Audiophiles, listen up. (Oh, how we do love saying that.)
Slim Devices has got something you'll want to check out if you've been on the hunt for a
Sonos alternative: meet the Transporter (and we ain't talking about Jason Statham). Slim's new wireless audio distribution system moves your music (in WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, and FLAC up to 96KHz sample rates) via 802.11g or Ethernet, and outputs in XLR, with optical, S/PDIF, and coax ins and outs. But thats not all, you've also got RS-232, infrared, even a clock input port to make sure using and controlling the audio chugging through its Super Regulator-driven 120dB SNR AKM-built AK4396 DAC is a pleasurable experience. They're not going to let you off easily though, this piece will set you back two grand when it debuts September 18th. Slim Devices will, however, throw you a bone for your hard earned thousands; pre-order the Transporter before it's released and they'll toss in a free
Squeezebox to say thanks for skipping out on rent (yet again).
posted Jul 24th 2006 6:01PM
Oops. I just wet myself.
what? music only up to 96k sample rates? that doesn't make sense. Audiophile (like me) won't do with anything less than lossless.
Who's the target market? What audiophile would pay 2 G's for inferior music?
oops, my bad. Confused sample rate with compression rate. This thing is sweet!
Excuse me for being ignorant, but why would you ever need a clock input for a network media player? Does it do midi as well? I don't understand...
Wow, this device will save studio engineers a lot of time and a lot of wires.
Michael, it's digital and it works with audio. Everything like that can benefit from a good clock source.
I think I just wet myself too.
High end CD transports everywhere are running and hiding.
*drool*
I am really tempted.
I like the contemporary yet retro design to this thing.
long time audiophile and fan of AAC, first time caller... where's the love?
Michael
when handling high-end digital outputs there is a gremlin known as 'jitter' that can creep in and causes a 'smearing' affect on the audio. Jitter is basically caused by errors in timing of the sampling of the digital signal at different points. Synchronizing of various clock circuits can minimize this, so people using an external DAC with a 'master clock' can use it's built in clock to drive all the relevant bits in Transporter and reduce Jitter.
Hope this muddled description helps.
This looks great...it's definitely the best idea to get as much of the audio equipment outside of the PC box (as in: external) as possible. I have a small USB device to get the digital sound optically, which is sent to an external DAC. This thread is an interesting read:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=45749
Given the price, this looks like it's more likely to compete with the Olive system than the Sonos.
As much as I will seek out high quality audio this from the start didn't appeal to me. Too complex. Better than the competitors but not ready for me. Apple? I've had a Squeezebox and except for the title of being open source there's no reason not to use Apple Lossless and Front Row with a mac mini. I'd rather have a mac mini than this audio-only device.
WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, and FLAC up to 96KHz sample rates = CRAP
Why do they insist on getting me all excited about digital technologys that are crap. Let me know when it will play vinyl JUST LIKE IT SOUNDS FROM MY TURNTABLE and hold SACD's
Until then, this is crap.
"Excuse me for being ignorant, but why would you ever need a clock input for a network media player? Does it do midi as well? I don't understand..."
Some audiophiles feel that they can hear the small changes in the timing of bits in a digital signal. They call it jitter. So they spend tons of money on special clock sources to reduce jitter. It's just like $400 power cables. It's a great way to separate audiophiles from their money.
Just like audiophiles don't realize the jitter is corrected by the DAC, they don't realize their $400 power cable is fed by 10 cent a foot power cables in the wall.
>they don't realize their $400 power cable is fed by 10
>cent a foot power cables in the wall.
Quite a few audiophiles plug the expensive cables into expensive line conditioners/regenerators. The cabling inside the conditioners costs more than .10 per foot.
I personally use a regenerating computer UPS and standard cables, a poor-man's version but the same philosophy. There is AC line noise in my area which makes A/B comparisons pretty obvious.
About this 96kHz number, notice that that's not kbps. Standard CD audio is 16bit, 44.1kHz. This device handles audio sampled at up to 96kHz (hertz means cycles per second, remember). Not sure where you get audio sourced at that spec, but lots of devices up-sample in the audiophile world. This to say, they're definitely not advertising a product that can only play FLAC files that are 96kbps.
