The Well-Tempered Computer, an introduction to computer audio

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

47 Laboratory Shigaraki Transport

At last, I found a used mint 47 Lab Shigaraki 4716 Transport.  It is a very simple - zen like - transport based on cheap Sanyo mechanism but supposedly gives you 95% of the sound of the more expensive Flatfish ($6,500).  47 Lab also makes an even more expensive model called the Pi-tracer ($28,000), which is out of this world (and out of my league).


I figure simple transport like this would match well with my new found taste in simple "non-over-sampling-no-filter-16-bit-only" DAC. Very zen indeed.






The Shigaraki (name after a kind of Japanese ceramic, which is the material for the base), as opposed to most method used in other high end transports, is bare-bone, free spinning, and has no dampening material what so ever. It uses a rigid housing which the transport is mounted to directly, no suspension.  Digital output is as raw as it could be.  Someone measured it and posted traces on the web showing very nice square wave.


The Shigaraki has a very good following in the DIY scene.  Shiga-clone DIY projects have been posted all over the place (416-page long DIY thread, another one here, and here).  Even the Lampizator made one and felt that it beats his Theta data transport.


Will report back after some serious listening.