Customer Reviews

Logitech Transporter® SE: Network Music Player (Black)

5 star:		(8)
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OK, so I've been an "audiophile" for 20 years. But I'm not a hard-core audiophile in the sense that I don't spend my freetime auditioning interconnect cables or "breaking in" solid state audio gear. There are great improvements in higher end equipment, and even interconnects, but I'm not a sucker and don't subscribe to $20 per foot speaker cable. I own a pair of Thiel CS2.3 speakers with the last of the breed, and rather venerable, Adcom GFP-750 preamp (which even today, is a fantastic silent pre-amp compared to anything under $2,000) and the Adcom GFA-5802, which also is a venerable solid-state amplifier receiving excellent reviews from high-end audiophile magazines at the time, and continues to fetch an excellent price on E-bay. I never expected that the slim devices Transporter would sound better, or even as good as, my Adcom GCD-750 CD player as a source component. I was going to be rather content with the unit if it sounded pretty good, but offered the convenience features of an audio server. When I ripped some uncompressed audio from my CDs and queued up some tunes in the transporter, I was literally amazed by the quality of sound from the Transporter. It surpassed my trusty old friend, the GCD-750, with a wider sound stage, more "air" and transparancy between the performers, warmer mid-range, cleaner highs, and more slam in the bass. And my GCD-750 is a great CD player. I wouldn't say it is night and day, but it is a significant improvement. I was skeptical of the format of a music server, so the fact that it offered BETTER music reproduction than my GCD-750 source is truely a remarkable achievement for a unit you can pick up for $1700, if you watch the sales. The feature set is also stunning and exceeded, by far, my expectations. With over 600 CDs ripped into the unit, I am now like a baby in a candy shop with every single tune in my collection not more than 5-10 seconds away. I remember carefully opening the unit as not to destroy any of the packaging expecting I might take advantage of the 30-day return policy. Well, the box and packaging is now downstairs in the basement for good. It is truly the finest audio component I've ever purchased. At $1800 it's not chump change, but if you've been thinking about a music server, or even a stand-alone DAC, you can't go wrong with the Logitech Transporter.

Most electronic hardware is a snap to set up, why waste time reading the manuals. However the Transporter is different in that respect. The brief manual included with the unit is out of date regarding computer software names and links. I was thrown at first getting my pc server to release the data being read. Adding a few custom settings in my (C.A.)software firewall remedied that problem. The firewall settings are actually mentioned in the manual....go figure? So I cannot stress strongly enough to (RTMD!...Read The Manual Dummy!)

There is some very knowledgable info about the Transformer at wikipedia.org, the Logitech site is useful for basic system software and a few FAQ's. Do yourself a favor and write down all ip settings for future reference. The use groups at wikipedia are where you'll find the fun stuff. Start a folder on your PC and save all links to it.

Confused by what I've just written, than you'll need a trusted friend with a bit above average computer skills and a free afternoon, or be prepaired to pay someone to do your setup for you. If either of these is going to be the case than you might want to reconsider purchasing this unit. This system is not designed for the impatient.

As with most all high-end gear, source is very important (GIGO). I've noticed nuances unheard before in a number
of my chosen reference recordings, as well as previously unnoticed distortions. Audio listening being subjective makes one wonder if hearing such is due to the critical listening of the moment or the new gear. Or could it be that we desire to hear new subtleties after dropping a decent chunk of change on a new toy. Is it a combination of these things or none of them. From where I sit I'm going with the new box and a bit higher resolution included therein. It makes the fun, funner, the good, gooder and the hey! I never noticed Coltrane bumping the mic stand on that or was that a squeek from Charlie Byrd's chair. To me its akin to putting a new stylus on your favorite cartridge.

The Transformer runs on an open source platform and some of the the tweaks written by use group members are nice additions to the unit. My wife really enjoys having the local weather data available at a glance. Before you get into the tweaks have the overall system operation down pretty well. I've found it best to backup the PC settings before doing any tweaking to be able to undo easily.

The remote that comes with the Transformer does not have a display and is line of sight only. This can be annoying for general listening. After a few weeks I went ahead and bought a Squeezebox Duet system to gain a remote with display and non line of sight control. I put the Duet receiver out in my workshop. This really allows you to do some cool stuff, you can sync the music on the players or have them run independently. This also allows you to use the remote controller as a third unit via it's 1/8" headphone jack or with adapter cables to plug it into another system as well. It can also be in sync. with the other units or independent of them. The Transformer remote takes standard batteries, the Squeezebox remote
is rechargable with station include. The Squeezebox remote is also very customizable in both function and appearance. Adding the Squeezebox unit did cost more money, however the ability to program and operate the Transformer was greatly increased with this upgrade to the system.

It is also possible to program many system settings of the Transporter via your computer, your offered plenty of built in redundancy. You have your choice of using the front panel buttons, the remote control or the computer interface. It is possible to program and control music via computer, plus compatability with WinAmp. There is a Java based software emulator that some may like also. The unit auto updates it's own firmware, software seems to be updated on a regular basis too.

