[sts9fan]

That seems silly for reviewing a modified product.

[mr_bill]

If the modified version of a product isn't any better than the original than why buy the modded version?  I have better ways to spend my money.

Just because it's modded doesn't mean it's any better - maybe different but not necessarily better.  And how will we know if it's better?  By comparing modded to original!

Good to compare to other spinners too.

[ted_b]

IMO, it's wayyyyyyyy better than stock.  I had both; kept the Modwright..  No comparison in my system; the stock analog stage, after the highly resolving and somewhat clinical AKM DACs was too analytical for me.  The mods brought organics, and yet added some addtl level of resolution (likely cuz the stock analog stage was bandwidth limited with stock opamps, etc.)  But I agree that it would be the best of reviews if Srajan could set a benchmark with the stock player first.

[mr_bill]

My experience is that music streamed from my computer wifi to the Transporter sounds better in every test I've done, than music from my Sony DVP 7000es as a transport digital out to the Transporter.

This computer server process has something going for it and is superior in my use.

[Danny Kaey]

PS: I'll be doing some needle-drops @ 24/96 and streaming them through Truth-TP... should be interesting, as I now have the ability to run high-res without a high res player per se...

[flaneb]

After several hundred hours on my modified transporter and CS2 speakers a few comments.
I'm very lucky....retired, a musical life, and cost is not important with the goal to recreate
live music. However I do not like to spend stupid money, and it would take really stupid money
to surpass these two audio products and even then it would only be different.

Frank

"music lives forever, people don't, listen now."

[Jon L]

I need to get the Vault to unlock again as it were. Should the necessary trouble shooting required exceed what can be done remotely via phone or e-mail... well, I then may draft my Olive Symphony into service

This is why I stay away from "proprietary" type of PC audio gear.  What can be done easily without even thinking about it (i.e. tagging/ripping with freedb) on any $300 econo PC can become such a nightmare.  If it's so difficult for someone like you with reviewer resources, what will the Joe Sixpak do? 

[modwright]

Hi guys, sorry but I just returned from vacation and have only just finished wading through my backlog of emails and voice-mails.

Several items to address:

1) Damaged Transporter:  First of all, we double-check ALL products before they are shipped.  I design the mods. My techs implement the work.  In this case, my lead tech does all of the Transporter mods and is very good and consistent about his work.  He bench tests each unit and tests them with music.  I then bench test them again and listen to the unit in our Reference system, to be sure that the sound is right.  I also typically run the units for 24 hours plus., prior to shipping.  The unit in question on this thread WAS double-checked and tested and we have tried to trouble-shoot the issues over the phone already and via photos of internals from the customer.  Ted was good enough as were many of you, to attempt to help the customer trouble-shoot the issues.  I have concluded that for some reason, the heater circuit is not operational and the tubes (just signal tubes) are not warming/lighting up. The rectifier tube is working properly and its filament (heater) supply is working.  The rectifiers filament supply is separate from the output tube heater/filament supply.  If the heaters were on, but plate voltage was not (output signal tubes), then there would be a VERY weak signal, but no hum.  In this case, the circuit sees the tube as an open circuit, because the plate voltage is present, but the heater voltage is not and the tube is unable to conduct signal.  We have ascertained that the Transporter itself is functioning properly, but somehow in shipping, the tube circuit was damaged. We will arrange for FedEx to pickup the unit on our account, Monday morning and will proceed to address the issue and FedEx the unit back, all at our expense.  Things do happen sometimes that are simply beyond our control.  All I can do is address these issues promptly as they come about.

2) Volume control and -dB RE bit dropping.  I know that a digital attenuator does attenuate by dropping bits.  I will have to crunch the numbers to see exactly at what point the resolution is limited to 16 bits.  The important thing to remember is this.  Unless you HAVE a hi-rez download that is 24/96, then you are listening to a 16/44.1 CD that has been 'ripped' to the hard drive.  While some programs appear to upsample the sampling rate to 48Khz from 44.1Khz (Poikosoft - thanks Danny Kaey!), they CANNOT add 8 bits that are not present, between the 16 bit CD and the 24 bit max resolution of the DAC.  As such, it is my understanding that you will not hear any audible limitation until which point, the signal is reduced to < 16 bit.  I will have to see how the math works out in -dB for this 8 bit reduction in digital sample.

