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How good is the Squeezebox Touch ?

beammeup

beammeup

pfm Member
I just acquired one bundled with an upgraded linear PSU - my ultimate intention was to sell the Touch and keep the PSU for another 5v streamer - however the SBT and this power supply (which is a MCRU two box design) sounds remarkably good!

To the point where, well, perhaps I will keep the Touch a little longer than I thought.

Has anyone here returned to the simple little Touch after doing the rounds with hi-end streamers?
 
I’ve used the Touch and before that the Classic for years in a bedroom system, and only stopped using it recently as it is developing a fault with the WiFi....they are getting quite old now. I did try it in my main Naim system via the nDac and it really wasn’t as good as I thought it would be in that scenario. I was surprised because in the bedroom system via a t amp type thing I was always quite pleased with it. They aren’t earthed to suite Naim gear so you have to sort that or get an earth hum. The std. PSU is a week point and I have read but not tried that a linear supply is worthwhile.

have you checked the dedicated forum out? Lots of useful info there.
 
No support for spotify, also I found I spent more time trying to get it to work with my Nas and just got so annoyed I wanted to smash it, it's long gone and good riddance I say.
 
I’m listening to mine right now - Paul Motian sounding great via Spotify into a Rega DAC > Radford > Tannoys. Stock PSU.
 
It’s an amazing little box, part of a hardware/software ecosystem that was way ahead of the game at the time, and can still hold its own. The analogue out is OK, for the money at least, but as a digital transport it is excellent, especially as it can be a Roon endpoint. Stupendously good value.
 
Robert M said:
No support for spotify, also I found I spent more time trying to get it to work with my Nas and just got so annoyed I wanted to smash it, it's long gone and good riddance I say.
Click to expand...

Well ok but make sure you have your facts strait.
 
The Touch is a great and classic device. Should really have been built on but Logitech weren’t the right team for the job. It’s a little long in the tooth now but still does an amazing job. Problem was it always required a little technical know how and user intervention to really make it shine and many prefer plug and play solutions. I sold mine but do miss it’s elegance. The Pi has now taken its mantle but it owes all to the first incarnation.
 
Robert M said:
No support for spotify, also I found I spent more time trying to get it to work with my Nas and just got so annoyed I wanted to smash it, it's long gone and good riddance I say.
Click to expand...
As I said, it required some technical know how. All services are supported in reality and have been for a long time. It’s not a device for Noobs really.
 
I compared a stock Touch (OK, with the EDO) to a SoTM streamer with a Quad USB DAC (total cost about 1000 euros). Couldn't hear any difference.
I asked another person for a blind comparision and he couldn't hear any difference either, maybe sometimes the USB DAC setup was slightly better, but not sure.
Now the LMS has exactly what I hoped Roon had but didn't have, integration of Tidal as if the favourites were my own albums on the NAS.
Brilliant, can even use them seamlessly in random play with all my ripped content. Can also use the genre Tidal to play randomly from only the favourites.
There's a person from Logitech working on LMS to keep it up to date. The Material skin also makes the old inteface more modern. It's all improving bit by bit.
Can't see the Touch go, maybe I will get a new DAC some day...or a Transporter, so don't count the Touch out :)
 
It's a great wee ecosystem but times have moved on. I sold my two SBTs and have moved to the Bluesound Node 2i and it was well worth the switch although I do miss the little screen, since having to use your phone to control the 2i is more of a pain than I expected. I guess I miss seeing the album art and having a dedicated remote.
 
The Squeezebox Touch was my intro to high end streaming with the EDO plug-in and a 24/192-capable Metrum Octave mk. I. I used it into a Naim Nac 252/SC and an active Linn Tunebox-Ninka/Naim Nap 200 system with very good results. It was able to do the job convincingly in this rather high-endish system.

I only abandoned it because I started tinkering with a dedicated fanless PC-streamer based on the CAPS on Computer Audiophile. As for technical know-how, I have close to zero, but I am very good at following specific directions.
 
I had a Touch, Classic and a SB+.

Always found them a bit flakey to be honest. Unlike the Bluesound node2i which seems to just work and also sounds superb.
 
I liked mine a lot.
Only moved on as I finally found a solution that I thought sounded better, wasn’t cheap though, ie putting an ID40 card in a Meridian 861
 
I have never had any issues with my touch.
Sounds great via my dac and not bad via it’s own analogue outputs.
Great for network music, not so great for streaming services as a stand alone player.
 
Robert M said:
No support for spotify, also I found I spent more time trying to get it to work with my Nas and just got so annoyed I wanted to smash it, it's long gone and good riddance I say.
Click to expand...
It has spotify support via a plugin-but only for paid Spotify subscribers.
 
Mine has been superceded by Pi-based streamers - but only because it was easier to get DSD out of rpis. Can't bear to part with it though - so it's gathering dust in the loft.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but don’t all streamers sound the same?

I’m talking of course about pure streamers, not Dacs.

I have two systems with a Squeezebox in each, both running through separate Dacs, which do sound different
From each other.

I’m not aware of any simple streaming solution ( as opposed to steamer with built in Dac) that sounds superior to SBT but I’m happy to be corrected. The SBT onboard DAC is not bad but obviously not state of the art

Using LMS software it’s easy enough to use Spotify , I use the Spotty plugin but there may be others . Spotify is pretty limited sound wise however, Qobuz much better
 
I still own two and use one regularly.
With the add on EDO you can also get USB out and full hi-res playback.
The SBT is actually a high quality streamer as good as lots of newer stuff on the market. It's only real issue today is that the screen is sort of small - touch screens were very pricey back in the day. The LMS interface is also slightly dated, but that's a minor point.

Today there's a great substitute: a Raspberry Pi with a 7 inch touchscreen. You can even run an LMS emulator with an OS called piCorePlayer which gives you a 7 inch "Touch". And it costs way less than the original Touch.

Compare%2B-%2BPi%2BTouch%2Band%2BSB%2BTouch.jpg
 
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