Modwright Transporter VS Opera Droplet 5.0 CDP.

By the way, if this thread http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/14/147594.html resonates with you, you might be interested in contacting me offline regarding the aforementioned products I represented.

Thanks to all who contributed. I have just finished a trial of the Droplet and will be sending it back. Initially it proved to be quite impressive but in a relatively short period of time became tiring and irritating. I think it is the upsampling implementation that lets it down; too digital and brittle for my liking. Nothing for it but to try and get my hands on a transporter and give it a go.
Of interest to me was how poorly the Droplet with a 24/192 upsampling DAC performed against a non-upsampling, 1 x oversampling 16 bit Audio Note DAC.
It really isn't the size of the dog in a fight but the size of the fight in the dog. I live and learn.

Well, I've previously never heard anyone describe the Droplet 5.0 "tiring and irritating". In that quest to sound non-digital, most feel the company erred on the rich and full-bodied side. But (unfortunately) knowing how often Consonance changes their components in production, perhaps that model has undergone more "revision" than just the digital in? Of course, these things are always dependent on the system/person.

At any rate, your conclusion lines up perfectly with what I said in my first post in this thread, the Audio Note CD player I picked up clearly beats the Droplet 5.0 to my ears, with the Droplet 5.0 being head and shoulders the best (from the perspective of both sonic and reliability) CDP Consonance produces.

Don't feel bad, instead rejoice in the fact that you've ended up with the best player for your system! And, at lower cost, no doubt.

Right you are Trelga. I had forgotten your reference to the Audio Note. What a coincidence. The DAC was everything I had hoped the Droplet would be but I will give credit where credit is due. As a transport the Droplet is fantastic especially paired with the AN DAC.
I have not yet ended up with the best player in my system as the AN was not mine to keep. I am though looking into buying a the maxxed out kit version of the same DAC. I then only have to work out how to best stream computer audio to the DAC. Maybe a standard Transporter is the way to go albeit overkill in it's ability to transfer 24/96 when I only need half that for the AN. The reason to still consider the Transporter is solely for it's fully balanced output which I need/want.