[chesebert]

When I first got the Transporter I thought it sounded rather cold, good bass, not great midrange, messed up timber, overly aggressive leading edge.

Thought I made a mistake, but figured hell with it I am gonna burn the hell out of it. Its been over a week now and things def mellowed out quite a bit, gone was the aggressive leading edge, midrange bloomed, and timber is pretty much right, bass is still pretty nice. I really enjoying using transporter for low-level listen cuz the bass seems endless going through the Ayre.

Tweaks that works with the transporter:
1. better power cable; the improvement was almost instant (I have the Violet Z1 on it)

2. Herbie tenter feet works to bring out the midrange a bit more, the bass is slightly less but since it was so abundant to begin with, no problem there.

3. power conditioning, very obvious different plugging directly to a dedicated circuit vs plugging to the UPC200 that's plugged in its dedicated circuit

4. probably the largest improvement - squeeze center 7.0 with FW33; who would have thought software upgrade yields the greatest improvement in listenabitily. With 6.5.x the sound is like your average $1k DAC, with squeeze center, the sound took on an analog-like character - yeah.. not far from C5Xe and Saturn (Saturn's bass is not as good as TP for the simple reason that Ayre simply works better with balanced)

random observation: TP does something special with the DV332, I prefer TP over Saturn going to the 332 with K701; I run 332 out of my Ayre tape out, I am thinking TP's balanced operation really lowers the noise floor; whatever the reason AKG and Grado now sounds excellent on the 332.

So the gist of it is - if you are still on 6.5.x time to upgrade!






<bigshot, sugarinthegourd, LawnGnome, Febs, OverlordXenu, Leporello, Riboge, fkclo, meat01>
will the above people please DO NOT post in this thread. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

 

[cconnaker]

Have you seen this transporter mod?

Slim Devices Transporter 'Truth' mods | Computer Audiophile

 

[gregeas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif probably the largest improvement - squeeze center 7.0 with FW33; who would have thought software upgrade yields the greatest improvement in listenabitily. With 6.5.x the sound is like your average $1k DAC, with squeeze center, the sound took on an analog-like character - yeah.. not far from C5Xe and Saturn (Saturn's bass is not as good as TP for the simple reason that Ayre simply works better with balanced)

Huh. Didn't know about the 7.0 firmware. Any idea what it does differently? Downloading now...

I've been a Transporter convert for almost a year. I quickly sold my $3k Arcam CD player when it arrived.

Most recently I got rid of my Arcam pre-amp and monoblocks. Now I go directly from the Transporter to a Bryston amp to my PMC speakers. This setup costs half as much as my old rig but is better (and takes up far less space!).

I also use the Transporter as a "digital pre" that converts PCM audio from my cable box and game console. Pretty cool.

Are you using balanced or unbalanced cables? I'm using RCA since you can attenuate with the jumpers, but I'm curious about balanced.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregeas /img/forum/go_quote.gif Huh. Didn't know about the 7.0 firmware. Any idea what it does differently? Downloading now... I've been a Transporter convert for almost a year. I quickly sold my $3k Arcam CD player when it arrived. Most recently I got rid of my Arcam pre-amp and monoblocks. Now I go directly from the Transporter to a Bryston amp to my PMC speakers. This setup costs half as much as my old rig but it better. I also use the Transporter as a "digital pre" that converts PCM audio from my cable box and game console. Pretty cool. Are you using balanced or unbalanced cables? I'm using RCA since you can attenuate with the jumpers, but I'm curious about balanced.

SqueezeCenter 7.0 vastly improved how transporter deals with the attack and decay of an instrument (which means correct timbre). It is warmer sounding, more analog, and flows a little better. Saturn still has the edge (albeit not big, but important) in timbre, flow and musicality. I hope to get a second opinion on this 'software upgrade' for the transporter.

I am almost 'required' to use balanced since its a 'sin' to use SE with Ayre equipments (although I use SE on Saturn with great results, so there..I ran Ayre with SE...I am so bad

One thing I did notice with balanced is I get an even lower noise floor, consider I ran my 332 out of the RCA and then ran the 332 out of the tape of of ayre, which is connected to the transporter via balanced; and the noise floor out of the 332 connected to the tape out is lower (although I recognize there could be other causes for reduced noise floor). Oh and you also get better bass response with xlr.

 

[chesebert]

ok..I did some comparison between SE and balanced output; volume matched with SPL meter using test tones within 0.1dB. strange but I prefer the SE over balanced. My issue with balanced is while it lifts a very thin veil, the attack is a little aggressive and made the timbre sound a little odd and not as smooth and natural as I would like. I think I am going to try a different xlr cable (right now just some Mogami gold to tie me over), perhaps some Cardas. If I can just dial in that natural attack and timbre with balanced, it would be almost perfect. (unnatural timbre and aggressive attack makes my ear tired really fast)

 

[Jon L]

So, who's going to be the first to try the Modwright Transporter?

 

[Bazile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cconnaker /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you seen this transporter mod? Slim Devices Transporter 'Truth' mods | Computer Audiophile

Hi Folks;

I followed that link to here...

ModWright

Quoting from the 5th line..

Transporter with 'Truth' Mods = $3595.
(Retail price of stock Transporter = $2000)

and now from much lower..

We will not be stocking the Slim Devices Transporter units. We are only offering our custom modification to customer supplied units.

It seems to me like this is deceptive advertising at best...
Your mileage...as the saying goes...

Bazile

 

[tomjtx]

The SD engineers have said the new software changes have nothing to do with the sound, nothing was changed in that area.

Mvalera of SlimDevices posted that info both on AudioCircle and the Slim forum.

I haven't upgraded my TP yet but if I hear a difference I'll let you know.

 

[chesebert]

I have read the 'change log', that's why I need second opinion. At least know I heard a difference.

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Folks; I followed that link to here... ModWright Quoting from the 5th line.. Transporter with 'Truth' Mods = $3595. (Retail price of stock Transporter = $2000) and now from much lower.. We will not be stocking the Slim Devices Transporter units. We are only offering our custom modification to customer supplied units. It seems to me like this is deceptive advertising at best... Your mileage...as the saying goes... Bazile

lol...yeah..those modders are crazy. For $6k I would ditch my TP, buy a used Ayre C5Xe and use the $1.5k left over to populate my SACD collection (which arguably sounds better than 24/96 PCM

 

[tomjtx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesebert /img/forum/go_quote.gif lol...yeah..those modders are crazy. For $6k I would ditch my TP, buy a used Ayre C5Xe and use the $1.5k left over to populate my SACD collection (which arguably sounds better than 24/96 PCM

I think modwright means to say the mods are 1595.

If you look carefully on audiogon you can get a TP for 1500.00

So it would be around 3100.00, I think

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomjtx /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think modwright means to say the mods are 1595. If you look carefully on audiogon you can get a TP for 1500.00 So it would be around 3100.00, I think

Transporter with 'Truth' Mods = $3595.
(Retail price of stock Transporter = $2000)
We will not be stocking the Slim Devices Transporter units. We are only offering our custom modification to customer supplied units.

 

[cconnaker]

Transporter with 'Truth' Mods = $3595. seems like a total price for the Transporter with the truth mods. But there is a lot of ambiguity as we have seen.

 

[johnsonad]

I hate running beta's. Have you had any problems with it? Sounds tempting.

 

[chesebert]

no problems so far; heh..besides the point my TP locks up once in a while switching from playing 24/96 flac to 16/44 flac with *.cue. But I just reboot (holding power switch) and everything is fine.

Although I had that same stupid problem with version 6.5.4