OK folks, I've spent a fair bit of time with my Bolder-modded Touch and so am finally qualified to comment on the sound. Details about my rigs are posted in one of my previous posts in this thread. Firstly, I am glad I waited to write this review, because everything you have heard about break-in taking a while is true. Initial thoughts from listening on the Bel Canto rig was that it was OK. Imaging was very good, as was instrument separation, but the sound was a little bright. It wasn't so much that the treble was in overdrive, as much as the bass was MIA and the midrange a tad thin. Some of this was probably due to the rig not being used for a while as I was moving into a new home. Bear in mind that even at this stage, the Touch beat the pants off an unmodded duet, both with the supplied wall-wart and with a Channel Islands linear supply. The unmodded duet was, in a word, unlistenable, and even Dusty Vawter's Channel Island linear supply couldn't really resurrect it from mediocrity. At this stage however, the modded Touch was no patch on my ART-modified Duet with its integrated power supply. That had imaging and separation comparable to the modded Touch, but added a much more refined tonal balance. Bass was there in spades and the midrange had much needed gravitas. After a long break-in period, the modded Touch began sounding good, very good in fact. I liked it about as much as my ART modified duet in the Bel Canto rig, which I consider high praise indeed. On my PrimaLuna (Dialogue 1 with KT66 tubes) rig using the much-lauded Eastern Electric DAC (stock), the Touch sounded detailed with excellent separation. In A/B testing I felt like I preferred the ART modded Duet a bit more in this rig than the Modded Touch, especially with female voices, but the difference was small. Indeed, I could live with either in my rig and be completely happy and suspect that you would too. However, if you have decided that you might listen to hi-rez music there really is only one logical choice, since the Duet cannot handle hi-rez. Also, the ART-modded Duet does not do internet radio either, so if that is important to you it might not work for you. I personally haven't tested hi-rez tracks on my Touch but will do so and report back. One important point to note is that the power supply I am using with my modded Touch is a predecessor to the standard one currently available, and as such, I expect the Standard power supply will sound better.
In summary, color me impressed! To those who feel that a SABRE DAC will gild the sound of an inferior transport and make it wonderful...not quite! Transports DO make a difference even with my Eastern Electric DAC, and a significant one at that. Modding my Touch was a no-brainer, since I wasn't completely satisfied with the sound through either the Bel canto DAC3 or the EE one. Now I probably will need to get the EE dac mod as well. Look at me, just frittering my dog's inheritance away.....
Cheers,
Ajay
