Squeezebox Touch in da´ house

Digital Drive

Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

Well I finally took the plunge. The death of my Sony carousel CD player drove me to reconsider sources. After some research (where I looked at everything form dedicated music servers from Olive, McIntosh, etc. to home grown Mac and PC based network servers) I settled in the Squeezebox Touch which seemed the right level of investment to try out this huge change in my system. I guess I figured I could use it in my weekend houses if it didn´t work in my main system. Well I needn´t have worried, I predict it will relegate my CD players forever to a closet. A few notes; Amazingly easy to set up with my home Wifi network, I am currently running it from a 128GB USB thumb drive which, upon reading all the related squeezebox forums, seemed like a bad idea because it loads the SBT with server duties, etc. but has worked amazingly well for me without a hitch so far. I have a PC running the Logitech server elsewhere in my system but frankly I have no need of it, the direct connected USB plays just fine thank you. My next issue (again based on the various forum comments I had read when researching this purchase) was whether or not to use my MSB LinkDac III or the internal DAC to feedback the rest of my system. After extensive listening tests I can tell you it´s a wash with my DAC in my system. There does seem to be a slight difference I can notice in the spatial presentation between the two, some changing of the positions of instruments in the virtual space BUT since I don´t really know exactly where the original instruments were (except by comparison to my CDs) AND in terms of fidelity I can hear no differences whatsoever it remains a toss up on those counts. Highs and lows, dynamics, etc. all the same between the two. I think I can hear just the slightest bit more airiness in the cymbals via my current DACchain (MSB director/jitter reducer => LinkDac III) but frankly at this point I might (hate to admit it) chock that up to listener bias (I paid big bucks for those items years back! they even have the upsampling module). For the moment I am leaving it hooked up to the DAC sine I have nothing else to use them for and if it is not caused by listener bias all the better. At this point all the music played is in MPEG or AAC format at rather low resolution (192 or 320 mostly) but it sounds pretty damn good I must say. I listened for a bit with some of my favorite cuts (So What - Miles Davis) from CD and then from SBT and no real differences were notable except perhaps just the slightest again in the air around the cymbals but again, it might be listener bias. In the end not enough to keep me listening to the CD version. Crazy looking at my PP 2A3 amplifier and golden age Marantz preamp sitting next to this tiny, ultra-modern music server and making such wonderful music and making the transition so painless! What a wonderful time we live in! Left to do? Well I guess I should rip all my CDs to lossless format and replace the thumb drive with a NAS but...too much work for the moment and has always been my priority I am too busy enjoying to music painlessly and conveniently. I recommend anyone who is considering making this type of move to do as I did, take the plunge. The Squeezebox Touch is a great piece of gear, capable of amazing sound and functionality. Try it, you won´t be sorry you did. Warm regards from sunny El Salvador, Tony

PS those of you who know me are aware that I host shootouts here at my house with local audiophiles. Over the years we have swapped in many, many amps, preamps, DACs, etc. with interesting results, I cannot wait until we have the next shootout with this new toy in my system. I am sure it will arouse a LOT of ire from many of my audio buddies, but one thing is for sure, they won´t be able to argue about the great music this is making in my system!
Jean-Francois Lessard 2A3 PP amp
Marantz 7T Preamp
Klipschorns w/ALK xovers
Squeezebox Touch
Asus netbook running itunes and LMS feeding
MSB link DACIII w24/96k
MSB digital director
Technics M85 Cassette

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Topic - Squeezebox Touch in da´ house - sunnysal 10:52:52 07/21/12 (13)

RE: Squeezebox Touch in da´ house - Yehuda 01:42:11 07/31/12 (0)

Ditto to Cut-Throat's recommendations and - E-Stat 14:55:13 07/23/12 (1)

RE: Ditto to Cut-Throat's recommendations and - sunnysal 18:51:50 07/24/12 (0)

RE: Squeezebox Touch in da´ house - regnaD kciN 23:24:41 07/22/12 (0)

Congrats!.....Yes, it's the real deal......... - Cut-Throat 11:22:15 07/21/12 (8)

RE: Congrats!.....Yes, it's the real deal......... - sunnysal 15:48:03 07/21/12 (0)

Question - Audio Snob 13:41:53 07/21/12 (6)

RE: Question - Cut-Throat 16:22:04 07/21/12 (5)

RE: Question - sunnysal 16:53:59 07/21/12 (4)

RE: Question - Cut-Throat 17:37:08 07/21/12 (3)

RE: Question - HD Audio 20:25:06 07/21/12 (2)

Have one on the way for modding - Dynobot 06:58:50 07/22/12 (0)

I have no experience with this DAC..................... - Cut-Throat 05:55:03 07/22/12 (0)

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