Unused Transporter SE's on eBay.com

[Golden Earring]

Hi all.

Just thought I'd let you know there's a guy in San Jose selling unused all-black Transporter SE's on US eBay at a sharp price. He's registered to eBay's Global Shipping Program, so you get an up-front guaranteed price including all insurance, international shipping & import duties for your country of residence - you do have to pay via PayPal to use this service.

I ordered mine on Sat 4th Feb and it arrived on Sat 25th Feb. Had my daughter & her fiancé staying over weekend, so only just had a chance to hook it up - this was easy since I already had an early Slim Devices branded model in my system. Pleased to report that it all works perfectly, and cost me considerably less than I paid for my existing one second-hand about 7 years ago.

Anyway, as of 2pm this afternoon UK time he's got 14 left. Thought someone might appreciate the heads-up!

I am not getting any commission on his sales, FYI.

Happy shopping,
Dave

[Archimago]

Indeed a fantastic price for the new device!

[Fizbin]

I bought a Transporter last year from the 'other' ebay vendor who's also selling them. I wanted to compare it with my Touch to see (or hear) if some of the claims I read were true about the Transporter sounding better. I'm not the bigger (or more expensive) is better type, so I was going to be judging the sound on a neutral plain. In fact, I was hoping my Touch would win or sound the same because I preferred its low profile and GUI over the Transporter, plus I couldn't afford to keep both units. So in essence, I wasn't planning on keeping the Transporter for too long.

Anyway, as soon as I played the Transporter I knew I'd be reluctantly selling my Touch. The sound quality was beyond what I was expecting. It was almost like I had upgraded my amp. I wrote the specific differences, but unfortunately I deleted the txt file by mistake. What stuck me from the beginning were the realistic symbol crashes and the deeper bass. Everything had more of a live, spacious sound.

I'm not necessarily saying the DAC is better in the Transporter but obviously there are other forces at play, like analog output, power supply, circuit design, etc.

Oh, and for those wondering, I did indeed level match.

[Golden Earring]

Indeed a fantastic price for the new device!

I've owned a Transporter since 2009, skewered into my Pathos Logos amp via XLR balanced interconnects (just Canford Audio ones, no snake oil!) and listening through my B&W 805s loudspeakers with a painstaking adjusted PV1 subwoofer. All of my gear is second-hand, except the 805s which just weren't available s/h in 2009 & the new Transporter which I've just bought for hardware redundancy insurance.

I'm really hard pushed to notice any difference between my music streamed from my NAS and CD's played through my (s/h!) Pathos Digit CD player which also has balanced interconnects. And from a convenience standpoint it's no contest.

Have you actually listened to a Transporter?

But I don't want to start an argument, I simply posted the information for the community's benefit: there aren't enough left for everyone to buy one anyway...

I'm sure that the people who are interested will know who they are.

Best regards,
Dave

[garym]

Have you actually listened to a Transporter?

But I don't want to start an argument, I simply posted the information for the community's benefit: there aren't enough left for everyone to buy one anyway...

I'm sure that the people who are interested will know who they are.

Best regards,
Dave

Archimago has a Transporter as far as I recall. And I'm pretty sure he was being serious, not sarcastic in his comment. Given this, I don't quite understand your response. No one in this thread has spoken *against* the Transporter as a great device. (I have two, one in main system and one spare).

[Golden Earring]

Archimago has a Transporter as far as I recall. And I'm pretty sure he was being serious, not sarcastic in his comment. Given this, I don't quite understand your response. No one in this thread has spoken *against* the Transporter as a great device. (I have two, one in main system and one spare).

The Transporter cannot IMHO be seriously described as a new "device" when the design is over 10 years old. That's why I thought I was having my leg pulled.

Glad we're all agreed it's still the nuts - after all digital audio is a fairly stable technology, despite the marketing claims of various hi-fi manufacturers. And Class A amplification can't be beat, even though it derives from the pre solid-state era. Abbey Road Studios use Classe amplifiers from Canada, and I'd do the same if I won the lottery!

To repeat, I'm sorry if I took umbrage when no slight was intended. Over 200 people have viewed this thread already, so I seem to have achieved my objective of putting the word out.

Hope everyone is happy now,
Dave

[garym]

The Transporter cannot IMHO be seriously described as a new "device" when the design is over 10 years old. That's why I thought I was having my leg pulled.

Glad we're all agreed it's still the nuts - after all digital audio is a fairly stable technology, despite the marketing claims of various hi-fi manufacturers. And Class A amplification can't be beat, even though it derives from the pre solid-state era. Abbey Road Studios use Classe amplifiers from Canada, and I'd do the same if I won the lottery!

To repeat, I'm sorry if I took umbrage when no slight was intended. Over 200 people have viewed this thread already, so I seem to have achieved my objective of putting the word out.

Hope everyone is happy now,
Dave

no problem at all. thanks for posting. The price seems very reasonable. And I think Archimago's comment re: "new" meant that these are new-in-box stock vs a new design. But anyhow, all good and mission accomplished.

