advertisement


How good is the Squeezebox Touch ?

The SBT represents excellent value for the money. Archimango, a Squeezebox forum member, did many tests and measurements on this little device. Here's one of them: Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: Logitech Squeezebox Touch. [Updated 2013-06-22]

You can just skip the technical details in the above post and read the summary if the article is too technical.
There are plenty of other articles on his blog post which are very interesting too.
 
Uh. Many moons ago I owned an SB Touch and used the EDO plug-in to good use. Then I got hooked on Computer Audiophile CAPS builds + Paul Pang USB out + USB to Spdif converter or ESI Juli@ coax out. This is where I am at today with a Line Magnetic 502CA DAC, except for the Paul Pang usb card that has bitten the dust.

I sold the SB Touch many years ago but may return to one just for the ease of use. It was very stable unlike the ESI Juli@ / Windows combo.

I am sure my posts are in the SB Touch and EDO threads somewhere as proof I once dipped my toes in.
 
Logitech SBT+ MCRU linear p/s sounds better than new Bluesound Node N130. Both feeding a digital signal to a Chord 2Qute DAC, then into Townshend preamp + Classe CA-101 power amp and Proac Response 3.8 speakers.

I was surprised to find this, didn't expect it, didn't go listening for it, it just hit me in the face. SBT sux a bit for network streaming, so I was hoping the new purchase would allow me to retire the SBT to a bedroom system, and replace my main system digital transport, adding modern streaming service compatibility. There isn't loads in it, maybe 10%, but a significant advantage for the SBT in treble air that allows you to hear room acoustics of the recording space, and follow subtle guitar lines low in the mix, things like that.
So I hope my SBT keeps going because this experience suggests I may need to be in the ballpark of an Auralic g1/g1.1 to better the SBT/MCRU combination convincingly, and that's a lot of bread, plusI'd have to buy an Apple device to run the control app'. The node N130 went back to Bluesound, pity because in all other ways except ultimate sound quality it is very impressive, and a joy to use.
 
FWIIW for a while I fed my battery powered SBT into a Chord 2Qute, the sound clearly improved when I bought an MCRU linear PS for the Chord.
 
I also made the move from an SBT to the Node...I've used both with their wall-wart power supplies for analog outputs as all as into a Teddydac...and then also using a LPS both for analog and digital sources.

The SBT with its own PS as an analog source sounds quite a bit better than the N130 with its built in ps (which was quite dismal in sound). A very good LPS greatly improved the SBT but totally transformed the Node ( which required installation of a 3rd party interface board to replace the internal smps...I used the PD Creative). I would say that the Node/interface board/LPS handily outdoes the SBT with the same LPS on their analog outputs.

Adding the teddydac lessens the differences between the two streamers....both improved as digital sources with an external LPS...but the Node is 50 times more robust than the SBT which almost weekly required a factory reset and then reinstallation of updated soft and firmware...which could not be done over wifi. That needed a 100ft ethernet cable to be snaked across the house from the router in one room to the SBT in another.

The SBT appears very vulnerable to instabilities if wifi is used...and with my setup I had no choice. It remains a brilliant device that was prescient. If only Logitech did not D/C it and kept on updating the firmware!
 
I have used the SBT with the standard and Teddy Pardo power supplies into the Naim nDac and Teddy Pardo DAC. It is essentially a perfectly competent digital source and you will not find anything that sounds better. Differences between the nDac and Teddy Dac were minimal, possibly subjective/imagined.
 
I have used the SBT with the standard and Teddy Pardo power supplies into the Naim nDac and Teddy Pardo DAC. It is essentially a perfectly competent digital source and you will not find anything that sounds better. Differences between the nDac and Teddy Dac were minimal, possibly subjective/imagined.

Are you sure you won’t find anything better?
 
Are you sure you won’t find anything better?

Yes, very sure. Digital is a solved problem. Once you achieve a level of competence where noise and distortion is below the audible threshold all devices sound the same. This is a golden era of audio, sound quality from even budget devices achieves performance we could only have dreamed of 30 years ago.
 
I have used the SBT with the standard and Teddy Pardo power supplies into the Naim nDac and Teddy Pardo DAC. It is essentially a perfectly competent digital source and you will not find anything that sounds better. Differences between the nDac and Teddy Dac were minimal, possibly subjective/imagined.

