[alekz]

I wonder if anybody has experience with SlimDevices Transporter modded by Maui/Aberdeen.

I like its dynamic transparent sound with fantastic bass and outstanding staging but really hate the sssssssibilants. Also I find its sound thinner and brighter than Meridian 596.

System:
PassLabs x1
PassLabs x250
Martin Logan Ascent
Cables: MIT Oracle 3.1

This is what I have changed recently:

Migrated from RCA to XLR (MIT Oracle 3.2)
Changed power cables from MIT Z-Cord II, Synergistic Research MC to:
MIT Oracle ZCord III on x250
MIT Magnum AC1 on x1
Synergistic Research MC on the Transporter

The sound has become MUCH more involving with cleaner bass BUT the ssssibilants are still here.

Help?

[DSK]

I haven't heard any of the gear you list, but I had 3 Synergistic AC Master Couplers in my system several years ago. When I replaced them with Eichmann cords the sound became far more musical, open, relaxed, intimate, natural ... and less 'hi-fi', electronic, etched and strident.  Kind of like going from a cheapo SS amp to a beautiful tube amp. It may not be the same in your case (and I don't know how great an impact AC cords have on the Transporter), but it might be worth swapping out the remaining Master Coupler.

[alekz]

Thanks DSK! I'm going to do that eventually. The interesting thing is that two Master Couplers did not sound that bad in combination with Meridian 596.

OK, more details.

The mods include also the following:

o- Schaffner line filter (this is why I use Synergistic cable on the Transporter)
o- Ferrite rings on data cables, "digital" power supply and ground wires
o- Black Gate coupling caps (one per "shoulder", two per channel, 4 in total)
o- Sanyo caps (the rest)

[DSK]

How many hours on the BlackGates?

[AliG]

Blackgate caps tend to sound thin and bright right out of the box, it takes about a week of continuous play time to smooth out the edginess, you should notice the changes. If you still don't like the sound, just return it and get your money back....no other modder I know of is willing to refund you the money if you do not like their work.

Personally, I recommend you try to call him and describe to him what kind of sound you like, and he will find a way to give you that sound.

 

[alekz]

How many hours on the BlackGates?

Several weeks. More than 400 hours of continuous playing (XLO Burn-in track)

[Jon L]

Well, somebody's got to say it. 

Get a nice tube component somewhere in your system.  I don't know if that will cure your sibilants, but you will care less about that and enjoy the music much more.

[Double Ugly]

My Transporter was modified by Anthony of Maui/Aberdeen, but I've had no sibilance issues. 

I plan to have my Transporter modified again, but this time I will use one of the true industry professionals (Dan Wright or Alex Peychev).  I have little doubt both are capable of releasing a great deal more of the Transporter's full potential.

JMHO...

[alekz]

My Transporter was modified by Anthony of Maui/Aberdeen, but I've had no sibilance issues. 

Probably there is something wrong with the rest of my system, because I had similar responses for both stock and Aberdeen modded units in the SlimDevices forum.

Played with  various power cables today (even connected a usual stock cable to the Transporter) - no changes.

Upsampling from 44.1 to 96 makes things a bit (barely noticeable) better.

I'm out of ideas...

I plan to have my Transporter modified again, but this time I will use one of the true industry professionals (Dan Wright or Alex Peychev).  I have little doubt both are capable of releasing a great deal more of the Transporter's full potential.

AFAIK, Dan does not touch anything except the analogue output stage. If you ever going to use the Transporter with an external DAC, Dan's mods will be completely useless. The output stage with a dedicated power supply looks quite nice, but I haven't seen many reports on how it sounds.

Alex' mods look stunning except one thing: RCA only, XLR is disabled. He did not reveal the reasons in the forum. According to his forum,. he redesigned the clocks, DAC, analogue stage and modded the power supply. I would like to keep my system fully balanced, though.

Anthony does not change the original design (except the addition of a power line filter, physical damping and ferrite rings) but he replaces all sockets, all opt amps and almost all capacitors. So I think his mods is at least a  good beginning if not the end of the mods quest.

But bloody sibilants are still here ...

[alekz]

Well, somebody's got to say it. 

Get a nice tube component somewhere in your system.  I don't know if that will cure your sibilants, but you will care less about that and enjoy the music much more.

I see the DAC (whether internal or external) is the only place for tubes. They say that Logan's are better paired with tubes, but in this case I would have to completely redesign my system :-\

[JoshK]

Do you have another source component you can slip in the spot of the transporter to control for just one component?  You can you change a list of things recently, so how can you say it is the transporter?  You need to do things one by one. 

o- Schaffner line filter (this is why I use Synergistic cable on the Transporter)
o- Ferrite rings on data cables, "digital" power supply and ground wires

I don't get the above.     Sounds like tomfoolery.  Line filters can help or hurt, I don't have enough direct experience playing with them to say one way or the other.  Why the ferrites?  Especially why on the power supply or ground wires?  If the core is too small to tolerate the current passing through them, they will saturate and you might get sibilance from that.  Can't say for sure, but this wreaks of throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.  Results are likely to be very situation dependent in such cases.

[alekz]

Do you have another source component you can slip in the spot of the transporter to control for just one component?  You can you change a list of things recently, so how can you say it is the transporter?  You need to do things one by one. 

