Digital Dilemmas, Part III: Daffy DACs

Logitech Transporter SE

I had something of a panic attack recently. Logitech, one of those big consumer electronic companies that makes everything from computer mice to universal remotes, bought Slimdevices, originator of the Squeezebox and my higher-end Transporter. (Congratulations to the founders of that great little company for what I am sure was their financial windfall. However, I hate to see innovative American companies absorbed into giant companies that serve to "lower the bar" in the race to maximize volume and revenue.)

Then my worst fears came true: Logitech quietly eliminated the Transporter. I have used my CD player fewer than a dozen times since I got my Transporter. Locating a CD out of my collection is a real pain, but I had visions of my Transporter going on the fritz, and then I'd be stuck: I had been abandoned! This resulted in a flurry of research on alternatives, which I'll share in a bit, but let me jump ahead: Logitech recently released the Transporter SE, functionally the same device and for a lower cost. I'm glad they haven't abandoned the high-end (or, really the higher-end). This was pretty clever marketing: by removing the original product for a period of time, they created something of a vacuum and pent-up demand and didn't have to worry about upsetting new purchases of the original product who suddenly saw a big price drop for essentially the same item.

So, I wasn't abandoned, after all. There was period in which I was frantic to find alternatives, assuming I was. And that opened Pandora's box. It introduced me to what really seems like the new thing in audio: the DAC, or more correctly, the standalone DAC.

There's nothing new about DACs (digital-to-analog converters): they are the heart of every CD player. It is the DAC that converts the digital one-and-zero bits to an analog signal that goes to the amplifier. A CD player is a mechanical transport that reads the bits off the media and a DAC that converts it to a signal. My Transporter is the same idea, reading bits off of the network, feeding them into a DAC.

The quality of the DAC and its supporting circuitry is the big deal. The bits fed into it aren't evenly spaced and so that unit compensates for things like their "jitter" and also is responsible for how accurately they are translated into the voltage level. Now you can make a mediocre CD player better by bypassing its built-in DAC with a better external one. Likewise, built-in DACs on computers are fine for mundane things, but you can turn your computer into a real high fidelity component by plugging a DAC into it and using that to drive your stereo.

One of the original selling points of the Transporter was that you could also use it as an external DAC. When first introduced, it was claimed to be better than all but the "reference CD" players. Since then, both parts and designs have improved. I'm pretty sure I can make my Transporter into an even better one by bypassing its DAC with a better one. I doubt my ears could really appreciate the difference. Regardless of the future of this particular product, I now know I have options. Digital libraries and quality playback are here to stay.