New buy squeezebox touch

[pdhanwada]

Back after long time. Last week my brother bought me a squeezebox touch from US. The experiance has been great so far.

1. I have had a technics sl mc7 110 cd changer for last 13 years . I had connect it to preamp earlier and after I bought MHDT havana dac I connected it to the cd player. After not seeing much improvement I replaced interconnects with the exepensive acoustic zen matrix reference and silver reference cables. There was some improvement. Later I did acoustic treatment that made significant diffeence to the sound quality. Next big thing is the squeezebox.

Squeezebox outperforms my cd player by miles with respect to quality of sound as well as convieniance of storing cd data.

Sound is wide and deep. Shrillness which I had in the high frequencies is gone and lows are more extended.

As of now still in the process of learning process of how to make optimal use of squeezebox and available open source software.

Probably the weakest link in my sound system is replaced.

Having fun with sb touch

Thanks
Pandu

 

[TaureanBull]

Congrats buddy! How is the DAC? I heard its pretty good. I am going to buy this one pretty soon. Are you streaming on wifi or using a USB?

Oics would be welcome... :licklips:

 

[ravi_d]

Congrats Pandu.
Was thinking to add a tuner to my system. May be I should consider squeezebox touch rather than a tuner

 

[GeorgeO]

Yes, SB is a great device. I have a Classic and a Duet and love them.

 

[pdhanwada]

George,

I use wifi. Easy to setup. I have the wifi router 1 floor below my computer and all the equipment is in.


Now I feel now my DAC's potential is being realized. Question to George. Do you use internet radio. If so which of them. I want to try that too.

Let me know.

Thanks
Pandu

 

[GeorgeO]

Pandu

I listen primarily to internet radio these days, mostly jazz. I have programmed the stations on my remote-Bay Smooth Jazz, Smooth Uptempo Jazz, Martini in the Morning, Jazz91, Jazz:Mellow Jazz,Solo Piano Radio(Whisperings) are some of my favourites. I have almost stopped listening to my audio collection on my NAS which is mostly in FLAC.

George

 

[pdhanwada]

It has been a month since I had my squeezebox, My experiance with it has been nothing short of great.

It beats my existing cd player left and right with respect to audio quality. Because of the improvement in teh audio quality, I am able to listen to more songs which I used to skip them with my old player.

WIth respect to convieniance there is no comparison. I now have unlimited storage. Creating playlists, playing them in random mode, gets you a RADIO with great Sound system quality.

For those who are intrested in Western music, we have unlimited channels of entertainment in internet radio. Not so much for Bollywood or Telugu songs.

Now My focus has changed to collect more music rather tune my system. I guess I dont see any upgrade in foreseeable future.

Today I bought "Kal aaj aur Kal 6 cd pack " tribute to RAFI by sonu nigam. I havent tested in my system yet. But I am excited about it. The recording quality looks good. Will let you know the results tommorrow.

It have been longing to listen to old songs in my system, I havent been able to do so because of the quality of the recordings. Hope these new records solves some of these problems.

Thanks
Pandu

 

[Bluu]

Glad to hear that you're enjoying the S'box! My Duet is on the way from the US and I'm super excited to have it set up. The CDs that you mentioned, will you rip them to your HDD as FLAC to be used with the S'box?

 

[pdhanwada]

I have ripped all my CD's into FLAC format and playing them thru my system.

 

[Kevian]

Hi...timely thread for me...thanks to Pandu.

I have onkyo 606 and will be buying Wharfedale 9.2 and a center channel in a week or 2. I have all of my music in flacs. And this signals me to go for SB Duet rather than a CD player.

Now, the problem is Onkyo 606 is not good for Stereo Music. I was thinking of adding a DAC {below 10K}. So, I thought the following setup would be good

SB server on Ubuntu >> SB Duet >> Some Dac below 10K >> Onkyo 606 >> Wharfedale 9.2s

But, SB Duet already has a wolfson DAC. This is where I am struck to decide on my list of purchases. Will a separate DAC in the above chain be redundant???

will SB Duet >> Onkyo 606 >> 9.2s chain give me minimal joy as this would be for living room setup??

