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Has the Squeezebox Touch had its day?

C

Covenant

pfm Member
I have used a Touch since 2010, love the story of its development and the dedicated people who carried on improving LMS after Logitec pulled the plug.
Recently I have been conversing with an expert who thinks that its USB circuit is basic (the EDO app). He thinks that some modern streamers have much better USB implementation.
I would like something with a bigger screen so that I could use Material Skin but I suppose any tablet could be repurposed. Any views on this and recommendations for streamers that support LMS.
 
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Covenant said:
I have used a Touch since 2010, love the story of its development and the dedicated people who carried on improving LMS after Logitec pulled the plug.
Recently I have been conversing with an expert who thinks that its USB circuit is basic (the EDO app). He thinks that some modern streamers have much better USB implementation.
I would like something with a bigger screen so that I could use Material Skin but I suppose any tablet could be repurposed. Any views on this and recommendations for streamers that support LMS.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you will hear any difference? Lots of opinions out there...
 
I use Touch and EDO but with TOSLINK S/PDIF. EDO provides some features other than USB (like rates up to 192kHz and switching off analogue output).

The TOSLINK in the Touch is better than some (it can go up 192kHz and not all can) whereas not sure about USB. I also use a battery bank for power, so there's no electrical connection at all from the Touch to the rest of my system.

I also use the Display Off app.
 
I retired my Touch years ago, but I have very fond memories of it. Way ahead of the game. I thought the architecture of a fancy server feeding a dumb low-powered endpoints was correct then and now. No one else has had the competence to deliver software and hardware that work together. LMS can still be found inside preposterously expensive streamers like Innuos. Now that Harman has taken over Roon maybe they will produce a simple, high-quality Roon endpoint.
 
Finally been able to coax my MacbookPro running Catalina to work with LMS and the SB still sounds good enough for me. I can though see the attraction of a larger screen.
 
Well, I use ethernet to supply the data from hard disk, and the digital or analogue outs to feed the replay system, so I think I'm OK.
 
My Touch is still going strong - thankfully. I use it as a streamer only - with the EDO software. It's easy to use and these days it is extremely stable - I can't remember the last time I had an issue with it. Also has great community support behind it. It will be a sad day if it gives up the ghost.
 
I still use an SBT in my bedroom system. I'm using the EDO extension, feeding S/PDIF coax too Benchmark DAC2 HGC. I was about to test USB instead.

Elsewhere I use a Raspberry Pi4 running piCorePlayer to feed the DAC with USB, and control it with my computer, phone and tablet.
 
I have it as part of my Roon System trial and it sounds great.As for the screen, it’s perfectly functional but I rely on my Material Skin/ Roon remote for visuals and info nowadays. It’s right that it has outlived its discontinuation and it is still very competitive. I’ll be sad when I have to let it go. I let it go once before only to retrieve another.
 
I still use a couple of SBTs, as they are fairly reliable (a reboot is sometimes needed). It is still a very flexible solution which, in my experience, works as reliably as the various apps one finds on devices such as 'smart TVs', AV receivers or separate devices which do double duty as streamers.

I also suspect it will continue to outlive flavour-of-the-month streamers which come and go.
 
Two SBTs in use here, both very stable and still sound good to my ears. No plans to change them and will mourn their passing when they eventually expire.
 
Covenant said:
I have used a Touch since 2010, love the story of its development and the dedicated people who carried on improving LMS after Logitec pulled the plug.
Recently I have been conversing with an expert who thinks that its USB circuit is basic (the EDO app). He thinks that some modern streamers have much better USB implementation.
Click to expand...
An expert you say....Well fair enough it wasn't actually designed to use usb as an input, but what of it?
If you must have a replacement. Sadly a lot of streamers use their own player software not squeezelite. But a pi can be made to work just fine if you don't mind a teeny bit of playing about. Apart from a touch I use a minidsp shd, but that currently requires a little bit of a tinker to run squeezelite.
 
A simple replacement could be a used Auralic Mini. It has USB, spdif and optical out to a DAC of your choice. Or you could simply using the internal ESS9018 DAC. The software is also great (but you do need an iPad or iPhone as a controller).

Auralic also made a linear psu for it, if you fancied an upgrade.

Oh and you can also add an internal SSD to the Mini for local storage!

When the Auralic Mini came out I saw this as the true successor of the SBT.

If you wanted to use LMS to control the Auralic (although there isn't any point because Lightning software is plenty good enough) - then get the LMS Apple Airplay plugin because the Mini supports Airplay (be warned that Airplay is restricted to 16/44 if you are bothered that that).

There is also a UPnP plugin for LMS too (the Mini supports UPnP).

Fantastic little device. Extremely versatile.
 
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