Logitech Transporter discontinued

[IPodPJ]

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So sorry to see that these have been discontinued.  I have two -- one attached to my Bryston/WP7 system and one attached to my Headroom Max Balanced amp.  I haven't listened to a ton of DACs, but in side-by-side comparison, it beat the DAC in my Bryston 26DA preamp (and, not surprisingly, the one in my circa 2006 Headroom Desktop amp, too).  Really my absolute favorite piece of source gear.  I think the Transporter and the Squeezebox Boom really demonstrate the engineering genius of the original Slimdevices team.
 
I'll be hanging on to my Transporters for a while!

I think eventually they will go up in value, unless something better takes their place.  There is no other unit out there that does what the Transporter does, except for the Sooloos which costs 4-5x as much.  The Transporter still has more functionality though, with all the inputs and outputs.  The Linn units do not have digital outputs so you cannot use them as transports.  Plus, there is lots of empty space in the Transporter which makes modding it a dream.  Marantz just released one for $799 which looks great for the price, but it does not have BNC or AES/EBU digital outputs or balanced analog outputs, nor does it have a word clock input.  The Transporter is still truly in a league of its own.  The only thing that bugs me is that it occasionally soft-resets itself when listening to 24/96 files and net radio, and sometimes SqueezeServer will automatically stop and you'll need to restart it.

 

[muski]

I think you're right.  Can't say I've had any other audio gear that actually went up in value!

 

[C4rl]

 
[size=10pt]I feel I must also add my name to the love-in for the Transporter, my unit is an original Slim Devices Transporter and it has been without question my most satisfying purchase to date. It feeds my Bryston BP-25/ 4B-ST and PMC OB1’s FLAC files from my HP MediaSmart server and has done faultlessly for many a year.[/size]
 
[size=10pt]Prior to its purchase I’d had various CD Players over the years, hunting for my idea of audio nirvana. I eventually bought an Slim Devices SB3 on a whim which turned out to be a bit of a revelation and it was soon joined by a Transporter which has remained in my system ever since.[/size]
 
[size=10pt]When Slim Devices was sold to Logitech I feared that it would lead to the end of the Transporter, after all it’s a high end low volume Audiophile product which is of no interest to a massive multinational most famous for selling computer peripherals.[/size]
 
[size=10pt]I often wonder at what stage of development the Transporter would be now if Sean Adams hadn’t sold Slim Devices to Logitech; after all it’s taken the rest of the audio manufacturers all these years to even equal what the Transporter offered many many years ago.[/size]
 
[size=10pt]I really don’t know what I’ll do when the Transporter eventually gives up the ghost

[/size]

 

[.Sup]

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So sorry to see that these have been discontinued.  I have two -- one attached to my Bryston/WP7 system and one attached to my Headroom Max Balanced amp.  I haven't listened to a ton of DACs, but in side-by-side comparison, it beat the DAC in my Bryston 26DA preamp (and, not surprisingly, the one in my circa 2006 Headroom Desktop amp, too).  Really my absolute favorite piece of source gear.  I think the Transporter and the Squeezebox Boom really demonstrate the engineering genius of the original Slimdevices team.
 
I'll be hanging on to my Transporters for a while!

I think eventually they will go up in value, unless something better takes their place.  There is no other unit out there that does what the Transporter does, except for the Sooloos which costs 4-5x as much.  The Transporter still has more functionality though, with all the inputs and outputs.  The Linn units do not have digital outputs so you cannot use them as transports.  Plus, there is lots of empty space in the Transporter which makes modding it a dream.  Marantz just released one for $799 which looks great for the price, but it does not have BNC or AES/EBU digital outputs or balanced analog outputs, nor does it have a word clock input.  The Transporter is still truly in a league of its own.  The only thing that bugs me is that it occasionally soft-resets itself when listening to 24/96 files and net radio, and sometimes SqueezeServer will automatically stop and you'll need to restart it.

what about Olive? 
Isn't that the same thing?

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

Isn't that the same thing?
what about Olive? 

Again, not really.  No balanced analog outputs, no BNC or AES digital outputs, no digital inputs, and no word clock input.  And the olive has a hard drive in it, the Transporter doesn't.  Hard drives tend to be noisy things, so when it comes to computer audio it's best to leave them outside the computer.
 
The Olive does have a color touchscreen, and supports 24/192 music files -- so in those two areas in beats the Transporter.

 

[Parafeed]

Yes, it's a shame, but not surprising. Four years have passed and the DAC section of the Transporter is still competitive.....

 

[.Sup]

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Isn't that the same thing?
what about Olive? 

Again, not really.  No balanced analog outputs, no BNC or AES digital outputs, no digital inputs, and no word clock input.  And the olive has a hard drive in it, the Transporter doesn't.  Hard drives tend to be noisy things, so when it comes to computer audio it's best to leave them outside the computer.
 
The Olive does have a color touchscreen, and supports 24/192 music files -- so in those two areas in beats the Transporter.

I would use it only as a transport and personally I haven't found any differences between digital outputs (that's just me so it doesn't bother me there is not bnc and aes out). If the hard drive is replaceable then you can put an SSD in instead. I don't see how having a compartment for an HDD can be a drawback.
 

