Am I wrong, or is the Squeezebox Touch the answer to everything?

[Crumbum]

Hello everyone, I'm another confused noob starting from scratch. I have a couple of laptops and a bunch of FLACs. Most are CD rips, some are 24/96.

 

As I try to understand how to build a system which will eventually match my late lamented Mark Levinson CD player with ATC 100 active speakers, I'm running into lots of questions. Here are my thoughts so far. I would really, really appreciate it if somebody could point out my mistakes.

 

Q. What's a good affordable DAC that won't need upgrading if/when I eventually get a reference amp and speakers? A. The Squeezebox Touch has a hi-fi quality DAC which gets rave reviews from seriously snobby reviewers, and its vendor and customers will ensure it gets better and better firmware.

 

Q. What about 24/96? A lot of affordable DACs don't support it. A. The Squeezebox Touch does!

 

Q. Do I need a really fancy optical link between my laptop and my DAC to get a good enough connection for 24/96 files? And does my laptop even have the right outputs? A. Forget about it! The Squeezebox does it wirelessly!

 

Q. Will I need a remote? A. No. Just run the free Logitech app on the laptop.

 

Q. Do I need a specialised super-expensive disk? A. No. Just plug an ordinary disk into the Squeezebox. Anything with its own power supply will do.

 

Your comments please. I really need help from you guys. I can barely spell 24/96/.

 

[Audio_ELF]

Q1. What is a good (affordable) DAC?

A. You already have speakers which will show the difference between a basic DAC and a reference DAC. The Squeezebox Touch has a DAC built in which would be at home compared with £100-500 CD Players (entry level HiFi). To get the best out your ATC speakers you'll want something higher quality. I asune your Levinson CD player doesn't have a SPDIF input which would be ideal starting point, so you'll be wanting a DAC. There are lots of possibilities from Wyred4Sound, Antelope, (maybe) Musical Fidelity, Weiss or Berkeley. These could be fed from a Squeezebox Touch or direct from a laptop (or silent mini computer). Another alternative would be a higher end streamer device such as Linn's DS range or PS Audio PWD + Bridge.

 

Anything cheaper won't have a chance of matching your Mark Levinson CDP.

 

Q2. What about 24/96?

A. Most DACs of the level to match your ATC speakers will support 24/96. In fact there's not many DAC don't support 24/96 though a lot don't support it via USB.

 

Q3. Do I need a fancy optical cable?

A. Even if you're going direct to laptop, you'd be better off looking for a DAC which has a good USB connection. Direct optical from laptop just won't match up to you CDP or your speakers.

 

Q4. Remote control?

A. Yes you can control it directly from laptop, but a iPod Touch or iPad (and probably Android equivalents) make much new tactile / ergonomic remotes.

 

Q5. Do I need a special disc?

A. Nothing uniquely audiophile no, however if using a Squeezebox Touch ideally you want a NAS which supports the Squeezecenter server software. The Touch can have a disc connected directly but many reports suggest this is less than ideal.

 

Eloise

 

[Crumbum]

Thanks Eloise, much food for thought. I don't have my reference system any more - it was a pre-recession luxury. But I hope to get back to that level. Do you include the Musical Fidelity V-DAC in your list of posh kit? Or were you thinking of the M1?

 

[Audio_ELF]

I was thinking M1DAC with V-Link.

 

I guess I should have asked what your budget was. From your last post I assume you no longer have the ATC100 speakers either?

 

Eloise

 

[Crumbum]

The whole system has gone. I did describe it as 'late lamented'.

 

The budget is fluid! I don't want to buy things that I'll need to upgrade too soon.

 

Does the Squeezebox approach reference standards when it has the Fidelity Audio upgrade(s)? It might be a good way of spreading the expenditure.

 

[khollister]

A lot of people use the SB Touch as a networked player, but use an external DAC. The Touch is cool, but reference quality it ain't if you are using the internal DAC.

 

We all have different definitions of "reference", but that term means something like Benchmark, Wyred4Sound, Anedio. etc to me as a minimum (>$1000). V-DAC, DacMagic or HRT Music Streamer II+ are all good

[khollister]

I will add that to many, the connotation of "reference quality DAC" means stuff like the Weiss, MH LIO-8, Ayre, PS Audio PWD, etc which are all $2500 and up (often way up). $1000-$1500 seems to be a sweet spot in terms of value for money at the moment, with things like the W4S DAC-1 or 2, Anedio, new Rega DAC, etc. I personally do not care for the Benchmark, but it might be your cup of tea.

 

[TS0711]

There's a known bug that was never fixed related to using a standalone hard drive (powered or not)...

 

For best performance you need to run squeezebox server on your PC anyway...

 

Firmware updates occur almost nightly...

 

And the DAC while very good for $300 is far from reference quality.

 

I was an early adopter and never, ever, got it to work right. It took hours to index a 300gb HD, only to crash regularly. (The problem was so bad they changed their advertizing to eliminate the claim that you could use is as standalone server.) The internal SB server is woefully under powered. It would truncate the last few seconds of a song when starting the next song. It was a nightmare to sync with the PC based server…. And so on.

 

The Squeezebox Touch and the dismal support form Logitech is what ultimately drove me to the Mac Mini. In fact I’ve got such a bad taste in my mouth from it, I’ll never buy another Logitech product, period. No Google TV for me - LOL!

 

That being said I’m happy it’s working out for you. But you should check out their user forum, and then decide.

 

 

[Crumbum]

At UK prices anyway. The standard SB costs £200, but upgrading the clock and PSU courtesy of Fidelity Audio takes it to £650. Which could be a neat way of buying a great DAC in stage payments. I wonder how it compares to products in the $1000 bracket? I should probably ask in the SB forum.