The MSB Select Transport - My new toy for the new year of 2019

[spiritofmusic]

Do we know how this MSB transport compares to two other big hitters, the JMF and Wadax Atlantis universal transports?

The JMF in particular looks totally unflappable.

 

[CKKeung]

The same with my MSB UMT V transport. It connects to my router with Ethernet and streams Tidal. CD sounds way way better than streaming.

Hello Alfa,
When listening to silver discs with your UMT V, please try unplugging the ethernet cable cable on it.
The sonic performance will be better without the noise coming from the internet.

 

[CKKeung]

Do we know how this MSB transport compares to two other big hitters, the JMF and Wadax Atlantis universal transports?
The JMF in particular looks totally unflappable.

Yes, both the JMF and Wadax transports look unflappable.
Alfa's MSB UMT V is a discontinued model. The current models are Reference Transport and Select Transport and the net prices of either of them, even togehter with their Transport Powerbase are less than the JMF and Wadax transports.

However I guess nobody in HK have done a comparison, or a meaningful compariaon.
Two reasons.
Firstly all of them are heavy and carried & sold directly by their own dealers.
It's near impossible to bring them together for a direct comparison.

Secondly MSB, JMF and Wadax transport/dac combos perform best when connected by their proprietary connections which I believe are I2S type of connections.
Testing these tranaports without their pairing dac is rather meaningless.

 

[spiritofmusic]

CK, you suggest these transports shouldnt be used other than w their respective dacs?

So, if I wanted to run a non-JMF dac like TotalDac, the JMF transport won't fully shine?

That seems a little crazy for a €50k unit.

 

[CKKeung]

CK, you suggest these transports shouldnt be used other than w their respective dacs?

Exactly!

I compared connecting my MSB transports (the past UMT Plus and the current Select Transport) to MSB dac via different connections (the usual spdif ; MSB proprietary ProI2S and optical ProISL).

The latter two proprietary connection formats perfom much much better, particularly on high resolution software such as sacd/dvd-audio/bluray-audio.

In fact on my Select transport-dac combo, the cheaper optical ProISL connection KO the more expensive Kubula Sosna Elation AES/EBU digital cable connection in every aspects easily.

 

[ationg]

Hello CCKeung, do you use this transport to also double up like an Oppo to watch BD movies via HDMI? I just gotten a select2 transport, and wondering to leave it purely as a CD spinner, in case the HDMI connection to a TV would affect the CD playback quality. Any experience there?
Regards

 

[CKKeung]

Hello CCKeung, do you use this transport to also double up like an Oppo to watch BD movies via HDMI? I just gotten a select2 transport, and wondering to leave it purely as a CD spinner, in case the HDMI connection to a TV would affect the CD playback quality. Any experience there?
Regards

Hi ationg,
Congratulations!

A frd of mine uses his Select Transport for BR discs playback too.

However I don't want mine connected with TV/projector via a hdmi cable.
It can also act as a simple streamer but again I don't want mine to connect to network.
I want to have as less pollution as possible.

Also, there are now BR players better than than the Select (Oppo mechanism), such as Panasonic & Pioneer for home theatre.

 

[ationg]

Thanks CKKeung,
May I ask another question? I see the Select 2 DAC manual mention availability of ProISL and ProI2S input modules. Wondering what are their differences, and do you have both inputs? Somehow I ended up with two ProISL inputs installed on my Select2, and one of which is being used to connect to the transport.
Regards

 

[CKKeung]

Thanks CKKeung,
May I ask another question? I see the Select 2 DAC manual mention availability of ProISL and ProI2S input modules. Wondering what are their differences, and do you have both inputs? Somehow I ended up with two ProISL inputs installed on my Select2, and one of which is being used to connect to the transport.
Regards

The ProI2S is the previous best connection format between MSB transport and dac.
It's surpassed by the optical ProISL.

The optical ProISL is currently the best connection format between Select Transport and Select DAC, but I think you don't need two?

 

[ationg]

Thanks CKKeung for enlightening this new MSB user.
The other input is for future connection to a streamer via an external ProISL/USB module.
Regards

 

[CKKeung]

Thanks CKKeung for enlightening this new MSB user.
The other input is for future connection to a streamer via an external ProISL/USB module.
Regards

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The Pro USB Adapter is a revolutionary new inline adapter that completely isolates noisey USB input devices from your audio system by converting the signal to MSBs proprietary Pro ISL format.

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[ationg]

You are right CKkeung,
I am wondering if there are other brands of this proISL cable that I can try out to compare with the ones MSB provided.
Regards

 

[Mike Lavigne]

The ProI2S is the previous best connection format between MSB transport and dac.
It's surpassed by the optical ProISL.

The optical ProISL is currently the best connection format between Select Transport and Select DAC, but I think you don't need two?

a second Pro USB can be used to connect a laptop to the MSB Select II. it will supercharge your Youtube watching. MP3 never can sound better.

the alternative is the crappy analog headphone output which is limited by the laptop dac and laptop analog gain stage inside the laptop.

i've not yet done this but plan to soon.

 

[Brucemck2]

Also, there are now BR players better than than the Select (Oppo mechanism), such as Panasonic & Pioneer for home theatre

A bit off topic, but what would you consider the best currently available BR players for home theatre (I do all video processing via Lumagen)?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

A bit off topic, but what would you consider the best currently available BR players for home theatre (I do all video processing via Lumagen)?

i use the Lumagen too.

Kaleidescape Stratos will equal or surpass discs. many times better files to work (sometimes better audio track choices and more 4k choices than discs) with and zero read issues. i was considering trying to better my Oppo 203 and decided to go that way and away from discs. with so many streaming options, i felt the 'K' was a better way to go for the movies i add moving forward. super slick interface. not the cheapest but my wife likes all the old movie choices and ease of use......great interface.

i may also add the Panasonic too as it's relatively cheap. and then if they stop building them i have my Oppo and that for the future disc playing.

 

[ationg]

Yes, via ProI2S before, which is much better than any aes/ebu digital cables.

BTW the best ethernet cable for ProI2S I experienced is the Dalby Audio Meda.
The 2nd best is Vertere.

Hello CKKeung,
Wondering are you using the MSB's provided ISL optical cable, or from another brand? i am curious to want to try different brands to experience, but no sure where to look.
Regards

 

[CKKeung]

Hello CKKeung,
Wondering are you using the MSB's provided ISL optical cable, or from another brand? i am curious to want to try different brands to experience, but no sure where to look.
Regards

I suggest staying with MSB's optical fiber and transievers.
Another MSB owner frd and I did test substituting diff transievers into our ProISL but eventually we thought that the original ones gave the best sound.