This would look like an Olive competitor, but there's no internal hard drive. The spec sheet says it can play internet radio stations without being hooked up to a computer. Great, so can their Squeezebox and Roku's SoundBridge (I own one of those). Can it play off a NAS or some attached storage? I can't find the math that would make me think this is worth 6 to 7 times the cost of a SqueezeBox.
Where is the RSS feed Screensaver? That was one of the best things about the Squeezebox.
Just wanted to try to answer a few questions.
1 - RSS, visualizers other than the analog VU's and other software-based featuress from Squeezebox will be present and correct. SlimServer 6.5 will be software release that is requiredd for Transporter but it will obviously still support Squeezebox.
2 - Similarly Transporter will work directly with NAS systems that integrate SlimServer (6.5). Right now Infrant and QNAP systems are available, but we are working with other NAS manufacturers. There are also a bunch of homebrew solutions discussed on our forums.
3 - Transporter will be compared with a range of other digital audio products at various price points - each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Internally, we designed this product to beat the performance of audiophile CD transports costing $5000+. Olive ( and originally Hermstedt) have a simple concept - the CD player with built-in library, but we feel that moving parts (like hard drives) are always going to interfere with audio performance andd generate unwanted noise. Most of our customers already have music collections on a computer or storage system andd they want to spend their time and money on improving the playback of those files. Transporter is designed for them. If customers are looking to solve other problems, we and our competitors have a range of products to meet their needs. Put simply, some customers feel that this product represents a breakthrough in price/performance and they will probably buy it. Others may feel Squeezebox better meets their own needs - either way we hope to deliver many happy hours of listening to both.
Sorry for the infomercial but I waanted to ensure people got answeers to their questions.
Way out of my price range. And besides that, it looks like it's mostly made of reused Squeezebox parts.
Scott - as responsible Californian tree-huggers, we try to reuse as much as possible. However Transporter is pretty much entirely new components, ciruitry and connectors. Just don't tell the EPA!
Sweet, and I do love this company. But for 40% less buy an Apple Airport Express and run it through a Benchmark DAC1.
Whoops, forgot to add Sailing Clicker for your Bluetooth Phone to fully control your iTunes... now that's sweet!
The Benchmark DAC1 is an excellent device. It was very highly rated by The Audio Critic, and that's as good a recommendation you get in my books.
I have purchased the Slim Devices Transporter and absolutely love it. Its DAC is excellent. Fit and finish is excellent. Slim took great care on the power supplies. The features are excellent - two analog audio outs (balanced & unbalanced, both active), two good 802.11g antennas for those difficult house spots, dual displays. All that and Open Software for the server.
And the music quality with FLAC is just exceptional... if your speakers are good enough to show it off.
I have mine running right into my power amp. No preamp, no CD transport, nothing else - Transporter, Amp, speakers. That's it.
Highly recommended.
Just to clarify my post... I also own two Squeezebox3s. If the Transporter had not arrived, I would have used the SB3 and the DAC1 as a digital transport for my system. The combination is excellent value for money - a little cheaper than the Transporter and probably just as good.
Why select the Transporter? I wanted the features - single package, dual audio outs, better 802.11g reception (it was going into a bad spot), better power supply, better jitter control. And, of course, the geek factor: it just looks plain cool.
Either way, I don't know a better system on the market for high quality digital music reproduction than Slim Devices.
I also use an Infrant ReadyNAS+ to store the music and run the slimserver.
Color me a happy customer.
I have a SqueezeBox SB3 and a friend has let me borrow his Transporter.
It's definetely better but I need to get some XLR cables to fully test it.
I really want to try the Transporter versus the SB3 with a tube DAC :)
All in all though, if you are not going super high end and you don't have a super reavealing system, stick with the SB3...
No matter what, audiophiles will still use their tube amps, play their direct-to -disk vinyl records, power on their McIntosh audio gear and think, Slim Device ? "so what", just another media splashed, must-have, audio device. This is just another device that'll our kids will call "vintage" soon enough, a device which will have its layer of dust blown off it to hopefully resell on eBay for 1/10 the retail price. Keeping up with technology is a losers game kids. Save now for your elderly years, you're all going to need lots of income with the futures you're inheriting.