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How good is the Squeezebox Touch ?

Zombie said:
Are you suggesting that a standalone DAC for £150 has a treble lift suitable for the ESL-63 or your aging hearing?
Use tone controls.
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My pre-amp lacks tone controls. This is not yet an acute issue but from the few reviews of DACs I have read they do seem to vary a little so if I was to buy one it would be a factor, but not necessarilly the key factor. As mentioned I do like the sound already.
 
Robn said:
Prompted by this thread into reviewing whether my Touch can sound even better I've decided to order a 5V battery power pack.
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I tried a 5V battery pack (my son has an oversized one for his iPhone) - and the SQ is not as good as with the linear power supply. I looked into this and it seems that some are saying that the voltage regulators from these battery packs can produce noise - whatever the strange reason - the linear psu is better in my system.
 
Robn said:
Prompted by this thread into reviewing whether my Touch can sound even better I've decided to order a 5V battery power pack.

I used to use The Touoch with the DAC in a Westlake modified 8200 CDQ that also served as my preamp into an Exposure XVIII power amp. I have now replaced the 8200CDQ with an Exposure XIX pre amp so have lately been using the Touch's internal DAC. Overall I prefer what I gain with the Exposure pre to what I may have lost in having to use the internal Touch DAC but am intrigued by what I have read about DACs and am wondering whether there may be low cost standalone DACs that would bring improvements? By low cost I'm thinking of up to £150.

Though I am very happy with how music sounds trough the Touch I feel my HF hearing is starting to decline and in any case I think the Quad ESL63s I use roll off quite early so what I would appreciate is a little more HF sparkle. Any suggestions?
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Use DSP in LMS to boost high frequencies?
 
Just to add my 5 cents - I've been an SB user since day 2 (SB2) and been through SLIMP3, SB2, SB3 and SBT, all with stock PSUs. I used to run SBT - DACMagic - Naim 52/SC/135 but now run my main SBT coax into Devialet D200 (internal DAC) and it sounds great.

I have an SBT into AudioEngine A5 powered speakers on the covered terrace for lunch/dinner when possible, a Radio in the kitchen and another in the main bedroom (also taken onto the roof terrace at sunset thanks to battery pack). My iMac (also the music server) runs Squeezelight into AudioEngine A2 via D1 DAC for "office" use. I also have an SB2-based system in the garage.

Tell me another ecosystem where I can fully control what plays from any client - no 'phone required, or remote (except for pre-SBT clients of course), sync / unsync, etc.. The UI is still great. Where else can you get this functionality? LMS just works - the only problems I've ever had (dropouts, buffering) were down to wi-fi issues (LMS can suggest where this may be an issue), and I think the main browser UI is a piece of cake to use. Good iOS and Android apps do what's necessary if you can't be a*sed to walk over to the nearest client and/or always have your 'phone or tablet with you (I don't).

Just looked at eBay UK - SBTs have been going for just under £60 sterling . . . absolute bargain!

So - I think the Squeezebox / LMS ecosystem still holds its own against much of what's out there on sound quality (via external DAC), functionality and (certainly) value for money, especially in a distributed multiroom mix and match scenario.

OK - I'm done . . . :D
 
Zombie said:
Does LMS have DSP capacity?
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My reading of it is yes, some, but it requires setting up of parameters in a text file you have to drop into the LMS directory structure. You can set up a custom-convert.conf file that allows you to use SOX.
This allows you to do a variety of things but in the context of this it allows you to add shelving bass or treble boost or cut, including some parameters on level of boost and where it starts having a effect.

Here's an example scraped off the web:

# Apply equalization to player identified by MAC address

flc flc * MA:C_:AD:DR:ES:S_
# FT:{START=--skip=%t}U:{END=--until=%v}D:{RESAMPLE=-r %d}
[flac] -dcs $START$ $END$ -- $FILE$ | [sox] -q -t wav - -t wav $RESAMPLE$ - bass +3 treble -3 | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 -


This link gives you some information to decode what's happening:
https://gist.github.com/SAPikachu/8218612
 
Just need to find out how "bass" and "treble" is defined or if it is possible to define it.
I'd like a lift of only 70 Hz as it has a notch at my listening place.
 
GRC said:
Just looked at eBay UK - SBTs have been going for just under £60 sterling . . . absolute bargain!

So - I think the Squeezebox / LMS ecosystem still holds its own against much of what's out there on sound quality (via external DAC), functionality and (certainly) value for money, especially in a distributed multiroom mix and match scenario.

OK - I'm done . . . :D
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Yes the SBT is a very good price now on eBay - I did pay more for mine simply because of the power supply - anyone still have the Duet? The Duet was compared to a high end transport when Lampizator investigated in it some years back.
 
Never got on with the Duet but I did like it's remote - the Controller - and used one for a while until iOS and Android apps took over and it was just one more thing cluttering up the living space. Not sure I'd ever call it a "high end transport" - not even as good as SBT.
 
GRC said:
.... Not sure I'd ever call it a "high end transport" - not even as good as SBT.
Click to expand...

From Lampizator's old website ... http://lampizator.eu/lampizator/Squeezebox/squeezebox.html

Copied and pasted below ...

That's all as far as good spdif is concerned.
It should play BETTER than any CD transport you ever heard or you did something wrong.
In my system it beats the 5000 dollar CEC TL1X so badly that it isn't even funny. It literally trashes it !
 
I have a SBT with the EDO app, connected via USB to my DAC in my main system and have Duet, analogue out, in my office system. Both sound great.
Just realised that's a lot of abbreviations and reminds me of the spoof MGB ad on the Thick as a Brick album cover.
 
It was a s in a great bit of kit. I kept mine for years, even when I felt it was getting a little long in the tooth. I just couldn’t part with it. When I needed funds to reinvigorate my kit, it was the last to go. I had a feeling of loss when it finally left the house. But I’m happy with what I have now and though I have seen many go through EBay, I’ve never felt the compulsion to pull the trigger. I think I let it go at the right time. It’s a shame they didn’t go on to develop it. I often wonder how it would have evolved into. Maybe they would have made it more user friendly and added hard drives etc. Still, we have the ubiquitous Pi now to take on the mantle which is a blessing. And LMS still trundles on, improving and gaining in refinement.
 
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