Cheers!!

 

[Kittu]

Wharfs ? You already have promon 800 , which can give you decent quality right ?

 

[Kevian]

Kittu....I actually thought of completing 5.0 with DefTech Procinema 800 only. But after coming to India, realized that they are costly here in India. A Procenter 1000 channel itself is touching 18-20K plus.

Promons will be surrounds after I get Wharfedale fronts and center. I bought Promons based on amazon and bestbuy reviews while I was returning to India in hurry. Walked into Best Buy....heard KennyG on Promons...bought em..no research...it didn't even take 1 hour. So, I cannot say what sound quality they have. They are good for movies but for music, I am not yet qualified sonically to comment like Asit,Venkat, Iaudio etc....But I've spent less than 15K on 'em.

These new additions to my existing setup will be mostly used by my parents for devotional listening sessions..like Baba Aarthis, Vishnu Sahasranama, Lalitha Sahasranama, Chaganti Pravachanas and others down the line

Once my house renovation is completed by this year end, I'll go in for a setup for my tastes in my listening room....SB Duet will join the new setup.

hope you got my drift.

 

[Kevian]

You know what Kittu...when you finalized M34i deal with Bluu....you hit me with hammer on my head...bahh..missed 'em for 13k...I was late..:sad:

 

[Kittu]

You know what Kittu...when you finalized M34i deal with Bluu....you hit me with hammer on my head...bahh..missed 'em for 13k...I was late..:sad:

U know the funny part , I just got to know Bluu is my neighbour living few buildings away... . Small world.

 

[Kevian]

small world indeed:clapping:

 

[Kittu]

Did u try the PSB Alpha and Atom monitors from paradigm ?

 

[Kevian]

None of the dealers in Hyd stock Paradigm Speakers for demo.....they bring 'em in only if I place an order with some token amount. PSB..didn't try....but 9.2s are basically for my parents and occasionally for me...so not much of critical listening is needed AFAIK...for devotional stuff..I believe a laid back sound is good enough for my parents.

I think I am derailing this thread....My question was about additional DAC? or SB Duet's wolfson DAC is good enough?

cheers

 

[hydra]

It has been a month since I had my squeezebox, My experiance with it has been nothing short of great.

...

WIth respect to convieniance there is no comparison. I now have unlimited storage. Creating playlists, playing them in random mode, gets you a RADIO with great Sound system quality.

...

Congrats!

(1) Do you use the SB Touch with a Squeezebox server (off a PC/NAS) or do you use it with an external HDD? I am also considering a Squeezebox Touch and on reading some reviews on the 'net I saw it mentioned that the SB Touch has issues with reading FLACs off an external HDD (= it randomly stops and stutters + it takes a very long time to poll changes in the contents of the HDD). I also read that the quality of music is better when it is used with a PC/NAS, rather than with a HDD.

I'm asking because I'll be using the SB Touch only with an external HDD, if I were to pick one up.

It beats my existing cd player left and right with respect to audio quality. Because of the improvement in teh audio quality, I am able to listen to more songs which I used to skip them with my old player.

This is good to know. Especially because I plan to use the SB Touch as my primary source (if I do finally buy it).

(2) Are you using a DAC with the SB Touch, or are you using the analogue outputs to feed your Amp?

(3) Do you detect any difference in audio quality between using an external HDD and the PC/NAS?

@GeorgeO, I'd be very grateful for inputs from you too

Thanks.

 

[GeorgeO]

Hydra:

Sorry for the belated response. I only use a NAS(Netgear ReadyNAS Duo) because my SB Classic and Touch can't play off a HDD like a Touch. My NAS is also a server for HT so it is always on.

 

[GeorgeO]

Sorry some more-I use a DAC with my Classic but not with my Duet(sorry it is a Duet not a Touch, got that wrong in the earlier post)