The Port is essentially the S2 version of Connect, modernised in looks and connectivity features.

Thanks. Sadly it has terrible reviews so far. And am I prepared to buy it just to find out whether they are true…??

Don’t bother about the reviews, they are written to just fill and sell pages. They are BS even where analog inputs are being used, and in your case, where digital outputs will be used, they are irrelevant.

@GT in OZ   Sorry, in the above I meant analog outputs using the internal DAC...but you must have guessed that.

Subjective audio reviews are nonsense, especially when they fly in the face of objective facts.  A review has more to do with how many ads a company buys rather than how something actually sounds.  The Port, when set to Fixed volume, is bit-perfect to the source.  That's all you need to know, flowery BS in the reviews be damned.

If you ever read any scientific philosophy you’d realize that, across history, a clash between subjective and objective often heralds the discovery that we simply didn’t know how to measure something that mattered, or understand how something we knew how to measure mattered. Nobody thought jitter affected accuracy of sound reproduction, until they worked out how it did. But I well remember the trolls mounting their arguments that those of us who found much early digital music brittle and cold were suffering from self-deception - ‘look at the measurements!’ Having trained my ears and my open-mindedness I hear a lot of difference between systems that are objectively identical - and I have high tertiary level science and electronic engineering qualifications, as well as having been both a professional musician and supervised many recording sessions. Just focus on the music.

*YAWN*

Until subjective observations pass a properly conducted double blind ABX test, I’ll continue to post what I post.  That makes it very easy for the golden ears to shut me up.  The ball is in their court!

By the way, early digital music sounded brittle because they weren’t mastering it correctly, it had nothing to do with jitter.   Also, since we are trading science lessons - Saying something was flawed at one time in the past has no bearing on whether there are flaws today.  You have to prove the flaws exist today, not that there were once flaws a long time ago.  

And it’s been many, many years since I’ve posted about audio on any forum except this one. 

Another thing to consider is that there is really nothing to be gained from spending on a Port to replace the Connect, unless you are running S2 elsewhere, and want the Connect zone to be a part of S2.

Whilst true I would express it in a different way.  The Port is essentially the later (some call it ‘generation 2’) model of Connect, i.e. the one that will work with S2, but with fewer features.  It has no optical digital output, no play/pause button and no volume buttons.  Perhaps it’s capable—or will be capable—of higher resolution digital output (which most people won’t discern) but in all other regards it appears to me to be a backwards step unless you highly prize it being thinner, wider and black.

There are many objective measurements one can make of a piece of audio equipment.  But there may be things that affect the subjective impression that are not commonly measured or that nobody has yet thought of measuring.

No one is making a case that objective measurements trump all else where home audio is concerned; just that these are useful as a guideline on what to expect, to shortlist kit for testing, and to match kit assembled from components from different makes.

So if a Connect and Port, in a listening DBT threw up sound differences in fixed level mode at their digital outputs, the fact that both are measured to be bit perfect would be something to investigate further - the DBT may be defective, or one of the units may be. 

Needless to say, there isn't even ONE such DBT carried out and published anywhere in the world till now. Subjective opinions, there are a few, on both sides of the debate.

All that a DBT being referred to here seeks to do is make sure that a listening test isn't biased by psychological factors - it still remains a listening test where the only “instrument” that is used are human ears. In addition perhaps to use an instrument to ensure that sound level matching is done to the extent needed for a valid result because the ears are not capable of the precision needed to do this while the brain can still be thrown off by lack of such precision. But the test is still a listening test. And the media reviews don't ever come close to such testing before passing subjective judgements based on notoriously faulty human memory when it comes to remembering how some other kit sounded when heard in the past.

As to Port features, I merely said modernised:-). Modern isn't always better and while I have not used a Port, this may apply here as well.

Yes.

Thanks all. As it turned out it appears I lucked in - my old Connect had died about 5 months ago, and I bought a replacement - which is able to be updated to S2.