Well, I have to say that I don't think the SB3 is killing off high-res formats, it is the music companies. Though I think the evidence suggests that SACD will survive as an audiophile format supported by smaller music firms such as Blue Note, Telarc, Naxos, MFSL, etc. As for the sound, the SB3 does not compete with high-end CD players IMHO. It lack extension on both ends of the frequency spectrum and is a bit "hashy" and congested in the high end. (This is through its analog outputs.) Don't get me wrong, I love it and use it for non-critical listening applications happily. And it blows away CD players that cost many times its price. I have a Linn Sondek CD 12 and an Ayre C5xe universal player and both sound better than the SB3. This was backed up in John Atkinson's recent measurements as published in Stereophile which shows the SB3 to have a noise floor about 10 to 15 db higher than the best players. It also loses some frequency response in the lower bass which would be audible on true full-range systems, which mine is but I admit very few are. The Transporter, however, is another matter. I have to listen very carefully to discern any difference between it and my physical players and even then I can't be sure if it is me or the players. And while I certainly haven't heard them all I have not heard a $2000 CD player that competes with the Transporter. And to my ears vinyl on a good turntable still beats them all most of the time. However, I agree entirely, the convenience and ease of screening through a large music collection is overwhelming compared to the physical media.
System info: Linn LP12 w/Ekos arm and Akiva cartidge, Linn Sondek CD12, AyreC5xe, VTL 7.5 Reference Preamp, Ayre V-1 amp, Vandersteen 5A, Shunyata Research, Audioquest. -- rplert ------------------------------------------------------------------------ rplert's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8358 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21542 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
