zu.

It all starts with the source, once you loose information or bits, you can never get it back later with a cable, "I don't care if it's a $10,000 cable, You Aint Gettin It Back."

FWIW, I was able to achieve a better result from the Transporter with a Kubala Emotion AES/EBU digital cable $550 feeding a Bel Canto DAC3 $1500, and a Kubala Emotion power cord $500 for a total outlay of $2550 all used (not counting the cost of the Transporter), then I was able to achieve with a used $3000 Tara Labs The Zero SPDIF Digital Cable. That doesn't mean that the Tara Zero is not good, perhaps the Tara Zero AES/EBU would beat out the Kubala AES/EBU, I don't know I haven't tried the Tara digital AES/EBU. What it does mean however, is that to get the best out of the Transporter, you need to use the AES/EBU interface and upgrade the power cable. After a quick check of the Tara Labs website, I'm not even sure that, the Tara The Zero Digital SPDIF Cable is available new anymore, it seems they only list the AES/EBU version? That's Interesting!

Some day I would actually love to try The Zero AES/EBU Digital in my system, I hear it's one of the best, but for now I have other areas, that I'm focusing on, like food!

There are some very good used power cables available in the $200-$600 range.

I was curious to know, what SPDIF digital cable you are currently using?

Regards,
Rich

Thanks, Rich, for your thorough information. The transporter I had borrowed for evaluation unfortunately had a problem with its AES/EBU output and so I could not try to connect it with my NBS Professional AES/EBU cable with the Audio Synthesis DAC-2 external D/A converter (with AES/EBU input) that I am currently using for my Forsell Air Reference MarkII transport. But going through two cycles of D/A conversion defeats the idea to stay in the digital domain until the processor.

As digital S/PDIF cables I use Meridian, NBS or Transparent Audio cables which have declassified many other contenders.

Do you have any insights in the sound limitations that are caused by elements before the transporter? I thought the transporter with digital in and digital out is not likely to negatively influence the sound quality, but the elements before are.

Rogerwalk: "I stream the wav files through a network router to a different room where a network player/bridge (Logitech transporter)decodes the WAV files and sends it via S/PDIF cable to a Meridian G68 XXD pre/processor which in turn converts the signal with its 24bit/96kHz DACs into an analog signal for the amplifiers and speakers."

Rogerwalk: ""But going through two cycles of D/A conversion defeats the idea to stay in the digital domain until the processor. ""

Can you explain to me where there are two cycles of D/A Conversion? Because unless I'm missing something in your explanation, I only see one D/A Conversion.

Your connection should be Transporter digital out to your Digital in of your Audio Synthesis DAC-2 and then Analog out of the DAC-2 to your Meridian G68 Analog input, then your Meridian would be acting as a source selector and line-stage at that point, and not performing a second D/A conversion. Furthermore, if you are using digital out of the Transporter then you are bypassing the Transporters DAC. The only D/A conversion that I see in my above example, would be your DAC-2.

Rogerwalk: ""Do you have any insights in the sound limitations that are caused by elements before the transporter? I thought the transporter with digital in and digital out is not likely to negatively influence the sound quality, but the elements before are.""

Yes absolutely, you have everything before the Transporter set up correctly, there should be no sound limitations as far as I can tell in your setup, as long as you have the Digital Volume all the way up on the Transporter.

When you say," the Transporter with Digital in....." above, are you referring to the Ethernet Cable as your digital in? If not then what are you referring to in your above statement when you state, "I thought the transporter with digital in and digital out is not likely to negatively influence the sound quality,......." Do you have a second digital cable into the transporter and if so, then where is it coming from?

Some suggestions would be to try the Internal Transporter DAC on its own then feed the analog out of the Transporter to the analog in on your Meridian and let me know how that sounds, and also try the SPIDF interface on the DAC-2, since the AES on the Transporter is currently non-functioning.

You can use your Forsell/Dac-2 as the reference, although I think your Audio Synthesis DAC-2 is very old, possibly over 12 years old, is this true? If so then it's time for a new DAC Buddy! Unless you like the internal DAC of the Transporter which should out perform much older DAC's.

Let me know what's up!

Rich

Unless the internal AKM DAC of the Transporter simply out of the question, consider a ModWright Truth mod that adds a tube staged output. You can tweak the sound quite a bit by rolling tubes and shorten the signal path in the process.