Transporter vs Ayre CX-7e


About a month ago, I bought a Logitech Transporter and it was a noticeable improvement over my Music Hall Maverick SACD player (for playing RBCD) so I gave it some thought and ultimately decided to dump all my physical disc players and move toward a media-server based solution with the Transporter as my final digital front-end.

However, I was in the showroom the other day at a local HiFi store and they had an Ayre CX-7e pumping through some decent, but not rediculous equipment. It was going through an Anthem TLP-1 Preamp, feeding an Anthem MCA-20 amp and pushing Paradigm Signature S6 v2 speakers.

I had heard just about all of this equipment before, but the Ayre was new to me and I was in awe over the tonal accuracy of instruments and voice. BUT, it was in a showroom, different equipment than I have, etc, etc, etc.

So my question is, does anyone here have any direct experience comparing a CX-7e with a Transporter? Was what I was hearing in the showroom a product of the showroom acoustics or is the Ayre clearly a better sounding device (when it comes to airiness and tonal accuracy).

I currently have a Marantz AV8003 preamp feeding an Outlaw 750 amp (although looking to replace the amp as mentioned in another recent post) pushing a pair of Focal/JMLabs Electra 1027be's. I'd like to think that my preamp/amp/speakers equal or exceed the quality of what I heard but I can't get the sound from that showroom out of my head.

Maybe I'm just rambling and I've already subconsciously made a decision here, but I figured I'd reach out to see what ye almighty Audiogonners thought.

Thanks in advance,

-Ben
fatgh0st

Showing 1 response by desalvo55

Wow this IS an interesting thread. You guys rock!

Mtdking - it seems we have similar tastes or goals if you will.

I've done some upgrading in the past year. Nuforce SEV2 mono's and a Transporter to start with. A Cary SLP-05 went in next. Wew wanted the Wilson 7's but decided to go a completely different direction in the form of line arrays. It was a painful 7 month wait for the speaker order and another long breakin period to get these arrays to sing. I modded the x-overs with platinum bypass caps, added polyfil and spiked these monsters. Then I picked up a Halcro MC50 (5 channel class D amp no one talks about) which was killed by the Nuforces until I added wood under the Cary but that's another topic/thread

This has been a huge learning experience and I've been at this for 40 years! I can't tell you what wood has done under my Cary pre. I'm still scratching my head over this one - but I digress and sorry for being off topic.

I wish to play hi rez music. I have no SACD player. I only have a Sony PS3 to spin CD's but I discovered that the 40Gig model doesn't play SACD. Not a big deal though, I mean, how good could that be? Still, I wish to hear SACD. Now I haven't been able to here hi rez on my Transporter because I don't know where to find these files. I've been looking at the Marantz SA7, SA11 to mod and Sony 9100ES to mod. I will eventually "truth" mod the Transporter and maybe sooner depending upon my research here.

If I mod the Transporter and can find hi-rez music to play at the 88Khz level then why bother with an SACD player, right? Am I missing something here? Can a Modded TP sound as well as a Modded SACD player? Is it worth all that added expense if you can find the fore mentioned hi-rez files?

What we are hearing now from our system is pretty amazing. I'm going to write a amateur review of the GR-Research/AV123 LS6 line array sometime soon. I'm hopeful to procure some Tesla speaker cables and give this system another boost if it turns out that way.

OK, so where can I find those hi-rez files?