Slim Devices Transporter

[JonHarrison]

Hi,

Has anyone heard of this device
Slim Devices Transporter ? Looks promising. It's not just another network MP3 media player; claiming audiophile credientials with lossless compression, a 24bit 192KHz DAC (although it doesn't say that it supports sample rates over 96KHz), Jung Super regulators and balanced outputs. It doesn't say whether it supports the storage of SACD or DVD-Audio streams or whether it upsamples CD though. I assume it uses some form of hard-disk storage but no capacity is given. FLAC requires around 400MB for a CD so I hope it's going to come with a large disk !

Jon

[I_Forgot]

It does not store the audio on-board. It is a networked player, with both wired and wireless network interfaces. You store the music on a PC/server/NAS device remote to the player, just like the Squeeze Boxes.

Right now a lot of SB users use flac compression to save space and allow tagging of files but I suspect in another 2-3 years no one will bother to compress audio, assuming someone comes up with a way to tag uncompressed files. By then terabyte HDDs will be cheap and easily exceed the size of most people's music collections, even if stored in uncompressed formats.

I_F

[Daveis]

It's $1999! The AK4396 sounds like a successor to the AKM4393 DAC in my Behringer DCX2496. I'd be inclined to wait for Behringer to build this into some $300 device first.

Probably nice sounding. I like the wordclock input on it. But a nice sub $500 USB DAC would be a better bet.

I've never understood why you need any of these music player NAS devices. I think it's just an attempt to remote the PC from the living room where the stereo resides. That keeps the noise of the PC in another room. And you gain remote control as well.

For $2000 you could buy a quiet laptop PC to go near the stereo and run digital outs from that into a nice DAC.

Or in my case, I just run 60 feet toslink cable from the computer room to the living room. If I want to remote control the PC I can do that with bluetooth/wifi and a PocketPC for $350 more.

[I_Forgot]

Originally posted by Daveis
For $2000 you could buy a quiet laptop PC to go near the stereo and run digital outs from that into a nice DAC.

This argument was used by many against the Squeeze Box at $300. I'd say it is much more powerful argument at the $2k price-point than at $300.

One reason for these music player/NAS devices is that you can use multiple players throughout your house with a single server. The slimserver can stream different audio to different players simultaneously. Of course if you will never be wanting/needing more than one player...

I_F

[analog_sa]

Originally posted by Daveis


But a nice sub $500 USB DAC would be a better bet.

Maybe. But from what i understand the network protocols eliminate all USB-specific jitter.

[ssmith]

The device is basically...

a Squeeze Box ($300)
with a better DAC
plus a preamp

If I went the squeeze box route, I go for the SB3, digital out mods, a DAC of my choice and a pre of my choice.

Though I still prefer a PC to the squeeze box interface for the main system, the interface is much easier when you are able to browse by album art....

[I_Forgot]

Originally posted by ssmith

Though I still prefer a PC to the squeeze box interface for the main system, the interface is much easier when you are able to browse by album art....

You can use a wireless PDA type device (PalmTX, Nokia 770, etc.) to control the server via the web interface and view album art if you want to.

I_F

[JonHarrison]

Hi,

It does not store the audio on-board. It is a networked player, with both wired and wireless network interfaces. You store the music on a PC/server/NAS device remote to the player, just like the Squeeze Boxes.

That's disappointing I thought it was a self contained media server. $1999 for a DAC with network / wifi connectivity does seem like a lot.

Regards,

Jon