[I posted this on Head-fi.org but believe it is relevant hear as well.] Last week I received my Slimdevices Transporter and sold off my Arcam CD33 source. I had previous experiences using Squeezeboxes in secondary systems, so all of my music had been ripped with EAC, properly tagged, and stored as FLAC. On somewhat of a whim I decided to go disk-free in my main system.
In the past I've had underwhelming experiences with source swaps. I've owned a few DAC1s, an Apogee MiniDAC, the Arcam CD23 and 33, and a few high-end Arcam DVD and universal players. Frankly, for me it was tough to hear any obvious improvements (or deterioration) when changing sources, especially compared to the obvious differences I experienced when changing speakers or amplication. I had come to the conclusion that at a certain level sources tend to sound the same. Last night I had the first chance to listen to the Transporter in my main rig: Arcam C31 pre, P1 monoblocks, PMC FB1+ floorstanders, and Moon Audio Black Dragon cables. This time I was blown away by the difference. The sound from the Transporter was much more involving than it had been with the Arcam, and I had a feeling that the music was easier to enjoy, and more fun. This is a totally subjective observation but was very real after three years with the CD33. More significantly, I was able to listen to older music and completely get into it. In the past, many of my CDs from the 70s and 80s were relegated to car use only, where the environment was more forgiving for less-quality masters. I listened to songs from The Clash, The Jam, Rolling Stones, Hoodoo Gurus, Allman Brothers, and almost everything put a big grin on my face. Previously this music got almost no airplay on my main rig. On a more objective level, the soundstage became wider, deeper and more precise with the Transporter. Soundstage had always been lacking in this system, and I was beginning to think that the room made poor performance inevitable. While before I had to concentrate to "see" the images, now they were obviously arrayed before me, in a variety of music. For the first time, I'm actually impressed with my system. I'm even wondering if there was something wrong with the setup before. I can't begin to explain why the Transporter sounds this much better, as I had considered it to be a lateral move from my $2.5k CD player, at best. But clearly the Transporter is a great fit in my system. As a final note, I will say that "surfing" music and building playlists on the fly is a huge improvement over swapping CDs. After the Slimdevices experience, it is nearly impossible to go back to shiny disks. -- gregeas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gregeas's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5877 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32969 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
