My Transporter arrived about an hour ago, so these are *extremely* early thoughts. I'm using the balanced analogue outputs direct into a pair of ATC SCM100A active speakers. It has replaced an SB2, which also fed the ATCs directly from its analogue output, albeit via a balanced line driver.
First thoughts: the Transporter has a distinctly warmer sound than the SB2. Various adjectives that might be used would be "creamier", "meatier", or if you're in an uncharitable mood, "thicker". Bass does seem to reach down deeper. These impressions are sighted and not level-matched. Given the hassle required to switch between SB2 and TP, I doubt I'll ever try and do a scientifically valid comparison. I've not done any serious listening yet, so can't comment on the amount of low level detail. The new remote looks nicer, but the buttons and legends are smaller. My eyesight is pretty bad, and I find it quite difficult to read the letters over the top of the numeric buttons, so searching for music by typing in an artist name is not so easy. I'll spend a little time using old & new remotes before deciding on which one to use permanently. I probably wouldn't have bothered buying a TP just for the improved sound quality alone. The SB2 sounded pretty damn fine to me. Of course any improvement is very welcome, it's just that I was happy to live with the SB2. It was the prospect of using the TP as a digital pre-amp, hooking up the DVD player and PVR, that clinched it for me. The PVR only has Toslink output, and I've yet to get an optical cable, so that hasn't been tried yet. I hooked up the DVD player via RCA SPDIF COAX, and it works fine (regardless of whether I configure the DVD output as RAW or PCM - anyone got an idea what the difference between these might be?). However, the TP's volume control seems to behave rather differently on the SPDIF input than it does when playing from SlimServer. At low settings it seems to stay constant for several steps, then suddenly applies a fairly large volume change (I'd say about 3dB) in a single jump. Anyone else noticed this and/or have an explanation? -- cliveb Performers -> dozens of mixers and effects -> clipped/hypercompressed mastering -> you think a few extra ps of jitter matters? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cliveb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30402 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
