It all started a couple of weeks before I left for the RMAF. I received the Slim
Devices Transporter and was stunned by the ease with which I could set up a complete
music-server system in my home using the Transporter, my home computer running the Slim
Devices SlimServer software, and my already-installed Wi-Fi network. The system was
flawless right down to the sound, which was every bit as good as when I had my DAC
connected to a Theta Data Basic transport. The Transporter made me think that anyone who
is considering buying a CD transport is simply wasting his money on something limited and
obsolete.
But you don’t have to pay $1999 for a Transporter. You can also use Slim
Devices’ entry-level Squeezebox, which is priced at just $299 and does pretty much
the same thing. In fact, numerous exhibitors at the RMAF were using a Squeezebox connected
via Wi-Fi to their laptop computers and serving music from there. You can either use the
Squeezebox’s built-in DAC, but if it’s not "high end" enough (the
Transporter’s is, mind you) you can use its digital output and route the signal with
a coaxial cable to another DAC, which is what everyone here did. And all of them raved
about how good it all sounds. In fact, one exhibitor confirmed to me what I discovered in
my own home: Running something like the Squeezebox or Transporter wirelessly yielded
equivalent sonic results to a CD transporter connected to a DAC.
More and more, this type of setup will be commonplace at shows. The CD transport is
dead, and I believe you’re better off using your computer and a unit like the
Squeezebox or Transporter to scoop the bits off your hard drive instead. As a matter of
fact, one industry bigwig who wishes to go unnamed came up to me at the show and asked
what I recommended for a music-serving solution. I simply took him to one of the displays
where the Squeezebox was in action. He pulled out his credit card bought one on the spot.
* * *
I am part of the coverage team for almost all of the shows that the SoundStage! Network
covers. As result, I get to see more equipment than any of the writers at our publications
-- and at other publications too. Sometimes we make discoveries in one part of the world
that end up being rediscovered in another part months or even years later.
This happened at RMAF. Germany’s Ballmann Electronica first showed their
all-digital line of Behold-branded electronics at the 2004 High End show, which was the
year after the event moved from Frankfurt to Munich. Jeff Fritz and I were stunned with
what we experienced at that show, and now, more than two years later, the company is
making its North American debut.
For the most part, the lineup is the same as it was in 2004 -- the APU768 preamplifier
and BPA768 amplifiers are the heart and soul of the system -- but there have been some
improvements and additions. At RMAF 2006, designer Ralf Ballmann showed his latest
addition to the APU768: a module that allows crossover manipulation to be done in the
digital domain (for either a two- or three-way loudspeaker), with a wide variety of
slopes. No doubt advanced DIYers would jump through hoops in order to try the Behold
system.
However, even if you don’t want to use the new digital crossover, the full Behold
system is something to, well, behold. As in Germany, driving Ascendo speakers, the Behold
electronics produced sound that was, by far, the best we heard at the show today, and
every bit as impressive as when I first heard the system in 2004.