[Golden Earring]

Hi everyone.

I note that a lot of people have viewed this thread, and that 4 more Transporter SE's have been bought from the source I mentioned since my original posting.

Obviously I can't say for certain that this a result of my heads-up, but it does represent a dramatic rise in the seller's sales trend. If any of you have followed my lead, I hope that you'll be as delighted with your purchase when it arrives as I was with mine.

However the main reason for posting again is to relate that I have just today received a Mytek Brooklyn DAC which I got for a substantial discount bidding in an eBay auction. Just like my dear departed Mum I do love a bargain...

Anyway, using cables sourced from Canford Audio who supply all manner of studio leads at sensible prices, I connected my Transporter using the AES XLR digital output into a corresponding AES XLR digital input on the Mytek, and also linked up the Brooklyn's 0.8ps jitter word clock to the Transporter's word clock in (BNC lead). The Transporter's own clock with 20ps jitter has in the past been hailed as exceptional, and essentially reducing jitter to an inaudible level. But less can be more, and using the Mytek FemtoClock as master certainly won't do any harm to the fidelity.

It took less than 30 minutes to adjust the Transporter settings through the Windows GUI and to optimise the DAC settings. Turned my amp on low volume to be careful, and then went for it...

It worked straight off, and the sound is totally stunning. I thought my system was pretty good before but I'm astonished by the improvement. It's like the best of analogue sound but with the noise floor and extension of digital at both the top & bottom frequencies. The staging can only be described as rock solid, and suddenly my subwoofer has become more natural and totally controlled. Vocal and instrument timbres are much more nuanced and the background is pitch black.

Yet again I find myself hearing low-level details on familiar recordings that I've never heard before, as I did when I got my present amp & speakers (and s/hand Slim Devices Transporter with knob) about 7 years ago.

I strongly recommend anyone considering a high-end DAC to check the Mytek Brooklyn out. Even at full price (around £1600) it's a steal because it also incorporates an MC/MM analogue phono equalising amp for vinyl fans and a separate headphone amp designed to drive even the most demanding cans. There are two headphone jack sockets in opposite phase to each other on the front panel that can be used in combination to drive balanced headphones. With appropriate input it can handle PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD up to 256. The cherry on the top is that is at present the only non-Meridian hardware to incorporate MQA decoding for Bob Stuart's recent hi-res innovation. I believe that Warner have acquired the rights to use MQA for their entire music catalogue, and it has certainly received very positive reviewers who seem mostly to have remained bemused how such "magic" could possibly work. As far as I can establish, it's done with a combination of complex maths and a healthy measure of neuroscience. I think you'd have to take Bob out and get him drunk to learn the full story!

All that ultimately matters to me is how engaging the musical end product is - my ears are always my only reliable guide. Of course it's nice when equipment measures well in the lab (the Mytek does that too) but there remains a subjective element to musical enjoyment that still seems elusive to current measuring capabilities and of course the need for synergistic components throughout the audio chain is essential. The interface between the listening area and the speakers can often be the most dominant factor.

My next project will be to sound-treat my own listening room which is not too small at around 4.3m square, but of course square is not ideal, and I also have a concrete floor (covered by generous underlay and a thick pile carpet). The worst aspect is the beam-and-concrete ceiling just over 2.4m above the floor and currently highly reflective on the shortest parallel and therefore highest resonant frequency for the room. Fortunately my upstairs neighbour is out quite a lot during the day, and comes down for my personal cinema club almost every evening. This buys me considerable goodwill!

These are just my initial impressions of this DAC which I just fired up around 8:30pm tonight: so far I've only put 16bit/44.1kHz recordings through it and it's now too late to test out my 24bit/96kHz stuff without causing a public nuisance. I'll report again when I'm fully familiarised with the Brooklyn. But it's got my vote for both significant addition to my gear and for bargain of the week (maybe even year).

Happy listening all,
Dave

[Wombat]

Yes, neuroscience works. It means to make a listener to believe he hears something while he doesn't.

[Golden Earring]

Yes, neuroscience works. It means to make a listener to believe he hears something while he doesn't.

It's a good job I've already been assured that newbies don't get their legs pulled on this forum.

I have no idea whether MQA encoding works as claimed (because I don't have any) or whether it will ever become successful commercially. On the other hand, it's a lot cheaper to manufacture & store digital download files than say physical DVD-A or SACD's, which were a bit before my time but I believe did not thrive...

As I stated, my initial impressions were of feeding the AES digital output of my Transporter into the Mytek Brooklyn whilst making the Transporter a slave to the Mytel's master FemtoClock, using 16bit/44.1kHz PCM music with which I am extremely familiar.

I've had the same hardware in my hi-fi for 7 years - I think that makes me reasonably entitled to offer my opinion on the effect of introducing a new DAC into my audio chain.

I'm enjoying the experience and ultimately, as also stated above, that's all that matters to me.

Wishing everyone musical joy and peace,
Dave