Gary PearceDetails are sketchy at present (hell, only a couple of pictures exist on line) but Plinius are readying their new Toko Digital Audio Player for a launch onto the market sometime soon.
Looking at the pics a few things are apparent:
1) Slot-load drive mech. Moving away from the tray as seen on the long-serving CD-101.
2) USB input only. No SPDIF, Toslink or balanced inputs? Computer buffs have been saying that USB offers better SQ for quite some time, maybe this is the reason why Plinius have decided not to include those inputs on their new baby.
At this stage there’s no word on what lurks inside the iconic and elegant Plinius curved casework in terms of DAC or whether the USB interface is an asynchronous one, but this is most certainly not a product for the computer room. Have Plinius written media server software so an SSD or big HDD chock full of music can simply be connected to the Toko without the use of a PC (or Mac/Hackintosh)? If so, how will it be controlled – Ipod/phone or Android perhaps?
These questions are mere speculation as only Plinius knows of course, and they’re not ready to release any details just yet. I sent them an email last night and they promptly replied with a promise to send me info once they’re ready to release the Toko onto a salivating market.
As they say (who the hell are ‘they’) – watch this space..
any modern day digital player needs a suite of digital inputs, usb-only just won’t cut it.
USB can be a lousy interface if it isn’t done well – it will be interested to see if Plinius has gone with async 24/192
The sync USB interfaces are very much dependent on USB cable quality, but I’m not sure how much influence it has on the async designs.
I say wait to see how it sounds/performs before passing judgement.