If you have a "kick booty" DAC, does the transport

I've always been of the opinion that if a transport really does make a huge difference, then we need to move rapidly to a different read/transport mechanism than the traditional transport. Reading from digital media and delivering to a high quality DAC should be a straight-forward, extremely reliable process.

I've always been very satisfied with Sony DVD players as transports, but drive most of my music from a music server with a digital output now. Once ripped from the CD to the HD, getting the information off the disc and out the digital output should be error free. If you use a USB DAC, then the USB interface introduces synchronized clocking and two-way communication which, again, should allow for error free transfer. If it didn't work reliably, then you wouldn't be successful using USB ports to transfer data to an external HD, or camera, or whatever.

I will admit to never spending much time experimenting with different transports or digital cables - the bit of experimenting I did do didn't yield many differences of any magnitude, and it was clear to me that digital source would gravitate to HD-based systems, at least for me. Maybe transports and/or cables make a difference - I still wouldn't spend any extra money on a dedicated transport at this point.

Does the transport really matter? In my experience, yes, at least as much as the DAC itself. Even with a jitter-reduction box in between, and a balanced connection, and extensive power conditioning all around. And my admittedly limited experience has been that the mere fact of taking the data off a hard drive, rather than disk, is no panacea or guarantee of superior results either. Every change to the digital front end I've tried was clearly heard at my ears, including digital interconnects, power cords, and transports/players. But my Theta DAC was a hot ticket 10 years ago, and while my tests during interim have comforted me that it's not obsolete by my own standards, take my observations for what they're worth in light of your definition of "kick-booty". Still, if transports didn't matter today, then why would the world's latest and greatest disk-playing gear continue to place a premium on their functional integrity?

My experience:
Had a separate DAC and transport. The DAC was an Adcom 700 and the transport a rotel stand-alone transport.
Then I bought a Sony SC777ES.
The Sony as transport via the same Adcom DAC totally blew away the Rotel transport in all areas.
I sold the Rotel and felt guilty asking money for it!!! The Sony as transport was that much better.
So, IMO yeah, the transport IS very, very important.

My DAC is pretty old, (Counterpoint DA-10a)....still, I could clearly hear the difference between the three players and one dedicated transport I have tried with it.

There would be cases I'd think where you may hear little or no difference for other reasons, ie...your system, or...the two transports are very equal in build...just guessing here?

To be honest, I was surprised myself. The player I had intended to use as a transport is a fairly heavy and well built Technics DVD A-10 that I had no other use for...a cheap little Pioneer wiped the floor with the Technics?

I'm now using an old Kinergetics dedicated transport...it added some meat to the bones that I thought was the Pioneers biggest weakness...kick drums, ect. now have the proper heft.

Dave

Like anything else here it will boil down to do you feel it WILL help, you may not hear a diffrence and it certainly wont be night and day....but maybe you will hear a better sound, or atleast think you do. I know guys that use Sony DVD players as transports and they sound awesome into a DAC.