Okay, so Big Brother's Birthday is coming up. Being the audiophile he is, the parents and I want to get him something really nice. He's got a nice speaker system (Maggies 1.3s or 3.6s) so I suggested getting him a DAC and SB3. However, I went on the slimdevices website and I saw the Transporter which is a tad more expensive. I read a couple of reviews, including the soundstage review that indicated that the Transporter is as good as some of the priciest and best CD Player/DAC combos out there. My question remains however is how much is the difference in your opinion between the DAC1 and SB3 vs the Transporter?

BTW, he's been wanting a DAC for a while and it might seem the first route would be the best as he already has a CD player as well but just for the sake of comparison, what would your opinion be regarding these two (three...) excellent products, or rather, configurations in comparison?