3) The Music Vault.  First of all, I apologize to Srajan for not being available to assist with this.  I had the same problem here until I realized that I had to disable one of my firewalls in order for my laptop to access the workgroup named 'WORKGROUP'.  After this time, it was no problem.  I found the Music Vault to be seamless after this was addressed.

Srajan, I will email you personally to this effect also, but I want to clarify a point.  While the Transporter can and DOES function as a DAC for a variety of digital inputs, WiFi or Ethernet via computer of course, but also via disk spinner or other music server such as the Olive (I was personally not that enthused with the Olive product and decided not to modify it for this reason.  IMHO the computer should NOT be in the same box as the DAC and digital input circuitry - too much noise).
   I want to STRESS the following.  The STRENGTH of the Transporter, is when used as a DAC and digital input receiver for streaming digital data (WiFi or Ethernet).  This has to do with the issue of jitter and its impact on the sound.  While I don't have the necessary tools to measure jitter, I can tell you that my ears tell me the negative effects of jitter are almost entirely eliminated when the Transporter is fed data via computer.  Please don't misunderstand me, I am not claiming that jitter isn't there, but simply that my ears tell me that the effect of jitter appears to be eliminated.
   When I have used the Transporter fed via disc spinner, the issue of jitter is still limited to the quality of the Transport (not Transporter).  When fed signal from a CD transport/spinner, you are still dealing with either a toslink, BNC (spdif), RCA (spdif), or XLR (AES/EBU).  I.E., when using the Transport simply as a DAC, it will perform well, but its true strengths will not be revealed.  I believe the reason to be the result of inherent jitter in the digital signal that is present to some degree with any disc spinner.  The word 'spinner' is actually quite relevant in my mind, because I believe this has a lot to do with the presence of jitter.  A CD Transport includes a mechanical device, spinning a Disc that is NOT 100% uniform or balanced.  You have a laser then, tracking the data on the disc and sending it bit by bit through the digital cable, to the DAC where it gets reassembled, reclocked and then converted via the internal DACs.
   The strength of the computer connection, be it wifi or ethernet, is that the data is buffered via the computers memory and the transmission of digital data is very different than that of a SPDIF or AES/EBU digital format (standard CD transport).  I honestly don't claim yet to fully understand the nature of clocking within the computer environment as it is transmitted via Wifi or Ethernet, but my ears tell me that jitter is virtually eliminated and there is NO limitation to bandwidth, dynamics or resolution.
   The point of this for you, Srajan, is to stress the best way to evaluate the Transporter is via computer server connection.  It will also be of value to hear how it performs as a standalone DAC fed via conventional CD 'spinner' of course.  I realize that we did not send you a stock unit and this would be telling to evaluate the stock vs. modified Transporter.  I feel that the performance of the modified Transporter is strong enough that I urge you to compare it, when connected to a computer server connection, to the best digital that you have at hand.  I believe, in this configuration, that the ModWright Modified Transporter shows the truth strength of this new digital format and shows why I feel this to be the 'new frontier' of digital and the logical progression of technology in audio.

4) RE use of the Olive as music server for the Transporter...this should work well, provided that the digital out from the Olive is via ethernet or wifi vs. SPDIF or AES/EBU via toslink, BNC, RCA or XLR.  Again, if not connecting to the Olive as a computer server, then we are back to the SPDIF/ AES/EBU interface again, which is inferior to using a network interface with the Transporter IMHO.

5) RE Hi-Rez downloads...I would recommend trying this also.  I did download quite a bit of music from Music Giants, but was unaware of the copy protection and was very frustrated to learn that much of what I purchased could not be streamed without burning to CD and then ripping the CD back to the computer.  In this case, I STILL heard digital glitches in the music that was 'processed' in this way.  HOWEVER, the hi-rez downloads are NOT copy-protected and are very good.

6) I will personally write an 'owners manual' for the Transporter and will document my process for ripping discs with or without the Music Vault, as well as software I have used and detailed instructions for how to operate the Transporter.  To be honest, I assumed that people would rely on the Transporter's documentation for operation and the impact of our mods on this process is limited to the fact that you have to flip a switch to turn the tube stage on.  However, I admit that I am not typically inclined to read owners manuals first and a brief how-to from us would be very helpful.

