Altmann Tera-Player? Anyone? - Page 9  

   Hey there.

   Been following this amusing thread. Silently. I think I ought to add some impressions myself.

   You've already met Andrew,the owner of the player #2,well I'm Andrei and I have the #1. Let me tell you what - it really is amazing. I gave 500euros on a compulsion (like you do on the net) but didn't really expect to be that different from what I've already used (Cowon D2). After all,how much better can a portable player be,right? Wrong. There is nothing subtle about the improvement. It's just in another class. The bass is punchier the treble is leaner and the soundstage...I couldn't even imagine this could be done with headphones. There is depth and width and 3d and whatever other cliche you may employ. I'm not a reviewer,because I listen to music emotionally rather than analytically but if anyone asks me how good this player is,the only thing I can say is this - every time I have it playing it puts a smile on my face. 

   Btw - take a look at the players' site - there's is a link to the buyers' reviews (more like impressions) and looks like Mike from headfonia has posted some.

   And another thing - 64GB card on a screen less player is not such a great idea - you'll need a list to carry around,or a wunderkind memory. Personally I use 8gb cards. 

Hi Andrei,

Welcome to possibly the most contentious thread on head-fi. We both know that the Tera-Player has superb sound quality, but prepare to be flamed and your opinions disregarded by naysayers who haven't even heard the TP. 

Perhaps we should start a Tera-Player owners club? Is the owner of number 3 lurking in the shadows?

Cheers.

The TP just arrived and is charging as we speak ... now I need to fill up a SD card with some music.

Sonic nirvana awaits you my friend!

evdberg

Please post your impressions of the Tera-Player (TP) when you've become accustomed to it's sound.

Incidentally, although Charles recommends the Koss Porta Pro for use with the TP, I've found their sound to be a bit bass heavy and unrefined. To my ears the Audio Technica ATH-ES55 are a much better match for portable listening.

Cheers.  

The first thing I noticed is the lack of fatigue, I do not get the problems with my ears that I experienced with other players (ah well, a little bit from wearing the headphone, not from the sound). This is a major plus.

The second is that you can play real loud without any distortion, never heard that kind of "full sound" on headphones. Usually I do not play at this kind of loud volume though, for the obvious reasons. It is also a bit dangerous, because there is no distortion you do not notice how loud it is. The manual also warns for this ...

Forgot a few things: built quality is great, Deutsche Gründlichkeit. Also the lack of screen and GUI is no problem, user operation is quite easy. Even more so, it makes me enjoy the music more, instead of constant fiddling with the GUI.

Quote:

Originally Posted by evdberg 
Also the lack of screen and GUI is no problem, user operation is quite easy.

 

I guess that depends on what you carry around. At 192khz and losless and a small storage, it's probably less relevant ... but someone carrying around thousands of songs ... I can't see anyone navigating that without a GUI, unless the player would speak-guide you or something....

Quote:

Originally Posted by voon 

I guess that depends on what you carry around. At 192khz and losless and a small storage, it's probably less relevant ... but someone carrying around thousands of songs ... I can't see anyone navigating that without a GUI, unless the player would speak-guide you or something....

Hi Voon,

the navigation of the Tera-Player is designed like a record-store: Artists and Albums in alphabetical order.

But of course the Tera-Player is also capable of speech guided navigation:

http://192.20.225.36/tts/speech/03e25d396f7012cae7a2017ff2a3c976.wav

http://192.20.225.36/tts/speech/1449d09b91511082f0987291ae2c225b.wav

Any chance I could see what is inside of this little device? The parts that you use?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Morrow 

Any chance I could see what is inside of this little device? The parts that you use?

A DIY build tutorial would be cool too. Maybe a list of all parts in alphanumeric order? A step by step instruction video would be appreciated. The secret ingredient and keys to your front door as well. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Negakinu 

A DIY build tutorial would be cool too. Maybe a list of all parts in alphanumeric order? A step by step instruction video would be appreciated. The secret ingredient and keys to your front door as well. :)

Step by step, first you catch the snake, then you press the oil out of it, then you taste it and if you survive you don't want to know the other steps it takes to make a Tera-Player

U using a koss porta pro as reference for " the best dap of the world".

I stopped reading at that point.

Just because this player is small, has no screen, costs a fortune, and resembles an iPod Shuffle, doesn't mean that people need to assume it's crap.  I don't doubt that this thing was a ***** to develop and has some expensive parts in it.  Because it's limited hand production, it's an economy of scale, and that's why it costs so much.  How much would you charge to cover your R&D if you were only selling a few and you had to develop a tiny 24/192 player from the ground up?  Most of the people posting in this thread have never owned a business or been an entrepreneur.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chucky-X 

Hi Austin,

I have been thinking about your question, and putting the - PURE AWESOMENESS - issue aside, what would you like to know specifically ?

 

I mean, if you are a manufacturer of audio products or digital audio players, you already know what parts are 'normally' used, and if you are not, how will you be able to understand any of that information.

 

Also, it is really so, that I am using a lot of snake-oil in the Tera-Player, which means that in order to attain the sound quality that I need, I am employing really weird tricks, tricks that are totally unscientific to the average scientist, however which are 100% scientific for an accomplished sound researcher. 

 

All I will say right now (apart from the specification given on the tera-player.com website), is that the Tera-Player probably has the world's lowest parts count of all DAPs. I think any model of the ipod shuffle, as well as any 5$ chinese mp3 player has more parts inside than the Tera-Player (quantity, not quality).

 

Also if I am getting this correctly, the Tera-Player is not only the smallest DAP capable of 192kHz playback, but may also - at this time - be the only DAP doing so. There are others advertised of 192kHz capability, and I cannot confirm this, but from what I am reading here in the head-fi forum, they seem to not really work with 192kHz, other head-fi members may clear this up.

 

However even it there were other DAPs capable of 192kHz right now, they are probably 10 times bigger, 5 times heavier, and only have half the play-time.

 

Some have complained about the high price. I see it like this: the Tera-Player itself is not expensive at all, but the way to it (the attitude of saving the best for last) can be quite expensive ...

I'd like to know the specific parts used as well as what the inside looks like. Additionally, you say that you are using tricks to make the sound quality on the Terra player fantastic. What are these tricks you talk about, please explain more in depth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin Morrow 

I'd like to know the specific parts used as well as what the inside looks like. Additionally, you say that you are using tricks to make the sound quality on the Terra player fantastic. What are these tricks you talk about, please explain more in depth.

 

Hi Austin, 

I've been beaten too much here, I really don't want to explain anything anymore. And why would you like to know anyway ?