I'm contemplating picking up a Transporter (which I can get a discount on), but would consider other options up to $1400 (to then use with a Squeezebox). All my music is streamed and it would be to the Extreme Platinum and/or srm-007t in my sig.

Any other DACs you would recommend? Had the DA10 recently, and while I liked its signature, looking for something new.

for $1400, you could get a mac mini, an apogee duet, and a pair of terabyte external drives

I'd wait for tkam's review of the latest northstar, i think that was ~$1500.

I was not partial to the transporter at all and think you would be better served with a dac for the SB.

X2 on the duet mac mini front as well. If you can hold out we can compare the the SB>dac to the apogee duet at the meet in San Mateo.

x3 on the mac mini > duet > 1 tb drive.

I was not partial to the transporter at all and think you would be better served with a dac for the SB.

X2 on the duet mac mini front as well. If you can hold out we can compare the the SB>dac to the apogee duet at the meet in San Mateo.

I could bring along the Transporter, jp11801 can explain what he prefers, and why (with examples ) and we can all have jolly good comparison.

Think of some reference material - so its not the mastering that is the issue.

Who do we know with, say, a Balanced B22, so we aren't amp limited in the comparison

Should be fun regardless.

Who do we know with, say, a Balanced B22, so we aren't amp limited in the comparison

I'd sink all you can into the dac, then worry about secondary hard drives later. Hard drives dont go up in price, and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

I've not regretted upgrading my source to a similar price point.

When you do get to hard drives, I recommend getting something like this:

Thermatake BlacX. With it, I now use hard drives like floppies

OEM internal hard drives are the cheapest kind, and 2009 should see 2TB drives in a single 3.5" unit:cool:

On the drive front I've already got a 500GB NAS which isn't in danger of being maxed anytime soon (with music/films/books I tend to not focus with too vast a library and delete/sell as I acquire). So that's covered. The BlacX looks cool though and the name is right.

And a San Mateo comparison would be great.

I appreciate the suggestions so far. With being tethered to a computer has anyone ever do a comparison between the Duet and the Pico as a source?

I did a comparision although it was a quick one. As good as the Pico is, and it is good, I preferred the Duet. It was a while ago so I don't recall the specifics but I do remember that the Duet won out.

I echo the DAC suggestions.

Edited June 18, 200818 yr by The Monkey
I wanted to

Home-made. Because then you know exactly what blood and sweat went into it.

Maybe an 840c? Has two digital ins (one computer, one squeezebox) and a transport.

Thermatake BlacX. With it, I now use hard drives like floppies

Cool. Three questions:

1. Without cooling fans, does the HD stay cool enough not to shorten its lifespan?

2. Is it suitable for a "quiet PC" used for audio when HD noise is fully exposed to the outside? How noisy is something like that WD HD you have in the photo?

3. Have you noticed significantly slow speed due to the USB2.0 connection compared to internal HD slots?

I would say get a Transporter, but at $1999 I don't think its worth it..now if you could get it for $900 then yes. It would also depend on if you would be using your SB3 for volume control or whether you would be using an external preamp..

Cool. Three questions:

1. Without cooling fans, does the HD stay cool enough not to shorten its lifespan?

2. Is it suitable for a "quiet PC" used for audio when HD noise is fully exposed to the outside? How noisy is something like that WD HD you have in the photo?

3. Have you noticed significantly slow speed due to the USB2.0 connection compared to internal HD slots?

1: Good question. I've found the hard drives I use to be pretty cool. Yes there is no fan, so computers have the potential to have cooler temps for the drives, but my computer puts out some real heat, and even with 2 120mm fans for inake, I've found the drives inside it to feel at least as warm to the touch. Not exactly a scientific measurement, though. Alot of people are adamant that heat is not detrimental to hard drive life, at least the common amount of heat in computer towers.

Also, most of the drive case surface gets constant exposure to air. The entire platter section is outside of the BlacX case. The part of the drive enclosed is mostly just all the connector junk. From memory, I'd say maybe an inch or so of the drive is inside. Its locked until you release it, so you dont have to worry about it falling out.

2: The BlacX itself makes no noise, but the noise from the HDs is going to depend on what make/model you have. I use these, and they only really make a spinning noise when being accessed from being idle. Its an odd noise, something I dont hear from my computer, because the case blocks it. It only lasts for about 1/4 of a second. Its not that loud though. I only notice it 'cause I'm sitting right next to it. In a HT setting, it would be very, very faint, if audible at all.

3: No not at all. Its not my OS drive though. Just audio. I've been using USB drives for audio/video/data for a while and they seem to work just as well as internal sata as far as accessing the data. Writing to and from is not as fast though. But nothing significant.

Iirc the great Google disk survey a year or two ago indicated that a temperature of around 40 degrees (Celsius) was optimal for harddisk life.

so the thermaltake is working out well for you? in my past experience, thermaltake products have been absolute garbage. if the blacx is working out well, however, i may have to scoop one up.

Oh yeah. I bought two of them

I'm not aware of many competing products, but there is this:

It can only do smaller hard drives, due to USB bus power.

This one doesnt

I prefer the BlacX form better though. Nice and simple.

Finally, a practical solution to address my storage and back up obsession. Thanks AS.

Devices like that are also really handy for when your OS shits the bed like Vista did for me last week. I was able to simply pull the HD from my laptop, plug it into the external USB adapter that I have (thanks to tkam for pointing me to those a long ways back) and recover all of the data from the drive. It would have been a very bad day if I didn't have that adapter...

Finally, a practical solution to address my storage and back up obsession. Thanks AS.

You're welcome

I'm particularly glad to simplify the amount of external psu units lying around. My computer has enough wires as it is.

I don't see it on the thermaltake website...

EDIT: duh, wasn't at the US site.

At the egg