Logitech's Squeezebox Touch - opinions sought on quality - Page 5

just found this -- another example of an extremely modded squeeze-device: http://lampizator.eu/szop/szopproducts/LZ-TRANSPORT/Lampizator%20transport.html

key quote: The Lampizator Transport, unlike any other computer or HDD transport, has TUBE OUTPUT - not for music but for S/PDIF digital signal.

I happen to live not far from from him so I may try somehow to arrange comparing it to my Audiophilleo.. tempting, but 1900 euros is some serious money

Wow, regardless of his excuses that is some horrible soldering. Not quite as horrible as his justification as to why his device sounds better than others - must be the "audiophile" capacitors...

Hey is anyone using MSII+ with this thing ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willakan 

Wow, regardless of his excuses that is some horrible soldering. Not quite as horrible as his justification as to why his device sounds better than others - must be the "audiophile" capacitors...

well yes, he hardly explained why does his tube spdif output sound better.. some months ago he modified my sq receiver (as in here) and to be honest I could not tell much difference after the mod.

but then, his DAC -- according to stereomojo -- wins the shootout.

As far as I know the Duet uses a different internal os than the SB-Touch.

The Touch is Linux based, while every previous version was not.

I have the SB3 and the SB-Touch, there is a difference in sound for sure. 

After 1 week with the Squeezebox Touch I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking to get into computer audio.

As a reference I have a Mac Mini with PureMusic, a Windows 7 machine with Foobar, JRiver and have used just about every software available for Windows machines, and two Linux machines with various music software installed.  For a detailed description of each just visit my site below.

Out of the box the Touch was on the thick/warm side of neutral.  I used Soundchecks mods which took all of 5 minutes to complete and the sound became very detailed and open....much like Music Player Daemon on my dedicated Linux machine which has been tweaked out.  The SB-Touch uses an embedded Linux OS and can be tweaked much like other Linux machines. I would say the sound is very much like Music Player Daemon except that the bass is actually fuller and more pronounced.  Even with the stock power supply the sound is top notch, detailed and very musical. The only disadvantage I see with the Touch is that you will need a dedicated server running [somewhere] with your music. In my case I just used the same NAS hard drive that my Linux machine was using.

I have used the coax out as well as the toslink and both are equally as good going into my Audio-GD Ref5 dac. For those who still wish to tweak and refine the sound there is always the option to upgrade the powersupply, internal clock, place a 75ohm resister on the coax etc. But for $300 its a no brainer, very easy to use, very easy to configure, small, silent, and sounds great. Probably for most people it will end their search and desire to find a suitable front end for computer audio.

Cheers!!!

FYI

SB-Touch works on less than the rated 5V 3A power supply.

Get yourself a good linear/regulated 5-7V 2A supply and you will be just fine.

15watts vs. 10-14watts is good enough.  In fact mine is working just fine on a 2A 4V supply, just 8 watts.

With a better power supply you can expect a more relaxed musical sound.  Out of the box the SB is good but on the thick side of neutral, with SC's mods the sound becomes very clear...the power supply works nicely to smooth out the clarity with a sense of ease.

Also to bypass the upgrade thing just hit "Home" on the remote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynobot 

 

With a better power supply you can expect a more relaxed musical sound.  Out of the box the SB is good but on the thick side of neutral, with SC's mods the sound becomes very clear...the power supply works nicely to smooth out the clarity with a sense of ease.

 

does the linear PSU have any effect on digital (spdif) quality? [ especially with Audio-GD dacs? ]

did you maybe compare to other digital transports?

Quote:

Originally Posted by axw 

does the linear PSU have any effect on digital (spdif) quality? [ especially with Audio-GD dacs? ]

 

did you maybe compare to other digital transports?

Well I have only used the Touch with spdif so I would say yes.  And I also only use it with Audio-gd Dacs with both toslink and coax....to me both toslink and coax sound the same with the touch, unlike other digital sources.

The power supply can affect jitter from the digital outputs, but the Squeezebox is low jitter to start with - far, far below the amount of jitter required for audibility. I would suggest that you buy the Squeezebox and leave it unmodded - it's a well engineered source that will sound exactly the same as the digital out from some monstrously expensive CD/SACD transport.

EDIT: Dynobot, just looked at your site as recommended for looking at in above posts...Linux and OS are more analytical sounding than Windows? Assuming you didn't screw up the configuration for bit-perfect playback on one of them, which, judging by your site, seems somewhat unlikely, how does that make any sense at all?

EDIT2: Looking further, why would any of this stuff affect sound? Optimising RAM latencies? Reducing CPU usage? What is the point of all that, aside from making your computer nigh incapable of doing anything apart from playing music (referring explicitly to the mass service disabling here)? Operating System Jitter? Really? Please tell me you don't have audiophile SATA cables...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willakan 

The power supply can affect jitter from the digital outputs, but the Squeezebox is low jitter to start with - far, far below the amount of jitter required for audibility. I would suggest that you buy the Squeezebox and leave it unmodded - it's a well engineered source that will sound exactly the same as the digital out from some monstrously expensive CD/SACD transport.

EDIT: Dynobot, just looked at your site as recommended for looking at in above posts...Linux and OS are more analytical sounding than Windows? Assuming you didn't screw up the configuration for bit-perfect playback on one of them, which, judging by your site, seems somewhat unlikely, how does that make any sense at all?

 

EDIT2: Looking further, why would any of this stuff affect sound? Optimising RAM latencies? Reducing CPU usage? What is the point of all that, aside from making your computer nigh incapable of doing anything apart from playing music (referring explicitly to the mass service disabling here)? Operating System Jitter? Really? Please tell me you don't have audiophile SATA cables...

As far as Operating system jitter is concerned, you are welcome to challenge IBM if you like

http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/research_projects.nsf/pages/osjitter.index.html

There is also documentation referring to jitter based on USB cable length and mother board traces done by Texas Instruments, you can challenge them as well.

Of course you are free to disagree with anything and everything, thats your right.  I have no problem with that and probably won't spend too much time outside this post addressing your opinion.

Cheers!

I'm not denying it's existence, it's just about as relevant to audio as the colour of your PC case. The article you linked is of absolutely no relevance to audio whatsoever.

I am not saying 'normal' (pertaining to audio) jitter doesn't exist either, I'm just saying it's a giant, largely inaudible red herring. Especially the jitter of the sort your site references. 

You know where this discussion is liable to go right???

------------------------>[nowhere]

You and I both have seen and participated in countless discussions as this, do you really want to continue along this path?  If so why???

Because you are advising other people in ways which are misleading and could lead to them wasting money. This isn't some debate on the Sound Science forum, you are telling someone that something makes a difference which I feel does not and cannot, thus I don't want them to spend their money on it.