[Willakan]

Well, I just bought one of these: as an extreme skeptic regarding many aspects of audiophilia, I can't say I believe in prettymuch any of the tweaks advised here, nor the differences reported between most digital sources.
 
That said, I will be trying the very popular set of software modifications (reduce CPU usage, disable every feature that isn't needed, tweak latencies) that can be found over at DIYAudio (The Soundcheck toolkit). They're free and I have time: whilst I admittedly believe such tweaks to be a total waste of time it would be churlish (if perfectly logical) to never satisfy the requests I often get around here of "Try it for yourself before you judge."
 
I might even try Dynobot's software tweaks, even after stating that "I'm afraid Dynobot's mods don't make any sense at all," earlier in the thread. Most of the responses I got were variations on "Have you tried it?" - I might as well.

 

[Willakan]

I shall try the mods in any permutation that people see fit to recommend, within reason. As for my truthfulness, however hard I try I will likely be inherently biased against hearing differences, but that has supposedly failed to stop other skeptics turning over to the dark side in the past.
 
With my new Squeezebox, I will finally be able to listen to my music in the complete absence of background noise: to go with my listening impressions I shall see about running some blind tests with MP3s. As I have seen very few on these forums who can DBT 320kbps MP3s and FLAC, my success or failure to do (I will test with other encoding settings) should provide some benchmark to demonstrate I'm (hopefully) not tin-eared!

 

[Willakan]

Congratulations on redefining leaping to conclusions. My music is generally in FLAC (with the exception of a couple of tracks). However, I thought it might be interesting to conduct some MP3-from-lossless tests to give some idea as to my hearing ability in an attempt to put my listening into context, at which point you leapt off on an incredibly arrogant/snobby tangent. 
 
With such delightful individuals as yourself comprising the opposing camp, I wonder why I should bother...your username appears unusually descriptive.
 

 

[DrTone]

fathead, did you try TT 3.0 with the process priorities set back to Logitech's defaults?
 
Just install TT 3.0, enable all mods, leave buffer size alone for now.
 
Edit the /usr/bin/tt file and use the values on the right side of the following chart.  Where to edit is obvious when you scroll down in the tt file.
 
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=680933&postcount=885
 
Reboot your touch after you save the changes to the file.  Of course then do the tt -k to kill unneeded processes.

 

[korzena]

I also got this lean sound after applying TT 3.0. I don't really like the last mod. Maybe in some systems it sounds OK, but I prefer the stock version or TT 2.0.
 
Quote:

Thanks DrTone....I tried that but the TT mods just sound wrong to me, the sound is thin like its missing something, perhaps like a radio instead of true Audiophile
 
To each his/her own, if you like it use it by all means.
 
Just for kicks did you try Dynobot's mods?
 
Apparently Willy has very little to say after he was "supposed" to try both of the mods.


 

 

 

[Willakan]

I'm still here: squeezebox is set up and working perfectly with files both CD quality and better. I just haven't had time to try any strange tweaks yet.

 

[DrTone]

Yes, I know the default TT3.0 is thin and radio like, that's the purpose of reverting the priorities back to Logitech's default values.
 
When did you try playing with the priorities?
 
Quote:

Thanks DrTone....I tried that but the TT mods just sound wrong to me, the sound is thin like its missing something, perhaps like a radio instead of true Audiophile
 
To each his/her own, if you like it use it by all means.
 
Just for kicks did you try Dynobot's mods?
 
Apparently Willy has very little to say after he was "supposed" to try both of the mods.


 

 

 

[DrTone]

Quote:

I just went with Dynobots mods, they sound great. They deal with priority changes which the TT tries to incorporate but has failed imo.
 

As did I with TT 2.0.  Dynobots mods don't translate as well with TT 3.0, the priorities are all different, thus the need to modify TT 3.0's /usr/bin/tt file and set it back to the default Logitech priorities.  Then you could adjust those values in the tt file to correspond to Dynobots values.
 
If you have some spare time give it a try.

 

[hopkins]

Hi,
 
Can you list the values that you recommend ?

 

[LarsHP]

I bought the Fidelity Audio Micro Clock more that half a year ago, but was afraid I couldn't do the job myself when I read the description. At last I took courage - and it didn't work. I sent it to Brent at Fidelity Audio, who said he would fix it for me for free. After sending it, I decided to upgrade fully to what is now called SBT Upgrade Level 2:
http://fidelityaudio.co.uk/squeezebox_touch.html
Note that this mod will disable the analog output.
 
