Duet + DAC versus Transporter

[Jesper Pedersen]

Hi'
I have decent high-end Hi-Fi equipment, D-Link DNS-323 NAS and abot 10.000 FLAC files. I have two questions, that I would like to get some views on based on your experiences.
(1) What option will give the best sound result for 2.000 $:
* New Duet with external DAC
* SB3 with external DAC
* Transporter
(2)I have read many nice things about Benchmark 1 DAC. But are there other better alternatives in the stipulated price range in your views?

Thanks for your input and advices.

[Phil Leigh]

Hi'
I have decent high-end Hi-Fi equipment, D-Link DNS-323 NAS and abot 10.000 FLAC files. I have two questions, that I would like to get some views on based on your experiences.
(1) What option will give the best sound result for 2.000 $:
* New Duet with external DAC
* SB3 with external DAC
* Transporter
(2)I have read many nice things about Benchmark 1 DAC. But are there other better alternatives in the stipulated price range in your views?

Thanks for your input and advices.

I prefer the MF Dacs (X-v3 or X-v8) to the Benchmark - purely a "taste" thing. You should at least listen to them. MF DACs benefit greatly from Audiocomm mods (but they aren't cheap). Even without the mods, I enjoy their "friendly" sound in my system (which can sound a little dry/grey).

I would expect the Duet+DAC and SB3+Dac to sound identical.
Can't comment on TP as I have not yet heard one.

[Rodney_Gold]

I have both the transporter and SB3, I find the transporters sound thru its dac clinical and unnvolving compared the My Jolida CDP. It's a very accurate sound and even thru a Musical fidelity valve headphone amp it's still not tamed so I doubt even a tubed pre would help that much. Maybe its a personal thing on my part..but there are others that share my sentiments.
At the moment I put up with it cos I wanted the transporter for other reasons , but it wasnt the upgrade I expected from my cdp's sound into my headphone setup.
I think I would have been better off with a SB and a dac with balanced and rca outputs , as I cant really change the transporters sonics to suit my taste. I was hoping for the magic bullet , but never got it. At least with a duet/sb and offboard dac you can experiment and try different dacs till you get what you want.
So my suggestion is to go SB3 or Duet.......your mileage may vary.
Unfortnately I never had the facilities to audition a TP as I live in South Africa and the agents had to get one in for me. At any rate , I would suggest audition one first ......try its internal dac and then try its spdif output into the dac of your choice , see which you prefer , if its the offboard dac , go with my suggestion of the sb or duet.

Make no mistake, the transporter is damn good value for what it can do and what it is.......
I use the TP's RCA, XLR and spdif outputs simultaneously in one room and use the SB's digital output into a pretty expensive pair of meridian speakers. There is still one thing I want to try and thats to use my Z-sys which is a digital pre , digital parametric eq and has some dither settings , betwwen the TP's own spdif out and its dac inputs , this was possible with a version of its firmware , however the firmware has been withdrawn and on my setup the new firmware caused other problems , Im sure this foldback feature will be reinstated at some time with stable FW.

[SuperQ]

Personally I would go with the transporter. I suppose I am biased because that is what I ended up with. ;-) I think it sounds great, is a simple solution, and looks great.

[Anne]

Impossible to say, it depends purely on your ears, and since we dont know how good they are, then.....
Some people report finding it extremely different to hear differences between dacs, some report the SB3 built-in dac is very good etc etc.
How much resolving power your hifi system is capable off, your listening environment, and your ears decide, not other peoples advice really.
I just seen one guy sell his Benchmark because he didnt hear a difference between that and his Philips dvd player by the way, and another guy into headphones sold his in favor of the dead cheap Berehsford dac, so it depends....

The way I heard it with electrostatics was that the SB3 alone created a strange sound, kind of like music in 2 speakers and some vcals thrown in the middle. No ambience, no perspective, no deep bass.
Switching instantly between that and the digital out going to my Bryston dac was interesting. Suddenly deep bass, an organic sound with lots more height, width and depth, perspective restored. The Bryston has tremendous resolving power.
So, I cant give you advice really, but I would say, look at the SB3/Duet and Transporters features, there are differences there, and that also needs some looking into, depends what you "need". With the Transporter you can use it as a preamp, connecting other sources to it, that might give you better sound considering you dont need a preamp to color things anymore.....

[opaqueice]

Thanks for your input and advices.

There may be other issues than SQ to consider. I don't know if you use a preamp, but if you don't - or if you're thinking of getting rid of it - an external DAC with an analogue volume control might suit you better than a Transporter.

Otherwise I think you're just going to have to listen for yourself. You're never going to find consensus on which sounds better, because "sounds better" is a subjective, personal judgment.

[Jesper Pedersen]

Hi;

Thanks for all the good advices. I'm in favour of getting as Duet combined with a DAC - I'll have to test a few ones in order to find my favourite one. I think one of the main decision points are the flexibility, that I get by combining Duet with an external DAC.

Once again thanks for your feedback.

Jesper

[Paradigm]

Hi;

Thanks for all the good advices. I'm in favour of getting as Duet combined with a DAC - I'll have to test a few ones in order to find my favourite one. I think one of the main decision points are the flexibility, that I get by combining Duet with an external DAC.

Once again thanks for your feedback.

Jesper

The duet receiver Dac is very good- it sound as good as the Linn Ikemi cd-player. There is no need to buy a different, separated dac in my opinion.
But you have to listen, to make your own judgement.
( The dac and buffer is very different compared to the SB 3, in the receiver it is from Wolfson-so is the buffer, integrated in the dacchip )

[Andy8421]

Jesper,

FWIW, I managed to convince myself that the SB3 sounded better with my DAC (Krell) that the Duet. Neither SB3 or Duet sounded as good as the orginal CD player driving the Krell DAC direct. No idea why. Thinking of trying the transporter as digital source instead (posted the question in another thread).

Good luck.

[HectorHughMunro]

I would suggest the Duet. I would wonder whether there is an hardware update in the pipeline that will make the Squeezeboxes 'N' compliant and when I bought mine, I avoided the Transporter for that reason.

The Duet Receiver is cheap and if they do go 'N' compliant, swapping it out or upgrading to the next iteration of the Transporter from there would be less painful from a cost point of view.

I use a Duet through a Cambridge 840c which is used as a DAC. Very good sound indeed.