advertisement


SB Touch £129.99 Delivered @ Logitech Online

Well ive bought mine for a second system that i haven't had much chance to use, the Dac in that system doesn't have a remote volume control, but i realise that the SB does, so the Dac now has a volume control at least when used with SB, so an added benefit for me.

Im using the SB in the main system (just to trying it out instead of the usual computer) im finding it excellent, one, because its easier to navigate and find archived programs on the SB than on the BBC 3 or 6 music websites, and its also changed the way i listen, made listening less fractured than using a computer as an interface.

I find myself jumping from one thing to another this way using the computer, with the SB I just let the music play - (if i was using the computer now i'd have cued up Shannon now).
Originally i was going to go with a tablet which is much more versatile and a BT100 (£70! rip off alert!) which works with my Dac, again i feel id have spent a lot of time messing with the tablet and less time listening.

It's also good for just having a lot of choice, to much Schubert on R3 last night, so i found a classic stream from Norway, it was excellent.
 
Space is the Place said:
It's also good for just having a lot of choice, to much Schubert on R3 last night, so i found a classic stream from Norway, it was excellent.
Click to expand...

Spot on - we shall be listening to Macbeth from the Met tonight, courtesey of All Classic FM Portland Oregon due to R3 doing Schubert instead of taking the Met relay.
 
Its interesting as you can use the SB as a preamp for a minimalist digital set-up to some active monitors or power amp, the only downside would be accidentally putting the volume to full and maybe damaging the speakers.

However i've just noticed you can limit the volume within the Squeezeboxes output so this wouldn't happen, i guess the Dac in the Squeezebox isn't as good as an outboard Dac and you might loose a few "bits" doing the volume this way, but even so, a very versatile piece of equipment, not tried the headphone out yet.
 
I use one of mine with a little Genelec active system, two speakers and sub, the system has its own volume control, I keep the touch volume at max,
It makes a superb office smaller room system.
Keith.
 
The Touch sounds so much clearer than the Duet whether streaming from Spotify or ripped cd's on my laptop.
I also tried a short listen through the Touch's own Dac and then my Rega. Not much difference on a short A B but there is a volume difference which could skew things slightly. The difference between the Dacmagic and Rega with the Duet was obvious but with the Touch not so obvious.

I must say the bass is more defined in so far as it is not so one note, which I previously thought was a room issue. however I had this bloom on streamed music from my laptop. I had previously gone to using the Triode plugin on the Duet having forgotton about the reported bass bloom as noticed in the past by myself and others. I wouldn't have thought the Triode plugin woulld have affected non Spotify music.

I will get down to a more serious comparrison at a later date.
 
Space is the Place said:
Its interesting as you can use the SB as a preamp for a minimalist digital set-up to some active monitors or power amp, the only downside would be accidentally putting the volume to full and maybe damaging the speakers.

However i've just noticed you can limit the volume within the Squeezeboxes output so this wouldn't happen, i guess the Dac in the Squeezebox isn't as good as an outboard Dac and you might loose a few "bits" doing the volume this way, but even so, a very versatile piece of equipment, not tried the headphone out yet.
Click to expand...

The internal dac and output stage are surprisingly good. In fact the output stage is very simple and consists of the output taken straight from the AKM dac chip and taken into the outside world via a simple low pass filter (resistor and film cap to ground) and a dc blocker cap.

Have a look at the Steroophile full lab assessment which concludes that no corners appear to have been cut.
Given it contains a wi-fi system, processor and touch screen I don't know quite how they managed such performance, but I guess it shows what can be achieved by a clearly talented design team.
 
Also bear in mind you can use an iPhone, iTouch or iPad as another squeezebox player as well as a controller by using the iPeng app with the Playback add in. Get your music all over your house and, wifi permitting, garden too.!
 
AndyU said:
Also bear in mind you can use an iPhone, iTouch or iPad as another squeezebox player as well as a controller by using the iPeng app with the Playback add in. Get your music all over your house and, wifi permitting, garden too.!
Click to expand...

...such a lovely afternoon I thought I would use the Squeeze Player app to stream some Spotify tunes to my Android tablet. Set my deck chair up on the deck at the bottom of my garden in the sunshine with a nice ice cold beer. Got the tunes playing through the tablet and confidently strode down the garden. Guess what - the wifi conks out a yard away from the deck. The music works at all spots in the garden in the shade but as soon as I get anywhere near the sun - no dice !

On another subject I love the tonal quality of the Touch in my system. I use AVI Neutron IV speakers which major on detail and midband. Digital normally sounds a bit thin on these (so much so I use an x10d tube buffer). Anyway the Touch sounds so undigital - there is warmth and bass heft. Even when feeding my old 1990s Dacmagic - the warm character is still there. Not sure what is going on here but I like it!
 
Given up now - dug out my old Roberts radio and am listening to the football in the garden instead. Sometimes old tech still has it's uses!
 
Hi,

I bought an SBT today, and I've got one question that you can maybe answer:

I run the server software on my Synology NAS, there I have a mirrored copy of my iTunes Music folder. I ripped most of my CDs as Apple Lossless files. The Squeezbox is connected to my Audiolab 8200CDQ. Since they are standard Red Book CDs, they should play at 44.1 - which they do via my old Airport Express.

If I stream via the SBT, they play at 48kHz, no matter whether through the optical out or USB out (I installed the plugin).

Does this have a negative impact on sound quality? Can I somehow make the SBT play them at 44.1?

I'd really appreciate your feedback!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top