Initial sound impressions so far:
Treble and upper mids are more relaxed and overall the sound is more real and natural. It brings in a higher resolution - like if CD rips where hi res FLAC files.
These two points are the most important improvements to me, but the higher resolution is actually a surprise to me. I just expected more relaxed upper frequencies, tighter bass and better imaging.
Imaging is in fact more precise. Also close instruments or voices sound closer and distant sounds seem further away. There is more space around instruments. Holographic imaging is better. Bass is tighter, but not by much.
 
The upgrade is really worthwhile in my opinion, but that of course depends on your budget. I think it was the final and missing upgrade in my setup. Mission completed!
 
Edit: Bass is in fact clearly tighter than before.

 

[LarsHP]

BTW:
I haven't yet been able to compare directly between the modded SBT and an un-modded. A (used) stock SBT is on the way to my doorstep, so a direct comparison will be possible within a few days. My impressions will be posted here as soon as I have compared the two side by side (digital out to my Audio-gd Ref 7.1 DAC).

 

[Audioexcels]

Quote:

BTW:
I haven't yet been able to compare directly between the modded SBT and an un-modded. A (used) stock SBT is on the way to my doorstep, so a direct comparison will be possible within a few days. My impressions will be posted here as soon as I have compared the two side by side (digital out to my Audio-gd Ref 7.1 DAC).

Good stuff.  Funny how time flys as I remember you speaking of getting in the clock stuff.  Too bad it's $325 GBP!  For that kind of money, I have to know it's one of the better sounding sources money can buy at this time or uhhh, that would suck bad)
 
I'm looking forward to hearing about your comparo.  I've got a Jkeny MK3 on the way.  I had the Audiophellio and it was aggressive as all hell.  I'll give the USB converter one last chance.

 

[LarsHP]

Good stuff.  Funny how time flys as I remember you speaking of getting in the clock stuff.  Too bad it's $325 GBP!  For that kind of money, I have to know it's one of the better sounding sources money can buy at this time or uhhh, that would suck bad)

I'm looking forward to hearing about your comparo.  I've got a Jkeny MK3 on the way.  I had the Audiophellio and it was aggressive as all hell.  I'll give the USB converter one last chance.

What??? The Audiophilio sounds agressive? That's really surprising to me. I would expect jitter reduction to combat that. Anyway, the FA mod does this and is really worth the money - if you are in the budget high end category.

Frankly this upgrade competes as one of the best bang for the buck purchases I have done in audio equipment. I know it is a lot of money when you look at the price of a stock SBT, but when looking for the best place to spend your money in order to get a noticeably better sound quality (here we are actually talking about the entire spectrum), then I must say that if your headphones / speakers are as good as you think it gets within your budget, then this is the place to look. At least that's my experience. And of course if you own and/or like the Squeezebox UI, then this is a no brainer in my book.

 

[Audioexcels]

Quote:

What??? The Audiophilio sounds agressive? That's really surprising to me. I would expect jitter reduction to combat that. Anyway, the FA mod does this and is really worth the money - if you are in the budget high end category.
Frankly this upgrade competes as one of the best bang for the buck purchases I have done in audio equipment. I know it is a lot of money when you look at the price of a stock SBT, but when looking for the best place to spend your money in order to get a noticeably better sound quality (here we are actually talking about the entire spectrum), then I must say that if your headphones / speakers are as good as you think it gets within your budget, then this is the place to look. At least that's my experience. And of course if you own and/or like the Squeezebox UI, then this is a no brainer in my book.

Thanks for the thoughts.  I have no problem spending the extra cash if it's what will get er' done.  AP2 was aggressive not only in my system but also in a friend's system.  He and I both shared our thoughts and they matched identically in spite he's 1000 miles South of me in California).  He actually swapped in a Xonar ST and says its better.  I actually read one person in the AP2 thread say his STX was better until he used a hub based setup for his AP2, so I guess stock for stock, these sound cards seem like the real deal for a super budget sound quality.  
 
I have also heard the Off Ramp OR4 modded and OR5, both on USB power and not on the Monolith battery supply.  Each was "massively" superior to the AP2.  They literally made the AP2 sound like a low grade component.  What's very strange, however, is the AP2 was only aggressive in a certain treble/possibly also upper mid region, but was otherwise very mellow in the system that had the Off Ramps...so maybe even the Off Ramp or "any" USB converter just would not sound ok in my system for whatever reason???  I'm totally clueless as to how the AP2 sounded like it did.
 
I have an MK3 coming this week, so Jkeny can get some of my thoughts on it soon enough.  I'll chime in here and let you know my thoughts and then if it, too, is aggressive or something is not sounding so good, I'm forced to discuss this Touch mod more with you and also look into possibly just living with a sound card especially knowing it did the trick in my friend's system.
 
Cheers!

 

[Audioexcels]

Anything new shakin' in the world of the Touch?