That's about all I have for now.  Srajan, I appreciate your review and I trust that Neil will assist you in resolving any operational issues there and I look forward to reading the final results.  Thanks to all who have contributed here and for those who understand that sometimes things DO get damaged in shipping.  The important thing is that Customer Service and Satisfaction are KEY in ModWright's approach to business.

Thanks and take care,

Dan W.

[Srajan Ebaen]

The Vault issues seem related to my FireWall settings. If I disable the FireWall, my computer let's me access the Vault. If not, it doesn't. I'll have to figure out how to reset the FireWall to not block the Vault. So far no luck. What's still weird is that the Transporter can't see the CDs I ripped (and which my computer clearly shows are on the Vault's music folder). Neal will call in tomorrow to hopefully work this out. Right now the Vault communicates with the Transporter but I can only play your preloaded files, not my own stuff. And while that's fun, it won't tell me anything about the difference between streaming vs. spinning.

My NWO 3.0-GO's digital input allows me to compare the Transporter receiving streamed data vs the VRDS- NEO spinner's data using the same converter. The only thing different will be data extraction - directly off a CD with a laser, or previously imported, converted to FLAC and run magnetically off a hard-drive. That will settle conclusively whether spending the money on a superior traditional transport (Esoteric's VRDS-NEO is by far the most advanced sled on the market) still makes sense.

I'll pick up the NWO tomorrow so that test can commence as soon as Neal shows me how the Transporter can be made to 'see' my own CDs which are already on the Vault's hard drive...

[modwright]

Hi Srajan, sounds like you have mostly worked out the connection issues with the Vault.  I ripped music for you to FLAC. I don't know what format you used to rip your CD's, but depending on the format you used to rip your CD's, you may be bumping up against Microsofts's copy protection. I started to ask you what program/format you are using, but I believe you used the Vault, so never mind.  Again, you will need to address this with Neal I guess.  I did rip a few CD's straight to the vault and it was fine.  I then transferred other CD's that I had ripped to my own hard drive previous to getting the Vault, to the Vault via wireless connection - i.e. just transferred the date from one drive to the other 'drive' (Vault) via my network.

It sounds like you DO have a way to make the proper connection to the Transporter, i.e. via computer server.  The comparison to the TEAC/Esoteric VRDS drive will be interesting as I agree that it IS probably the Standard in 'spinners' right now as the drive is certainly superior.  I also know that Alex does great work and the comparison to his modified player will also be very enlightening.  I will be curious to see how they compare, given the 5x + price difference.

Thanks Srajan,

Dan W.

[Jon L]

My NWO 3.0-GO's digital input allows me to compare the Transporter receiving streamed data vs the VRDS- NEO spinner's data using the same converter.

But doesn't that mean the VRDS transport will have the advantage of direct internal digital connection to NWO DAC section without the spdif interface/digital cable handicap from Transporter (used as transport?).

[modwright]

This will be true when comparing the NWO Esoteric as player vs. Transport as DAC when connected to the NWO as Transport.  The ideal comparison, however, will be the Esoteric as player vs. the Transporter as DAC via Computer server - connected via ethernet connection.  It is the computer interface that truly makes the Transporter shine.

Dan W.

[rydenfan]

Thanks to all who have contributed here and for those who understand that sometimes things DO get damaged in shipping.  The important thing is that Customer Service and Satisfaction are KEY in ModWright's approach to business.

Thanks and take care,

Dan W.

I cannot say enough about Dan and his customer service. In the current declining world of audio of consumer appreciation consisting of call centers, so-called "customer service/tech reps" who have no idea about the prodcuts you are calling about and almost always claim the problem is some other component than theirs, and un-returned emails, Modwright is a true beacon of hope. Dan, and his company's, commitment to his products and his customers is virtually unparalleled. Trivial matters like shipping damage are forgotten about almost as quickly as they happen as long as care is taken to resolve the situation. It is the commitment to quality and the happiness of the customer displayed by Modwright that makes a person like me a customer for life.

[tomjtx]

I rechecked the digital volume issue on the slim forum.

It does appear you can be down -36db w/o going below 16 bits. Actually you can be -42 but one should assume 22 bit rather than 24 bit to account for 2 bits
being lost to thermionic noise? or something like that.
-36 is a lot to play with.
I took off my endler balanced att's and I think it sounds better.

