If the DAC is the same, how different do CD transports sound?

Only a blind listening test to eliminate sighted bias and matched output voltage levels has any validity. Anything else is anecdotal!

I listened to the first consumer CD player in 1982. The vertical-loading Hitachi ($1000). I did not sell my TT and LP'S. This was at the best HiFi dealer in Connecticut. I waited until 1992 to buy my first CD player. In fact I bought my first CD in the Fall of 1991 - a mark-down at Square Circle in the local mall. This despite not having a player! More mark-down CD'S followed before I bought my first CD player - a lowly Technics SLP 340 from J&R Music on Park Row in NYC. I kept my TT and LP'S.

I remain skeptical about the soaring prices of DAC'S and now transports! Methinks this is a moneyphile thing driven by expectation bias and status-ranking. Digital's promise was the perfect transfer/transmission of the encoded data. Unlike Analog where every copy is at least slightly different! Plus everytime an Analog recording is played back there is loss and degradation.

Too bad the well-heeled audiophile can't wear that $3K transport on the wrist to show it off like a fancy watch! 

@knock1 : without a blind test with matched levels your reporting is only anecdotal. As Perry Mason would say "Can't stand up in Court".

In an A/B comparison the unit with the higher output voltage will sound better. That’s how we humans respond! The difference can be as little as .1 of a volt or less! That is why matching the output levels is so important! This applies to DAC'S and preamps too!