I'm really not going to get into the web audio streaming functions. There are limitless choices here both free and pay to play. Your dealing with low bit-rate streams in most cases, there is quite a good world wide station search function
to use. I've used the optical line in feature to do a bit of A/B testing between CD's and Lossless streams and really have heard no discernable difference in sound quality between them. There are also options that will connect you to web based music databases, Amazon.com, and also Bio and Discog search abilities plus plenty more bells and whistles to boot.

It is very hard to not go on and on about the Transporter, as mentioned it is a piece of gear that demands patience. Being somewhat past the half-century mark I may not fully utilize some of the available functions offered herein. I do however thoroughly appreciate having those choices made available. To be able to either Set It and Forget It, or to be transported into an entirely new audio adventure.

Steve S.
Fort Worth, Tx

This unit works very well to send music to a quality stereo system via a high speed home wireless network. I recommend buying and using a different software like Easy CD-DA extractor to convert your cds to hard drive files into formats like FLAC or m4a or mp3. Then the transporter can be linked to your music files on the hard drive and you can play them via your computer. This unit does come with a squeeze center software that allows you to link to iTunes if you already have that set up and also it allows different playlists. It can also take downloaded higher quality 24 bit/96khz files and play them in addition to the 16 bit/44 khz cd quality files or mp3's. Be sure to back up your files as it takes a long time to build up a hard drive with good music files and you do not want to lose them. The sound of the cds when converted to FLAC files are as good as from a very high end cd player. Of course with mp3's it is a little less quality, but that is no fault of this unit. There are some other more expensive units like from Naim, etc, and compared to them this is a good value. If you want something for less, and don't need the higher quality, the regular squeeze box is worth a look.

The Transporter isn't cheap, but its fairly priced for all it does. The server software it relies on integrates cleanly with iTunes if desired, but is perfectly capable of standing alone without iTunes. The controls and menus are logically organized, making it easy to use. I rip all my music lossless, and had been very happy with the Squeezebox3 also made by Logitech. Stepping up from the Squeezebox3 to the Transporter was like someone cleaning out my ears, and that says a fair bit as the Squeezebox is no slouch in its own right. Installing the server software and configuring the Transporter is very straightforward if you are familiar with home networking, and setting up a wireless access point. The internal DAC is quite respectable, and the Transporter's single-ended, balanced, and digital outputs will allow it to reside in your system for years to come as you upgrade the rest of your system to keep up with it. My only regret is not having bought it sooner.

I'm a bit of an audiophile tech geek and I love this thing. It's actually easy to set up and for the geeks of us out there, the DAC sounds great, easily the best DAC in the price range. The system itself is flexible and with the more recent software updates it's removed any of the minor glitches I might have complained about. For my less audiophile/geek friends I have gotten them Logitech Booms. It's a great sounding system and is easy enough for my technologically impaired father to manage. You can use this device and the boom with or without the logitech squeezebox server software. For my dad, I just have him set up to use the boom as an internet radio. All in all a great sounding solution.

First off let me say that I have had been using slim devices/logictech products for 5 years as my DAR's (Digital Audio Receiver). I have 3 Squeezebox 3's (classics), so I have known about the Transporter for quite some time. Several other audio compaines have jumped on the digital audio bandwagon in recent years and a few are more popular than the slim device brand. Slim device was the first to put out a high quality product to set the standard for others to follow/live up to. The Transporter is on par with a pair of MJ classic Air Jordans, there are many other shoes out there but none are the original Air Jordans. And this is were the Transporter stands out, the build quality of this unit is old school HiFi, with brush metal case housing real audio components. It fits with the audiophile mindset with it faux rack mounts, along with the futrue look of the digital display. The Transporter has more input/output connections than most AVR's, and when was the last time you seen XLR balance/unbalance connection on a piece of audio gear. Now that is true retro connectifitive.

Since I already had squeezeboxes up and running, I had no issues adding this jewel to the mix. It locked on to my home network and BAM! life was good. I slide it into my rack and used the old school display setting of the analog meters (looks better on this than on the smaller display face of the classic models)and used a raw ripped (uncompressed) file to use as my sound test. The top end was clear and crisp, the bottom end was tight and precise. The Transporter transcoded the raw WAV file into a FLAC file. If you are familair with the Slim Divice server software you know that this piece of gear can do all the things that the Duet, Touch and the older Classic models can do. The place where this gear raises the bar is playing back your stored collection.

I have had this for a few weeks and so far it is great and the sound quality is much better then I expected. The only unfortunate thing is Logitech has decided to quit making them and instead will just make their commodity grade players . That is actually why I quickly purchased the Transporter since it is much better quality then the basic Logitech Squeezbox units which are still great but just not the best sound quality.

This product is right on. It gets some great music off the Web to your stereo system in a quality way.
You will like the results, it's worth the money.