Small Green Computer - Sonic Transporter i9 (Gen 4) mini review

I recently received my new sonicTransporter i9 (sTi9) server from Small Green Computer (SGC). 

I was not thrilled to endure a much longer-than-anticipated wait after placing my order, but there were apparently manufacturing supply chain issues, which were outside of the control of SGC.  The proprietor, Andrew Gillis answered my requests for schedule updates promptly and remained positive and friendly throughout the delay.

That issue out of the way, the good news is that the SGC sTi9 is IMO the best server I have had in my system based on reliability, ease of use, and sonics.  Getting it up and running was easy as were transferring my Roon/Tidal/Qobuz subscriptions, moving music files from my back-up hard drive, and ripping new CDs to the internal SSD in the sTi9.  

The sTi9 is on my network in a separate room and music is played through a Sonore Signature Rendu SE Optical streamer in my main system room, and through other streamers to provide music to two other systems I have.  I added the Sig Rendu SE late last year and it was surprisingly a noticable sonic improvement over my former set-up.  It is connected to my network/server room over an optical fiber cable.  The USB-only output from the Sig Rendu SE feeds a Singxer SU-6 DDC from which I can run the output type of my choice (not USB) to the two DACs I currently have in my main system.

I obviously cannot speak to longevity, but the sTi9 has been a welcome addition to my system because it has operated Roon without a glitch, and it is very user-friendly wrt ripping CDs to the hard drive, moving my music library around, and interfacing with Roon, all through the headless configuration and monitoring GUI available through any computer on my network.  Since I operate the server through my network and into a streamer, I cannot positively say that any of the servers I have used sound much different than the others, and the sTi9 is no exception.  However, it seems perhaps faster at operating Roon and it certainly sounds great in my system.

From the standpoint of customer service, other than the delay in receiving the unit, SGC has been outstanding with their responsiveness and helpful communication.  I had a couple of questions about getting started and Andrew was very accessible and helpful so that I was able to get the answers I needed without delay. 

I am so far very happy with the sTi9 server and do not know what more I could possibly gain by paying big money for a $10K+ server.  In fairness, if looking at the cost of both the sTi9 and the Sig Rendu SE streamer, the total comes pretty close to $10K, but a buyer could have the benefits of the sTi9 without paying $5K+ for a streamer.