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Tonality of Jay's Transport?

Having demo'd the Pro-ject RS2 and compared it to my Sim260DT, I'm well aware that transports differ in terms of their capacity for reading data off a disc. 

I returned the Pro-ject (I found its small size and light weight impractical) before it was burned in and therefore garnered little sense of how it affected the overall tonality of my system. Furthermore, it was demo'd before I acquired my current integrated. 

Now I am considering purchasing the Jay's and am wondering if anyone can comment on its tonality. I'm particularly interested in how it might affect the mids in my system. 

Although my Aqua La Voce 2 DAC and Silverline SR17.5 monitors are typically regarded as warm, I've found my Hegel H390's neutral character has a greater impact on the sound of the system, overall. I often turn up the mids to 2 - 0 - clock on my Schiit Lokius and would not want a transport than would impart any sense of lean-ness. As I cannot return the Jay's, I feel a need for caution, here. 

Thanks! 

 

 

stuartk

Showing 3 responses by mosler666

mosler666's avatar
mosler666
26 posts
 
Yes I should have quantify my observation that the Esoteric I was using is an older SA-50 clock linked with G25U as transport. Far from latest. It is in my humble opinion in my modest system that it’s more analytical and sterile. Latest and greatest ESO may and should sound different. Whatever you or I read here should be taken with a grain of salt. BTW, I will not quote anything that I have no direct experience with.
mosler666's avatar
mosler666
26 posts
 

@stuartk

High-Rez is relative to ones perspective. Unfortunately I’m unfamiliar with Hegel or Silverline. I’m sure they are great to capture a fellow audiophile’s ears. So I can’t comment on these pieces.

Using the Jay in my secondary system, I perceived a slight improvement over my Avatar in area of micro dynamics and few others. Both transport shares similar characteristics. Furthermore I experienced no room node problems due the fact that my Kharma CRM2.3FE doesn’t reach that low.

But in my main system, the twin servo-sub-towers excited my room with new found authority which caught me by surprise. My system measures flat to 18hz but never did I need to retune my system due to transport swap. I cite this as a testament to the Jay.

So if your system doesn’t reach that low, you’ll have no concerns. As jafant sez, enjoy the music.

mosler666's avatar
mosler666
26 posts
 

Just a couple of additional observation with my unit.

After upgrading my unit to Mk3, the transport sounded dull and two dimensional the first 100 hour. However it opened up after an extensive burn-in with XLO disc track #8. During burn-in, the top end harden up with a touch of grain, the midrange was flat, and bottom was somewhat bloated. But do be patience and hold off your judgement until you have at least 500hrs on the Jay. In my humble opinion, it will take a high-rez system to fully exploit the capability of this transport. The Jay sounds rich and full of detail, dynamic and transparent. Staging and imaging is outstanding and outweighs transports twice it’s price. Comparing to my resident Esoteric, the Jay is more articulate and musical. Where the stage depth isn’t as deep as the sterile Eso, but overall presentation is more three dimensional. However, be prepared to reposition your speakers as the system will gain low end extension and weight. If not tended to, it may excite room nodes you didn’t realize existed. Now that my Jay is burned in, it will only take an hours of playing to weak up. 

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