Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievable piece of audio gear, July 9, 2009
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Took a bit to setup, RTMD!, November 12, 2009
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
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but a bit pricy, April 11, 2009
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.
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