Doesn't DAC Do Heavy Lifting vs. Transport?

They do make a considerable difference, unfortunately no good cheap ones I know of. Last summer I took a transport and several DACs over to a friend who uses a universal player. He is an experienced audiophile and didn't expect much if any difference. He was surprised that he could hear a considerable difference and thought that the transport made more difference than the DAC after listening to several combinations.

Like you, I assumed that the DAC, not the transport, did the "heavy lifting." That is until I improved my transport with the addition of a reclocker, which lowered the jitter. The improvements were far from subtle. They included: greater perceived resolution, less high frequency shrillness, and better image focus.

My conclusion: The transport is very important. Is it more important than the DAC? I don't know. It probably depends on which DAC and which transport.