New Slimdevices product - Transporter

[Joey_V]

I actually calculated the total out of pocket cost for the Transporter for me last night before I fell asleep. It's like $1999 right now with a free SB3... so that's like $250 sold on audiogon... making it $1749.

Then I can certainly use it as a standalone preamp (using digital in), so bye bye Rotel RC1070 for $350 on the gon... making it like $1499 flat.

Dang.. still too much.

Oh well.. I bet the SB3 has better DACs than the XFi soundcard I've been feeding the Logans thus far. An upgrade is an upgrade I 'spose.

 

[Kruppy]

Joey,
I see lots of Ramen noodles in your future.

 

[David Prall]

------------------------------------------------------
Joey,
I see lots of Ramen noodles in your future.
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LOL .... Joey does seem to have established a pattern for utilitarian eating as neccessary when it comes time to "feed" his electronics habit.

 

[cmescia]

what about viewing video_TS folders with DVD encoded material on it? What about .shn files? I have a very large amatuer recording library (>1.5 TB) in mainly .shn (called shorten, an earlier precursor to FLAC) and FLAC, and lately have been getting a bunch of DVD's. I dont care if the video is given output, but wondered if the SB3 or any of these other network devices will let you play the DTS 5.1 type audio output that is available on DVD's in a wireless fashion, like the SB3 does.

BTW, my collection is legally collected....not illegal boots.

Chris

 

[JonFo]

what about viewing video_TS folders with DVD encoded material on it? What about .shn files? I have a very large amatuer recording library (>1.5 TB) in mainly .shn (called shorten, an earlier precursor to FLAC) and FLAC, and lately have been getting a bunch of DVD's. I dont care if the video is given output, but wondered if the SB3 or any of these other network devices will let you play the DTS 5.1 type audio output that is available on DVD's in a wireless fashion, like the SB3 does.

BTW, my collection is legally collected....not illegal boots.

Chris

For what you want, an HTPC sounds more appropriate. Just make sure you use a high-quality audio-card, like an M-Audio.

There are a few DVD-players that claim to do what you are looking for, but the quality is sub-par.

Now, the new Pioneer BluRay player is supposed be a dang nice network player as well. Not only for audio, but for video as well. Whether it does all the tricks you want is another matter. but worth looking into.

 

[cmescia]

what is an HTPC? I dont really need a dvd -player-, since most all of these files are on hard drives in their native video_TS folders.

I have a prodif32 card that has spdif and optical outputs....but I am not sure from a software standpoint what would be best.

I envision a program that would initially play songs (randomly or just in any order), and I could rate them (like a 1-10 or 5 star system or the like). then after many ratings later, I could play everything from a 7 and up etc... I have many recorded concerts where a performer played 1 or two songs in 'knock you down' intensity, but the rest of the show is mediocre. My goal is to play thru these shows and gradually mark which tunes are the better ones and which are not, and gradually let the cream rise to the surface. With 3-4000 hours of live music, I would love to narrow it down to the top 500 hrs of the best stuff, but with no song titles on any of the tracks I am a bit stuck....

Thanks!

 

[amey01]

Of course you could even make things easier (but less flexible) by using Microsoft or Apple software to rip amd manage your music but I choose not to use those for all sorts of political reasons. (I'll spare everyone the details.) Plus all of my software is free. Yeah yeah I know MS and Apple are free too but you pay with your music library's freedom. Ok ok I'll stop now.

Could you please explain why you pay with freedom? FLAC is a format too, and from what I understand, once you encode your music in a particular format, you are tied to that format.

I would have thought the Apple system would be more portable as it is by far and away the market leader - everyone supports it. Whats more, it looks like it is pretty well cemented as the market leader too, meaning it is less likely to go out of "vogue" tomorrow when something else comes along - as FLAC might.

I just don't understand!

 

[socialxray]

Forget formats (although open source formats are usually much more universal. ie. everything supports MP3.)

In the USA we used to enjoy the right to Fair Use. This meant that as long as we paid for the content we could convert it into whatever format we liked. ie. ripping a CD to a computer.

This right has been obliterated with the advent of DRM (digital rights management) and laws that make it illegal to circumvent DRM even for legal purposes.

DRM does not stop piracy. DRM does not stop p2p sharing. It does inconvience law abidding citizens.

In all actuality DRM has nothing to do with piracy and eventhing to do with controlling consumer choice. Microsoft and Apple are using DRM as instruments of competition. Apple is using DRM to help cement its near-monopoly market share. Microsoft is trying to use DRM to keep customers locked into its solutions. Content providers are using DRM to make consumers pay multiple times for the same content on different formats.

DRM limits your choices and locks you in. Sure you do not have to buy music online but most people do not understand the consequences of buying music online. Maybe another manufacturer makes a better sounding, better performing and cheaper music player. You buy it only to find out that all of your $1000+ purchased iTunes library will not play on it. You cannot even transfer your non-DRM music. Now you have to take it back. Apple's marketshare is secure.

Maybe this is a relatively minor problem now but this is the wave of the future. Given a choice would you rather have DRM ladden music or music that is truly yours to own and control? If you keep supporting Microsoft and Apple then you have made your choice.

 

[cmescia]

you are not tied to a format like FLAC once you use it. FLAC can be converted into any format you wish.....thus making it quite superior.

If you watch the exponential growth of hard drives over the past couple decades, (when they were 1MB, then 1GB, and now 1TB) we are not far away from the ability to have tremendous amount of music on a small piece of hardware.

Once we get to 100+TB drives....things will be interesting. In a compressed format like FLAC (and esp in lossy formats like MP3) we will soon be able to hold in our hand a drive that will have every bit of recorded music...EVER. If you have a drive that can hold a couple hundred million hours of music...how do you fill it up? You just clone your buddy's drive that has the 'archive' on it.

I envision in a decade or two we will talk about if you have the 'music drive' or not, and if you do, it will be a pretty comprehensive compilation of most everything. Copyrights will have to change to adapt with this, but it is inevitable.

Still waiting to see.....

Chris