 

[IPodPJ]

My Transporter mod is done and will be shipping back to me tomorrow.  Attached are two pics of the internals.  The entire analog output section, DAC chips, and stock trafos have been disabled to reduce noise.  An R-core trafo (taken from a Sony SCD-1) has been installed connecting up an Audio-gd power supply and 2 Audio-gd clocks.  Most of the caps have been replaced with Rubycons on both the Audio-gd boards and the Transporter board.  Doug from ASI Tek has also found that mounting the parts on wood pegs works out the best for dual purposes: no ground loop issues, and easy to remove in the event you want to change the mods later. The power wire used is 16AWG OCC Copper, and the signal wire is Cryoparts SCSCag OCC silver wire.
 
Why did we add an overkill R-core, you might ask?  Well, it turns out that the Audio-gd clocks draw a lot of current and would not run on the stock 1.6VA trafos (which granted, are pretty puny), with or without the Audio-gd power supply.  Doug said he has installed lots of different clocks and has never seen anything like this, but has experienced something similar with the Burson clocks which the Audio-gd JZ-1 are very similar to.
 
I am hoping it sounds even more excellent then it already did and synergizes very well with the Ref-7.  I should have it back by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.  I will post impressions then.
 

 

 

[dminches]

I purchased a fully modded Transporter from Modwright about 9 months ago.  The added tube-based analog section makes it competitive with $4-5000 DACs.  Besides its streaming capabilities it has various digital inputs which allow it to serve as a high-end DAC.  The tube section uses 2 6SN7s and a 5AR4 rectifier so tube rolling is quite easy.

 

[Dynobot]

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I purchased a fully modded Transporter from Modwright about 9 months ago.  The added tube-based analog section makes it competitive with $4-5000 DACs.  Besides its streaming capabilities it has various digital inputs which allow it to serve as a high-end DAC.  The tube section uses 2 6SN7s and a 5AR4 rectifier so tube rolling is quite easy.

Have you compared it to any $4-5000 Dacs?  If so which ones, can you give details about the comparison?
 
Would be interesting....

 

[dminches]

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Have you compared it to any $4-5000 Dacs?  If so which ones, can you give details about the comparison?
 
Would be interesting....

I have not personally but there is an extensive review of this in 6moons which compares an earlier modded transporter to much more expensive DACs. http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/modwright3/transporter.html.

 

[SiCHIPS]

Discontinued because it was too good!
 
After 3+ years and 1600 CDs ripped to AIFF using iTunes with a CAT-6 connection to the Transporter, I am seriously sad that this product is discontinued!
Anyone wanting to know just how good it is should download a 96KHz 24 bit album from HDtracks! Be prepared for wow! Steely Dan Gaucho sounds awesome!!!
 
I was actually checking to see if Logitech had 1 up the Transporter just to find this discontinued thread.
 
I am feeding the balanced digital outputs with word clock enabled into my Mark Levinson 360S/380S/335/Aerial 10Ts with Audioquest Anaconda/Volcano with all the power cords
being high grade  PS Audio cables and with all but the power amp fed by a PS Audio PS-1200 power regenerator running in tube mode.
 
Although I can swear at times that my Mark Levinson No.37 connected with identical interconnects and word clock mode beats the Transporter in terms of detail, however, whenever an
 HD tracks selection in FLAC or AIFF is played I think it is as good or definitely better with the 96KHz or 88KHz download sources.
 
I only hope my unit continues to play for years to come... By the Way, obviously using iPeng and Squeezemote on my iPhone is a big thrill in just plain fun to use.
 
My only wish is that the same capability as that offerred by the iTunes Genius Mixes was native to the SqueezeCenter software platform.
With 1600 CDs, these Genius Mixes are fantastic in letting you rediscover your music all over again!
 
Anyone have thoughts on worthwhile mods that are Non-Dac output based?
 
Thanks folks!

 

[IPodPJ]

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Anyone have thoughts on worthwhile mods that are Non-Dac output based?  
Thanks folks!

Did you even look at the posts above yours?  I have pictures of my mod.  And if you want impressions of it, go to the Audio-gd Reference 7 thread and read the last few pages.

 

[melomaniac]

okay, zombie thread - come back to life! walk! speak!
 
iPodPJ had written, way back when:
 
"I think eventually they will go up in value, unless something better takes their place."
 
and while my (original, not SE) Transporter still works, I keep running into issues with
my Mac mini that holds my music files and serves up the SqueezeCenter software
which the Transporter depends on to access my own music files.
 
So I thought I'd ask: did anyone find a worthy successor yet? If not, where are we looking?

 

[flippant1]

I have looked and there is none. Everything Squeezebox did, Logitech discontinued and the price rose dramatically. The closest thing to the transporter was the Squeezebox Touch which was like a Transporter with a touch screen. Logitech discontinued that as well.
When I bought the boombox for $219- now it's about $5-600. The Touch was about 2 and change. Get $600 for one in good condition. It was a terrific device. and I still have them throughout my house.