“The CD player is dead.� So says Patrick Cosson, VP of Sales and Marketing for Slim Devices, which is debuting its newest network music player, the Transporter. Behind his audacious claim is the fact that the Transporter uses a high-grade DAC to wirelessly play lossless (or compressed) music from a PC or similar source, producing hi-fi sound sans disc.

Slim Devices made a name for itself with last year’s release of the Squeezebox, a networked music player that wirelessly streams audio from a PC to a stereo system with no interference. At $250, the Squeezebox is one of the better performers and bargains among PC-to-stereo systems, but the $2,000 Transporter takes the concept to another level, with a more stylized look and feel, an audiophile-grade AKM DAC (digital to analog converter), and digital outputs including optical, coax, and S/PDIF.

The front of the Transporter has a vacuum florescent display which is very bright and slick and can be seen from a good distance. The main control knob is smooth when flipping through tracks or adjusting the volume, and the remote control makes it easy to control any of the search or playback functions on the device. The back of the Transporter has a wide array of inputs and outputs, including Ethernet, RS-232, IR, analog out, digital inputs, and the aforementioned digital outputs. Other elements of the Transporter’s design, such as custom output amplifiers, are included for the benefit of the audiophile audience, of which the company founders count themselves. The Transporter probably won’t wipe the CD player from the face of the earth, but it may well take its place in some techno-audiophile rigs in the near future.

Back to the CEDIA 06 Coverage