iPhone;598263 Wrote: > So you are voting for the high end Transporter Receiver model? > > Which is kind of where I was hoping the next device after the Touch > would go. No display or knob, TP size case, plenty of RAM/CPU to run > full SBS internally, killer onboard power supplies, two 2TB drives, > built-in powered USB hub, all the current TP I/O, priced under $999. > With iPeng and all the tablets available today, who needs a display or > IR remote? My perfect high end unit or multi-room base unit with > built-in Server.
I've actually been working on a design for this. It starts with a Touch board as is, plus a fitPC2 board, my latest DAC design and some really high quality power supplies. The FitPC2 would run Vortexbox software and the Touch just be a normal touch. The DAC has super low jitter clocks that are fed back into the Touch Board in place of its normal crystals, thus syncing it to the DAC. The DAC has a S/PDIF receiver implemented in the FPGA, it doesn't need a PLL because the Touch is automatically synced to it. Wifi was an interesting problem, the FitPC raw board doesn't have WiFi and even if it did Vortexbox won't talk to it. I finally found a little WiFi module that acts as a ethernet/Wifi bridge. Its out is regular ethernet, which will go to an ethernet switch chip, into which are plugged the Touch board and FitPC, both of which just think they are talking ethernet. The fun thing about this module is that it can also be a an access point and its own DHCP server. It has a web server for setting up the whole setup. You can have it come from the factory as an AP. This way it provides its own Wifi network for connecting to something like iPeng, no need for ANY external components. If you want to use it as a client on your existing network, you plug an ehthernet wire in, connect to its web page and change the wifi type to client and its off and running as a client. You can even hardwire it to an existing server for music and use its own AP for control. This is NOT a cheap product, the DAC uses expensive DAC chips and good quality capacitors (NOT $100 ones but quite a few $5 ones)and the power supplies in particular are pretty expensive (several good quality transformers and CHOKES). I don't think it could retail for $999, but maybe $1800 to $2000. One really nice thing about this product is that it doesn't take any new software, it uses the Touch and Vortexbox as is. Its also very modular, you can use it as a network player, in which case you turn off the FitPC. You can turn he Wifi on or off as you desire. You can use it completely standalone, with the inmternal server, or use the server for other SBs, wired or wireless. It could also have external in and out S/PDIF so you could use the DAC part with other "transports". You could plug USB dacs into the FitPC part and use Vortexbox player with them. You could even use the screen on the front as a control for other SBs. One thing that would be really cool is to figure out how to get a "now playing" display on the HDMI out of the FitPC so people can have their large display they can see across the room. Any takers? Anyone know a company that would be willing to take on this project? I'll be glad to do all the design work for it. John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84281 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
