It depends.Sorry to dig this one up.
Can someone clarify the following.
If I buy a CD and rip it, then play that rip back through my PC over USB to a decent DAC, have I effectively removed any ‘transport’ issues?
If the transport actually had a big enough problem for the data correction system not to be able to recover the data un-degraded, and you rip the CD using a piece of software which uses a proper checksum in the ripping procedure to make sure you have a bit perfect copy, then yes, any "transport" issue will have been bypassed.
I am not sure transport problems are that common, the problems are more likely to be with damaged discs. In the case of a damaged disc a ripping programme which checks a database to make sure the rip is bit perfect is needed to be sure the rip is OK.
IME there is quite a variation between transport's ability to read damaged discs (including the ones in computers).but in the case of a computer it can, in theory, keep re-reading until it has built up a bit perfect file.