Slimdevices Transporter

Just noticed this :-

http://www.slimdevices.com/

 

I like it.

Worth it for those cool meters alone.

 

Anyone ready to cough up £1000 for what is essentially an mp3 player?

I may be missing the point but I can connect the laptop into any of the hifi gear in the house and have mp3/mp4/ogg/lame/flac/pandora.realplayer.........the list goes on.

I have to say that it does look the part though.

 

Oh, perhaps not then.

 

zygote,
you'll also connect your hi-fi to a load of rf noise and pc digital outs aren;t exactly jitter free. not to mention most pc's sound like jet engines - especially in this weather.
pc's are generally great for storing music on but they aren;t fantastic at playing it back directly.
the squeezebox is a great little device for neutralising most of these problems.
the transporter seems a bit pricey but i suspect it will compete with some very serious kit - i'd love to hear it up against the cd player du jour.
if i had the money i'd have my name down for one.
cheers

julian

 

Should keep patrick dixon happy this new slim-toy

 

getting exposure from the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5212396.stm

 

Actually we're delighted about it. There's been more talk of the SB+ since the Transporter was announced than ever before.

 

If it has a great DAC in it (and a volume control), I think £1,000 is perfectly reasonable.

I'll stilll be buying a SB3 however, because I see streamed music working fo me as a way to access new music rather than a primary way to play my favourite albums.

 

Interesting the BBC article says that Slim Devices estimates that 20% of it's customers are "Audiophiles". Would have thought it was lower.

Things are getting serious now. Wonder how the hi-fi magazimes are going to handle this in terms of reviews and comparisons with high end CDP's.

I think they have priced it about right.

 

It would have to be a great deal better than the SB3, which is certainly no 'audiophile' product IME.

 

shuggie,
i'd have to disagree (with caveats) - as standard the sb2/sb3 is better than all the dixons / currys / argos / richer kit i've heard, this immediately qualifies it as 'audiophile' to the general public.
taking a standard box and adding an external linear psu improves things even more.
most audiophiles use a squeezebox with an external dac so the interface between the 2 is critical - there has to be synergy. i tried quite a few before i settled on the dac i prefer with the sbox.
lastly there is ripping and setup - most serious audiophiles use flac as this is the most flexible lossless format when using a squeezebox as it can decompress flac natively. however it is possible to make mistakes here and have the server transcode flac to mp3 without any warnings thus compromising playback quality.
then there's the subjective nature of audio testing - this of course cuts both ways making some things sound better and some worse (subjectively). as i'm a total subjectivist i have to say if you don;t find the sb3 does a good job then fair enough but my sb2 (an sb3 in an ugly box) shure does sound good to me.

 

And it's available in a proper colour

 

Wonder who's going to be the first one here to buy one when released in Sept? It won't be me by the way.

I assume all those buttons along the front just "mirror" the remote control functions. Not sure why they bothered as I always liked the absence of buttons on the SB3 as toddlers have nothing to frig around with.

 

I use the digital output of the SB3 via a DH Labs 75ohm cable (eichmann terminated) into my Lyngdorf TDA2200. I've chosen to use AAC Lossless Compression, as it means that I can retain the user-friendliness of iTunes. Now, it may be that on the SB3, AAC Lossless is not perfect, but comparing original CDs, played on the Lyngdorf CD-1 (used as a transport with sampling rate set to 44.1kHz) the SB3's reproduction is a tad smeary, not nearly so detailed, and generally lacking in a sense of acoustic 'space'. I could try other DACs, but the Lyngdorf amp does not need one.

I too am a subjectivist, and I do not like to think too hard about why something may work well. As long as it works well for me, then fine. Incidentally, I learnt this way of thinking indirectly from Richard Dunn, many moons ago, and I thank him for it. Perhaps some of the forum members berating him on another thread might benefit from taking a subjectivist view more often?

The SB3 is a great little gadget that is recommended on convenience alone, and for internet radio. I'm knocking up a linear power supply using a bespoke and very high speed regulator, and I'm sure that this will improve its performance, but I'd be suprised if it ever reached the standard of my Lyngdorf CD-1. That prospect doesn't concern me too much, I have to say. I won't give up on the SB3, but I pretty much understand where it fits into my system, and my priorities.

Cheers

S

 

OK Julian, you have got me thinking! As an experiment I transferred a well-known CD onto the PC, via iTunes as WAV files, which I know are supported natively by the SB3. The result is a whole lot better than AAC lossless, and much more comparable to the original CD. Looking at the Server settings in Slimserver, it seems that AAC is converted to FLAC or AIFF, both of which are supported by the SB3 natively, where AAC is not. I see that iTunes will import AIFF which is a lossless encoder, so maybe that's the way ahead for me.

Cheers

S

Edited as I answered my own AIFF question!

 

yeah in server settings file types there should be a bunch of transcoding options i mainly use flac however i slightly prefer the sound of flacs converted on the server and sent to the sb as wavs to the sb's internal conversion - i could speculate why but it's a tiny difference.
i'm not a big fan of apples codec mainly because it has drmc built in which could do god knows what to your music i.e. if apple decide they want to charge you for music you've ripped off your own cd's thye could 'update' mov123 and then any music ripped could be played back as a 96k mp3 equivalent and you'd never know it - it;'s a black box - flac on the other hand is open source so any of that sort of shenanigans and aproximately 1,000,000 internet geeks will jump on it and sort it out in a flash.
i'm glad that your sb was performing under par and that you've been inspired to have a play and it's bourn fruit. i'd certainyl agree that it's not up there with a multi '000 quid dedicated transport but give it a decent psu and dac and treat it with respect re amps / speakers and it;'s surpeisingly good for the money. i went from about 8k's worth of naim / b&w to what i have nowwhich cost less than 3k and i reckon it sounds far better.
cheers

julian.

 

I'm tempted by the Transporter. Not sure if I can justify the spend yet...

 

I think that SD have timed their move perfectly.

The RRP is £1299 but with the competitive market, they will hit £999 soon I expect. If they keep up the free SB3 offer as well I think they will fly off the shelfs.

I would buy one if my main system was in a better state (and I was actually using it more) but for now am happy with SB3's throughout the house.

Well done SD. This will shakes things up a bit in the industry a bit.

 

And you haven't even heard it yet........oh the power of marketing!