Yes. I had no sibilance with Meridian 596.

o- Schaffner line filter (this is why I use Synergistic cable on the Transporter)
o- Ferrite rings on data cables, "digital" power supply and ground wires

I don't get the above.     Sounds like tomfoolery.  Line filters can help or hurt, I don't have enough direct experience playing with them to say one way or the other.  Why the ferrites?  Especially why on the power supply or ground wires?  If the core is too small to tolerate the current passing through them, they will saturate and you might get sibilance from that.  Can't say for sure, but this wreaks of throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.  Results are likely to be very situation dependent in such cases.

To be honest, I had an idea to temporary bypass the installed line filter. Probably, it's indeed the time to check where my soldering iron is.

The ferrites on the ground wires are supposed to filter the noise out of them. The current is nihil. The setup is differential: the ground wire from the socket goes through the ring to the line filter, then from the line filter through the same ring to the power supply.
There are no rings on the audio phase/neutral wires.

Actually, all "whys" should be addressed to Anthony from Aberdeen. This is his design.

[Double Ugly]

AFAIK, Dan does not touch anything except the analogue output stage. If you ever going to use the Transporter with an external DAC, Dan's mods will be completely useless.

AFAIK, you're right.  But after I tried a source --> amp set-up, I no longer have any interest in putting additional components into the chain, so it works for me.

The output stage with a dedicated power supply looks quite nice, but I haven't seen many reports on how it sounds.

There are a few reports on the sound from the last couple of audio shows, and at least one member here (ted_b) has received his.  Per his posts, Ted seems delighted.

Alex' mods look stunning except one thing: RCA only, XLR is disabled. He did not reveal the reasons in the forum. According to his forum,. he redesigned the clocks, DAC, analogue stage and modded the power supply. I would like to keep my system fully balanced, though.

Fair 'nuff.  Looks like you'll have to stick with Anthony.

[cytocycle]

are you running the Transporter into your Pass X1 balanced? My friend ran his meridian 508.24 into his Pass X1 using RCA's and then went to the same brand version XLR's and he was astounded in the quality difference.

I have had lot of experience with sibilance... are you running any cones in your system under components.. aka Sistrum, BDR, etc....  try a maple cutting board under your preamp and the Transporter...  Stats like your can be ultra revealing and the Pass and the MIT are not warm, but then again neither is your Meridian DVD player.....

[alekz]

The ferrites on the ground wires are supposed to filter the noise out of them. The current is nihil. The setup is differential: the ground wire from the socket goes through the ring to the line filter, then from the line filter through the same ring to the power supply.
There are no rings on the audio phase/neutral wires.

It's easier with pictures:

Modded Transporter (PS) 800KB:


Stock Transporter: http://photos.lam.ws/gallery/1930618/2/98101199/Large

[alekz]

are you running the Transporter into your Pass X1 balanced? My friend ran his meridian 508.24 into his Pass X1 using RCA's and then went to the same brand version XLR's and he was astounded in the quality difference.

Yes, balanced. Though, both RCA and XLR have the same sound signature. The balanced sounds much more engaging and exciting.

are you running any cones in your system under components..

Yes, Finite Elemente Ceraballs (and Finite Elemente Spider rack - will I upgrade when I have money enough

Stats like your can be ultra revealing and the Pass and the MIT are not warm, but then again neither is your Meridian DVD player.....

Agree, the system sounds rather cold and transparent and tend to be overanalytical sometimes.

[alekz]

Now the DAC and the analogue part (you can see 4 Black Gates) 900KB:

[alekz]

Does anybody who's got Anthony's modded Transporter have an oscilloscope? I will buy one myself but it will take some time. Anthony will also look into this.

This is the reason.

OPA637's (they are used by Anthony instead of 5534 in the stock Transporter) are considered the best sounding op-amps available but they can't be used in stages with a gain less than 5 (I heard that the recommended gain is 10), otherwise they become unstable and may oscillate.

Looking at the used schematics
(http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/akm/en/...6-sbw2-02e.pdf) the gain of
the balanced stage is ~2 and the unbalanced (the right most) is less
than 1. Unless everything is redesigned, but I've heard that this is
exactly what is used in the Transporter.

Since the analogue stages are LPF's (182kHz and 284kHz respectively),  the oscillation (even if you can't hear it) may arise between 20kHz and 180kHz or 20kHz and 280kHz.

Probably this is not the case but definitely worth looking at.

OK, anyway, I made some progress with the sound:

o- Fixed the output XLR socket in my preamp. The clamps/outer ground
contacts (not the pin 1) were not grounded for some reason (only one channel).

o- Disconnected the internal "digital input" module (I don't use it anyway)

o- Set the internal unbalanced attenuator to -30dB (also not used)

That improved the sound again and made it more dynamic, natural and
less sibilant. Looks like I'm going in the right direction.

[kbuzz3]

My two cents coming from one who has delt with sibilince issues for a while.  I would reccomend doing some minor tweaks  before making any component changes. In this order i would try any or all depending on your pocket book

1) replace footers-experiment is the only thing i can say, but target warmer stuff, like mapleshad blocks, maybe isonodes, herbies etc.

1A) ROOM TREATMENT- This is so overlooked its scary. Try some panels, dots, etc.  Target proucts that work on the high end, becasue alot of treatments are for bass issues. I added on or two and it helped sibilence a great deal.
 You may be surprised

2) expereiment with inexpensive power conditioing, your transporter may be senstive to this

3)borrow some cables from different vendors.

4) then think about adding some tubes in the chain. 


=In sum i would not swap components or spend a great deal more money until you make sure of the above.