Having owned an SBT a number of years ago, I'd like to suggest that my current Meridian 861 with ID40 card and LPSU would respectively disagree with you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ask
As a digital transport it is excellent.Look at Archimago’s detailed investigations and common sense reviews. It can compete with a range of more expensive alternatives. Also see the recent Darko updates.
 
Last edited:
Touch's performance as a transport will be in large part down to how well the DAC rejects input jitter, EMI and RFI.

Many (most?) modern DACs are good at rejecting all those. I'm sure some aren't though.

It's not impossible for digital transports to sound different, but in practice most DACs will even the playing field.
 
I also made the move from an SBT to the Node...I've used both with their wall-wart power supplies for analog outputs as all as into a Teddydac...and then also using a LPS both for analog and digital sources.

The SBT with its own PS as an analog source sounds quite a bit better than the N130 with its built in ps (which was quite dismal in sound). A very good LPS greatly improved the SBT but totally transformed the Node ( which required installation of a 3rd party interface board to replace the internal smps...I used the PD Creative). I would say that the Node/interface board/LPS handily outdoes the SBT with the same LPS on their analog outputs.

Adding the teddydac lessens the differences between the two streamers....both improved as digital sources with an external LPS...but the Node is 50 times more robust than the SBT which almost weekly required a factory reset and then reinstallation of updated soft and firmware...which could not be done over wifi. That needed a 100ft ethernet cable to be snaked across the house from the router in one room to the SBT in another.

The SBT appears very vulnerable to instabilities if wifi is used...and with my setup I had no choice. It remains a brilliant device that was prescient. If only Logitech did not D/C it and kept on updating the firmware!
And yet I’ve been using multiple SBT’s for years on Wi-Fi and never had a problem.
 
Touch's performance as a transport will be in large part down to how well the DAC rejects input jitter, EMI and RFI.

Many (most?) modern DACs are good at rejecting all those. I'm sure some aren't though.

It's not impossible for digital transports to sound different, but in practice most DACs will even the playing field.

Agree. The only way you will get sound differences is if the design is faulty. We passed the point, more than 2 decades ago, where digital systems achieved the original promise of essentially being perfect. Personally, I embrace and enjoy that, saving myself a lot of money in the process.
 
For years, I had a robust SBT platform, even on WiFi. But I had many, many 'unofficial' updates to both the firmware and LMS over the years, and apparently the most recent ones caused instabliity with Wifi. Yes the SBT was bulletproof when hooked up with ethernet, but that was just a diagnostic test for me as the SBT is 25 meters away from the router and the house is not wired for ethernet.

It got to a point where the SBT needed restoring to factory defaults on a weekly basis, and then hooked up to an ethernet port just to be able to reconfigure wifi support.
The SBT was insanely good value for money, when it worked. Adding a third party power supply greatly enhanced analog playback (I tried both the $50 iFi supply as well as a $2500 custom LPS)

The Node 130 with a LPS outdoes the SBT both as a streamer and an analog source, even when it is equipped with the same LPS.
Both the BluOS and the LMS have a great interface for accessing music.

I have a friend who uses an SBT with its own original SMPS, and has not done a single update in 5 years, and the SBT has never once crashed. There is a lesson to be learned somewhere here...
 
For years, I had a robust SBT platform, even on WiFi. But I had many, many 'unofficial' updates to both the firmware and LMS over the years, and apparently the most recent ones caused instabliity with Wifi. Yes the SBT was bulletproof when hooked up with ethernet, but that was just a diagnostic test for me as the SBT is 25 meters away from the router and the house is not wired for ethernet.

It got to a point where the SBT needed restoring to factory defaults on a weekly basis, and then hooked up to an ethernet port just to be able to reconfigure wifi support.
The SBT was insanely good value for money, when it worked. Adding a third party power supply greatly enhanced analog playback (I tried both the $50 iFi supply as well as a $2500 custom LPS)

The Node 130 with a LPS outdoes the SBT both as a streamer and an analog source, even when it is equipped with the same LPS.
Both the BluOS and the LMS have a great interface for accessing music.

I have a friend who uses an SBT with its own original SMPS, and has not done a single update in 5 years, and the SBT has never once crashed. There is a lesson to be learned somewhere here...
Certainly software updates can both fix and foul things. All I can say is that I have all the most recent updates, and I run several SBTs on wireless without almost zero issues. I'll admit it occasionally loses connection to the server (perhaps once a month), and I just unplug and replug the SBT, and it regains the connection. However, I don't blame that on the SBT. I have the same problem with other wireless devices, so it's more likely a network issue.
 


advertisement


Back
Top