Hi Ben, I suggest that we wait until we see all the Transporter can do before discounting it out of hand.
I have long been a fan of Wadia Compact Disc Players and DACs because of ALL that a Wadia does, and does right. I am currently using a Wadia 860x with Great Northern Sound Company Reference Modifcations to directly feed my Electrocompaniet AW 220 Monoblocks (via the balanced outputs) and my Gallo Reference 3 Subwoofer Amplifier (via the RCA outputs). Many audiophiles with systems two or three times as expensive are amazed by the transparency and fidelity of the music presented in our living room. We use the Wadia's Digital inputs to select one of my modded SB2 or my DVD player or HDTV cable box as alternate sources. The Wadia 860x w/ GNSC Ref Mods retails for just under $10K (not what I paid of course.) The Wadia design eliminates my pre-amp and many expensive runs of interconnects -- and radically improved the transparency and immediacy of the music in our living room. The investment made sense for us when we added up what we saved and what we gained in the process. Now it appears that the Slim Devices has taken several pages from the Wadia design book. It may be able to do all of this and more for just under $2K. When we see what features and functions lay hidden beneath the aluminum skin of the new SD Transporter we may be pleasantly surprised by the SD Transporter's value for dollar. Clearly this is an entry level audiophile price point. If the design and build are as clean and clever as Slim Devices previous generations of Entry Level devices, the game of HiFi / Audiophile music and Network Music Players may have just changed. Personally, I look forward to seeing how close the SD Transporter comes to my Wadia 860x w/ GNSC Reference Mods, in features and in fidelity when placed in our system here. So far, both my Red Wine Audio and Bolder modded Squeezebox 2s are quite good but not nearly as transparent as the Wadia 860x. I look forward to seeing what we hear on September 18, 2006 /Daniel -- daniels5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ daniels5's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3969 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25771 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