SNR is a theoretical issue since digital att doesn't decrease noise but in practice it is not an issue in my system.
The snr is so good in TP that it shouldn't be an issue.

[mr_bill]

I rechecked the digital volume issue on the slim forum.

It does appear you can be down -36db w/o going below 16 bits. Actually you can be -42 but one should assume 22 bit rather than 24 bit to account for 2 bits
being lost to thermionic noise? or something like that.
-36 is a lot to play with.
I took off my endler balanced att's and I think it sounds better.

SNR is a theoretical issue since digital att doesn't decrease noise but in practice it is not an issue in my system.
The snr is so good in TP that it shouldn't be an issue.

Tom, Interesting finding on the Endler attenuators - better sound with off than on.
Thanks for the report,
Bill

[OrJazzM]

 The ideal comparison, however, will be the Esoteric as player vs. the Transporter as DAC via Computer server - connected via ethernet connection.  It is the computer interface that truly makes the Transporter shine.

Dan W.

Hi Dan, I'm assuming by your comment that ethernet connection is superior to wi-fi.

[tomjtx]

I rechecked the digital volume issue on the slim forum.

It does appear you can be down -36db w/o going below 16 bits. Actually you can be -42 but one should assume 22 bit rather than 24 bit to account for 2 bits
being lost to thermionic noise? or something like that.
-36 is a lot to play with.
I took off my endler balanced att's and I think it sounds better.

SNR is a theoretical issue since digital att doesn't decrease noise but in practice it is not an issue in my system.
The snr is so good in TP that it shouldn't be an issue.

Tom, Interesting finding on the Endler attenuators - better sound with off than on.
Thanks for the report,
Bill

Yeh, I'm glad I tried that. even at moderate levels I don't notice any lack of resolution and at my semi-loud listening there seems to be more detail and more dynamics.
I didn't do a blind test so I wouldn't rule out placebo but since I'm not spending extra money I wont bother with a blind test.
My amp has a gain switch on the back so I have enough flexibility w/o the endlers.
I suspect many amps would need the endlers and I will probably sell mine if I'm not too lazy

My TP volume is on a 50 point scale so I am assuming when it shows -18 that means -36db.
I rarely want to be below that except on some of the new pop stuff that is so stupidly recorded too loud.   yuck.

[Srajan Ebaen]

As promised, an update on my li'l Music Vault-ing. I've reformatted page 3 and opened a longer Sidebar 2 for the Music Vault setup "fix" in the Modwright Transporter review now.

It was at once easy and frustrating. Easy because it only requires disabling my Firewall each time I want to access the Vault thru my PC, frustrating because both Music Vault men and a tech guy at Slim Devices, in a conference call, shrugged their shoulders at this as being quite common that's beyond most people to easily fix because especially Norton and McAffee's Firewall protocols change so regularly that it's beyond the scope of outsiders to keep up with. They couldn't fix it and suggested to shut down the Firewall or get AVG's tech support on the line (AVG is my Firewall vendor).

The upshot of all this is simply that *if* you have troubles with your Firewall interfering with the new network device (Music Vault in this instance); and *if* you can't figure out how to make the Firewall open the three ports you'll need to access SD's server - then you can't access the Vault unless you shut down your Firewall for those occasions.

Two, there's a little funkiness in that when you burn new CDs to the Vault's hard-drive, the Transporter doesn't automatically recognize them in "Browse - Albums" even when you reboot it. You have to go to http://musicvault:9000/ in your web browser and rescan the Vault's hard-drive. You *should*, however, be able to find those CDs in the "Music Folder" on the Transporter without the rescan protocol.

In either case, it's nothing earth-shaking or prohibitive, just part of my learning curve and perhaps those who like me haven't transitioned yet 

Anyhoo, I'm ripping and burning thru my software collection right now to assemble a nice selection on the Vault for testing purposes, then it's off to the races...

[sts9fan]

You would be having much less trouble if you just used your computer as the server or a usb hard drive. 

[Srajan Ebaen]

Perhaps, but - 1/ I was asked to review the Vault and I said yes; 2/ no way am I gonna use my work computer for audio and load down its hard-drive with music files. Not gonna happen. My computer was specifically built for my computing needs and if I got into computer audio, I'd get something built to spec to optimize server functionality and leave off all the other stuff not required for that