Does the Transport make a significant difference

Not to the same degree of magnitude, but I believe it's important almost to the point of turntable/cartridge/arm combo.

These days, with modern gear, if things are done well, it should not affect the sound much at all. At least that is what I have been finding in recent years. Most newer "transports" are more than adequate. ALl the rest matters more. If you rip and play files rather than CDs, then most any modern computer optical drive will do, as long as you use good fail safe software for the ripping.

It can make it better because of better mechanical design. quieter power supply and better output stage, but it can make it worse if output slew rate is high (short transitions) and your coax or DAC is not perfectly matched. It is a system thing.

The Transport and specifically the jitter in the digital signal is actually more important than the DAC.

What you have is a major mismatch in performance. You have two options:

1) buy a really expensive transport, say $3K+

2)add a Synchro-Mesh reclocker to your transport $600 plus power supply

The reclocker is not a Band-Aid and will make your transport totally important. The cable from transport to the reclocker is also unimportant. You can use the cheapest plastic toslink does not matter. 30-day money-back guarantee, less shipping.

The biggest advantage of the reclocker is that it isolates the clocking from the DAC and transport noise. It is powered from its own isolated power supply. IT is designed specifically to isolate both inputs and outputs and provide signals with minimum jitter. You can use a really good low-noise, fast-reacting DC supply like the Dynamo to power the reclocker and you will get world-class results. Reviews and customer feedback:
http://www.empiricalaudio.com/news-and-reviews/synchro-mesh

Also I recommend to replace your coax cable to the DAC with one that is unbeaten in the market place, my BNC-BNC with AC adapters. I make very little money on this cable. I created it so that I could provide my customers with a reasonably priced solution.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Transport and jitter is important, but gear has improved in general at all price points in recent years and practically I just have not heard much difference between most good quality players. Not theat they are are equally good in regards to jitter, just that most seem good enough to be one of the last things to worry about after all the rest. Theoretically, we know no two designs are exactly the same and some will measure better than others.

Ripping to files and playing from those takes it completely out of the picture. Anyone who spends a lot of money on a transport these days rather than ripping to file and using a music server is mostly throwing away good money these days compared to the alternative technical approaches possible.

If you must play CDs and are willing to pay to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of things once you have mastered all the rest that goes into good sound, then there is a case to be made to pay more perhaps for a transport, even if just as an insurance policy more so than anything one is ever likely to hear.

But that's what obsessed audiophiles do quite often though I suppose, so why should transports be any different.