I have studied the mod upgrade and can assure you that the warm sound coloration is contributed from the pre-amp analog stage that Dan transfers from his Mod wright tube pre-amp to the Transporter upgrade. The DAC is untouched and original op-amps in the analog stage are eliminated in place for Mod wright pre-amp analog out put stage. Quite clever and does work effectively.
I have a stock transporter and have the analog out fed to my Melos 333 tube pre-amp through my unbalance 75 ohm coax, nicely cabled Straight wire Virtuoso, and than have the balance 110 ohm XLR Straight wire Virtuso cabled out to a proceed solid state pre-amp.
A/B I find the tube pre-amp with the description mentioned with air and present of the recording in the room and not from the equipment. The solid state very accurate almost clinical in presentation with more of the dry digital fatigue.
I conclude that if you have a nice tube pre-amp and fix your stock transporter volume 100% not lose bits/resolution and use the volume control of the analog pre-amp results will be similar or even better than the mod depending pre-amp selection and the trial/error of tube rolling of chosen pre-amp.
Enjoy Music.
I have a stock transporter and have the analog out fed to my Melos 333 tube pre-amp through my unbalance 75 ohm coax, nicely cabled Straight wire Virtuoso, and than have the balance 110 ohm XLR Straight wire Virtuso cabled out to a proceed solid state pre-amp.
A/B I find the tube pre-amp with the description mentioned with air and present of the recording in the room and not from the equipment. The solid state very accurate almost clinical in presentation with more of the dry digital fatigue.
I conclude that if you have a nice tube pre-amp and fix your stock transporter volume 100% not lose bits/resolution and use the volume control of the analog pre-amp results will be similar or even better than the mod depending pre-amp selection and the trial/error of tube rolling of chosen pre-amp.
Enjoy Music.