Slim Devices Transporter: Advanced digital music player predicts death of CD player
Slim Devices have announced the Transporter, a high-end wi-fi digital audio player, and have hammer and nails ready for the CD player’s coffin.
They claim their new player surpasses even the most exotic (expensive) compact disc players, thanks to their ‘no compromise attitude to component selection and electronic design’ – and that we just won’t need CD players any more.
Networked with a PC, either wirelessly or over wired Ethernet, The Transporter plays digital music (preferably in uncompressed format) at very high quality. It also has access to ‘always on’ Internet Radio and Rhapsody’s two-million track collection of online music.
It’ll play a myriad of lossless, uncompressed and compressed audio formats, from Apple Lossless, FLAC and WMA lossless, through AIFF, WAV and PCM, to MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, MP2, MusePack and WMA – in other words it’ll handle pretty much any digital format you can throw at it.
The Transporter has a fanless, solid state architecture, so should be
whisper quiet in operation and immune to external interference. It uses
the AK4396 "Miracle DAC" which is described as follows (better Slim
Devices explain it than I try to):
‘The AK4396 "Miracle DAC" was chosen for its high dynamic range and low
distortion. Its low out-of-band noise allows for the use of low-order
output filters with higher cutoffs, resulting in preservation of phase
and reduced distortion in the audible band. This extraordinary accuracy
at higher frequencies allows Transporter to resolve the exact staging
of instruments and the finest details of any recording. In addition,
Transporter’s digital inputs allow its built-in DAC to be used with
other sources.’
And as for controlling it: there’s a TransNav controller which uses
tactile feedback to provide fast access to any song – quite how it does
this I don’t know but it’s probably a step up from the iPod interface
and Slim Devices themselves describe it as "a clever knob"
There’s also a remote control, naturally.
The price? Just over £1000, plus the shipping costs. It won’t be
available until September 18th, so you’d better start saving up now –
and ripping all your CDs to lossless formats.
Full specs on the Slim Devices web site.
