As many of you know I am one of Dan's field testers for his new crazy stuff. Well, Dan introduced a new power supply upgrade a few weeks ago, and I received mine back only yesterday. I'm the first of the three of us to get the upgrade delivered (the other two should receive theirs today or so), and get feedback back to Dan, and ultimately out to the Circle. First, a little about the upgrade..
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Dan's comments from another thread:
"I found that a dual-mono outboard power supply for the LS 36.5 with dual discrete voltage regulation made a HUGE improvement over the stock LS 36.5 in terms of weight, body, low level cues, bass response, soundstage, etc. Well, first of all, relax, the turbo mod does not involve a 48lb. dual-mono external power supply Wink. In fact, the solution is much more elegant for the Transporter.
Thanks again to Alan Kimmel, a solid-state circuit was suggested, to achieve the same end-goal of the all-tube dual-discrete voltage regulation stages used in the PS 36.5. FETs are a lot easier to work with than tubes in this case and take up a lot less space. I did some testing and found that indeed a solid-state version of this same voltage regulation stage gave MUCH of the performance of the PS 36.5 without the extra cost, space and of course tubes.
So, basically, the 'Turbo' upgrade for the Transporter consists of a 'supercharger' for the power supply if you will. We add a superior dual-discrete solid-state voltage regulation stage to the stock analog supply and the Transporter is raised to another level entirely."_______________________________________
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I fired up the new upgraded Modwright Transporter Wednesday afternoon, and then settled in for some listening last night. I used my standard eval playlist that contains stuff from an eclectic collection of Cassandra Wilson, Beck, Patricia Barber, the Cowboy Junkies, Isao Suzuki, Eberhard Weber, etc. My system is in the signature below, but for this is:
Modwright Transporter w/ PS and Bybee upgrades (Valvo Mullard metal base 5AR4 rectifier, Raytheon black plate 6CG7 signal tubes)
Modwright LS 36.5 Dual mono two-box stereo preamp
A pair of Spectron Musician III Mark 2 monoblock amplifiers
Sp Tech Revelation MR III Mk 2 (w. custom Ultimate Mundorf external crossovers)
Specific cabling is:
Stealth Nanofiber (rca) TP-to-preamp
Soundstring Alpha Omega Pro (XLR) pre-to-amps
Synergistic Research custom y-adapters (XLR) for monoblock config
Custom Elrod Signature Remote Sense speaker cables (prototype)
I want to start off and say that a musical system is all about synergy. When you bring a new component, or at least one that has been significantly changed and upgraded (hint: yes, this upgrade is significant and that's all good!!) sometimes a little change management is in order...whether it be getting used to the enw sound, or maybe finding out that somnething else in the signal path is fighting or incompatible. So here goes: The initial impressions were not all good...but it had nothing to do with the quality of the upgrade....it had to do with synergy. Too much bass bloat, too much midbass, too much midrange. It became more and more evident that I needed to tube roll.
The metal plate 5AR4 was fine…beautiful in fact, but the DR’s were too much. (Note: these DR’s are in addition to the pair in my 36.5 DM !). A double dose is too much with the new PS upgrade. I played around a little, tried a couple different combos, and then came to rest on my first try again….the metal plate 5AR4 and a pair of black plate Raytheon 6Cg7’s (my former fave before the DR’s). Vey nice, very musical, very powerful, but controlled. So, now everything was in place, and it only took a few tries, and maybe 30 minutes, to figure it out.
The first thing that I heard was a huge gain in solidity of image, increased weight behind all instruments, and deep powerful bass. It was just as you'd expect if you've ever added a sophisticated and improved power supply to any eligible hi-end component...but not an internal $300 one!!!!!. This change was very much like that of going from the single box LS 36.5 to the dual mono one, albeit at the source only, and as it borrows technology from the PS 36.5 (solid state not tube, of course) this stands to reason. Instruments like cellos took on a completely lifelike growl and texture that gave me goosebumps. Yet, the highs were crisper as well. I like to use Norah Jones's "Broken" from her last studio album to make sure her voice isn't too deep, the cellos and strings are lifelike, and the highs are crisp but not bright. Well, playing this through the new TP was like hearing it for the first time. Wow. Much more 3D, much more growl, much more musical.
So...first impressions? Overall the new upgrade is quite a change (and by that I mean for the better...
)!! It is way more powerful, if that means anything. More "there" there. More bass, more slam, more weight.
I do have to add that I had Dan install his AC Bybee filters too, so not sure what portion of this new state-of-the-art they contribute to, but I suspect, based on lots of Bybee experience (and concurring with Dan as he a/b'd our various TP's back in Amboy) that it is a 5 compared to the PS upgrade's 10! All in all, no-brainers!!!
More to come as I let the upgrades settle in......
